In March, we brought together Stream’s Advisory Group 2 (Technical) which comprises subject matter experts from 16 water companies and other industry stakeholders. Co-chaired by Icebreaker One, Anglian Water and Wessex Water, this group advises and supports the project partners as they commence work on Stream’s Implementation Phase.

Date: 3rd March 2025 11:30-13:00 BST

Location: online

Co-Chairs: Wes Thomas (Anglian Water); Lucy Chambers (IB1); Sophie Sherriff (Wessex Water)

Secretariat: IB1

Summary:

  • Members were asked the Icebreaker question “What does good technology, operational ability, and governance look like re: AI?”
    • Reflections from State of Open Con 2025 noted that if Stream endorses its data being fully open and for it to be accessed by AI systems, then a fully open licence would be appropriate (such as CC0), as attribution licences are difficult when combined with LLMs and AI systems
    • It was noted that for some water companies, the AI conversation is in the early stages, with aligned thinking between data and IT teams needed
    • It was noted that on the large AI sites it takes multiple prompts to get to Stream. 
    • It was discussed that in the long term, as the volume of and confidence in the data grows, Stream could play an active role as a trusted source of data for AI
  • Inputs for the Legal Working Group were discussed and members were asked the question “Does anyone have any legal agreements to facilitate data sharing that we can take into the working group to help build out the understanding?, with further feedback from members and their teams to be shared asynchronously 
  • It was noted that updates to the architecture have been made, to include reporting and analytics
  • It was noted that the Q1 OKRs are being worked through, including: 
    • The discovery and user research for citizen science has been completed
    • The use case theme pages are being worked on
    • To assist in reaching the 10% increase in members a survey was sent out at the start of the quarter to assess where improvements could be made, a second survey will be conducted at the end of the quarter to understand further insights 
  • The Q2 OKRs were discussed, with a focus on the questions: 
    • Are there any words or phrases that are ambiguous? 
    • Have we missed anything?
    • Are we making enough progress?
    • Do we need to bring anything forward to reach our achievement states by the end of 2025?
  • It was noted that due to low attendance the miro board with the Q2 OKRs was sent out post-meeting, to allow for further responses to be collected 
  • It was agreed that the Q2 OKRs for the technology and operations pillars are clear 
  • When deciding and implementing the next highest strategic priority technical capability for Stream’s future architecture, it was noted that analytical capabilities are key for demonstrating value 
  • It was noted that there is a need to define how Stream is a stable and user friendly platform, and that this may require using both qualitative and quantitative measures to understand this. 

Next meeting date: 7th April 2025

Formal records, including attendees, are maintained by the secretariat, and are confidential to the Advisory Group members.