piveau-X: A Compliance-Focused Semantic Web-based Catalog for Data Spaces

Data Spaces are a rapidly evolving concept that enable sovereign and secure data sharing. A Data Space consists of multiple building blocks and follows a well-defined governance and security framework. One of these key building blocks is a catalog for data discovery, which allows participants to publish and find data, services, and other artifacts in a compliant and trustworthy manner. Additionally, many Data Space standards, such as Gaia-X and Verifiable Credentials, utilize Semantic Web technologies as a data modeling language. With piveau-X, we introduce a catalog solution for Data Spaces that elevates the Semantic Web, enabling the seamless application of formal Data Space specifications. Our solution employs a Triplestore as the primary database and SHACL as the data modeling language, ensuring maximum flexibility in managing data and metadata structures while also facilitating the dynamic reuse and integration of existing ontologies. Furthermore, piveau-X natively integrates with identity and attestation services, making it a comprehensive solution for creating Data Space catalogs. Its built-in SPARQL and Elasticsearch-powered search and query capabilities allow for precise browsing of data artifacts via APIs or the web frontend. We successfully validated piveau-X's practical applicability in the Gaia-X research project POSSIBLE through five real-world use cases.