Semantics in Dataspaces: Origin and Future Directions

The term dataspace was coined two decades ago and has evolved since then. Definitions range from (i) an abstraction for data management in an identifiable scope over (iii) a multi-sided data platform connecting participants in an ecosystem to (iii) interlinking data towards loosely connected (global) information. Many implementations and scientific notions follow different interpretations of the term dataspace, but agree on some use of semantic technologies. For example, dataspaces such as the European Open Science Cloud and the German National Research Data Infrastructure are committed to applying the FAIR principles. Dataspaces built on top of Gaia-X are using semantic methods for service Self-Descriptions. This paper investigates ongoing dataspace efforts and aims to provide insights on the definition of the term dataspace, the usage of semantics and FAIR principles, and future directions for the role of semantics in dataspaces.