Digital summit: Wissing promotes “new, open data culture”

Dhe federal government wants to ensure a “new, open data culture” in Germany. Federal Digital Minister Volker Wissing confirmed this on Friday at the 15th Digital Summit of the Federal Government in Berlin. “To do this, we have to talk about how we can create a good balance between data flow and data protection,” said the FDP politician. In order to achieve this, his house is currently developing a “national data strategy” together with the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

“As the federal government, we want to make more data more available and usable in order to enable start-ups, companies, science and civil society to carry out new projects,” said Wissing. In particular, he cited the use of traffic data from local public transport as an example. Specifically, a central website should be created where everyone should be able to find the state’s data quickly.

Habeck: “No game box”

New institutes are also to help with the use of data. The Federal Digital Ministry is investing in a new quality and innovation center in which AI solutions will ensure, for example, that buses and trains are better networked. The Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of the Interior are also pushing ahead with setting up a data institute. Unlike in the past, a five-member committee from science, business, civil society and public administration was involved in the development of a concept even before it was founded.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck praised the Commission’s approach, which is initially intended to identify problems. The institute should then align itself with the needs identified as a result. However, the 10 million euros provided for this would still have to be approved by the budget committee, said Habeck. The approach found may cause “uncertainty” among legislators because it is so unusual. “We have to skip that,” he demanded. This is not a “play box” but leads to a different way of working.

At the joint press conference, the President of the digital industry association Bitkom Achim Berg recalled that Germany was ten years behind in many aspects. He would like to see a “functioning digital state” for the future, with an electronic identification option. “We urgently need them.” Approval procedures must be digitized quickly. “In Germany we are on the verge of a regulatory collapse.” Berg also named the shortage of skilled workers in the IT sector as a central problem: every fifth project is canceled because there is a lack of skilled workers.