In May, we brought together Stream’s Advisory Group 2 (Technical), co-chaired by Icebreaker One and Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water,  which comprises subject matter experts from 16 water companies and other industry stakeholders.

Since the Day 1 Launch of the Stream platform in April 2024, Advisory Group 2 will assist in the technical requirements of publishing subsequent datasets on the platform.

May’s AG meeting aimed to:

  1. Understand how water companies want to use this AG, the challenges with the publication process and the improvements that can be made
  2. Update on data standards and Trust Framework

Key Insights

  • It was noted that:
    • The next priority for Stream will be considering the next step of use cases.
    • AG1 reviewed the use case backlog and prioritised use cases based on three beneficiary categories – society, customers, and the environment. These categories will be further refined to ensure continual engagement with the community of data users.
    • The business as usual (BAU) team will now refine the use cases and share questions with the AGs on the w/c 27th May.
    • The roadmap will be circulated with AG1 (Market & User Needs) and AG2 (Technical).
    • It was discussed that in order to articulate the benefit of use cases, engagement with ecosystem maps and broader stakeholders is important.
      • At this stage, there has been no discussion about success criteria, but anyone is welcome to share any learnings or advice that they might have
  • It was noted that the group considered the following questions:
  1. What do water companies want to have a say in?
  2. What can this AG do for you?
  3. Is there anything that would support you to engage with the technical process to accelerate the progress of Stream?
  • It was discussed that:
    • Water companies are keen to receive advice on best practices.
    • There could be an opportunity to engage with broader stakeholders from a technical standpoint, to address systemic challenges.
    • A lot of blockers come from internal people/processes, rather than the platform. Work is being done with Liz & Tina (Comms) to aid this.
  • It was noted that the Data Standards team have recommended the following changes for acceptance by the Advisory Group:
    • Addition of GEMINI 2.3 as the metadata standard, based upon INSPIRE
    • Updating the main page (README.md) to clarify that these are a work in progress, but are also the current accepted version of the data standards for Stream
    • The addition of a schema section for Stream data
    • The addition of schema for the use cases that are already published
    • It was agreed that the changes were accepted by the AG and will be taken to the SG for review.
  • It was noted that the Trust Framework Process Updates included:
    • Members can sign up to become members of the WSTF.
    • Assurance includes verification of both data and organisations, helping to improve quality of published data and to increase transparency.

The next meeting will take place on June 27th 2024.