In the run-up to the end of the year, the weeks are very busy. Next to the regular work, due to some work travel it gets piled up into smaller timeslots, in addition to doing a lot of preparatory work for next year like submitting proposals, plans and contracts.

This week I

• Didn’t give a presentation to a group of civil servants in my hometown that I had prepared earlier. It got postponed to January. Making the presentation did help me rephrase some aspects of the EU digital and data legal developments and the shaping of the data spaces, so the preparation was still useful in itself.
• Discussed adding a data maturity scan for local government, developed by a higher ed institution, to our company’s toolbox. This as the developers aren’t in a position to take it further than its current stage.
• Had the weekly client meetings.
• As part of making a list of all government digital ethics committees in the Netherlands, had a pleasant conversation with one in my hometown. This one is constituted from citizens with relevant expertise, which provides a different angle.
• Went to Brussels for two days to attend the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Forum in person. A good mix of both EC officials as well as the developers of many FOSS projects from around the EU. I went to scout out some more civic involvement in the developing data spaces. It was good to hear that the EC’s DG Connect is still very much consistent in their vision for the European digital and data single markets. Although it is a bit of a wait and see whether the next Commission (after next spring’s elections) will still focus as much on it as does the current Commission.
• Did a lot of follow-up after the Brussels event
• Took a look at the limited Dutch implementation to date of the Data Governance Act
• Had a look at the emerging policy proposals for a new iteration of the EU High Value Data list, which will likely turn into a new regulation sometime in 2025. One proposed additional theme is that of languages (language corpora), which I suggested in the workshops that led to the advisory report.
• Attended a family party to celebrate a nephew’s birthday.
• With Y and a friend from class lifted 121 tiles from the school yard, during the kick-off for a project that will make the school yard a lot greener.
• Watched ‘Sinterklaas’ arrive in the Netherlands on tv. Meaning Y also put her shoe out to receive a small gift, in the run-up to the Sinterklaas evening on December 5th.

Y and her classmates using spades to lift tiles from the school yard.