Portability and Interoperability

Your Data, Your Control

How data portability can unlock competition and empower consumers January 15, 2026 Copyright and permission to reproduce For information on the Competition Bureau's activities, please contact: Information Centre Competition Bureau 50 Victoria Street Gatineau QC  K1A 0C9

Adversarial Interoperability

“Interoperability” is the act of making a new product or service work with an existing product or service: modern civilization depends on the standards and practices that allow you to put any dish

The Direction of Interoperability

Talking in terms of horizontal or vertical interoperability is too constrictive a mental model to understand what interoperability does. Doing better matters, and it's right within reach.

Data Mesh Architecture: Interoperability, Co-Operation, and Co-Regulation 

This paper examines the emergence of data mesh architectures and data intermediaries as key components in emerging data economies. It explores how data mesh arc

Interoperable Serendipity

If you had asked my thoughts on interoperability some years ago, I wouldn't have had much to say. Nowadays, it has become one of my most revered ideals. And today, I want to take you along for a journey towards its summum: Interoperable Serendipity.

Designing a multi-sided data platform: findings from the International Data Spaces case

The paper presents the findings from a 3-year single-case study conducted in connection with the International Data Spaces (IDS) initiative. The IDS represents a multi-sided platform (MSP) for secure and trusted data exchange, which is governed by an institutionalized alliance of different stakeholder organizations. The paper delivers insights gained during the early stages of the platform’s lifecycle (i.e. the platform design process). More specifically, it provides answers to three research questions, namely how alliance-driven MSPs come into existence and evolve, how different stakeholder groups use certain governance mechanisms during the platform design process, and how this process is influenced by regulatory instruments. By contrasting the case of an alliance-driven MSP with the more common approach of the keystone-driven MSP, the results of the case study suggest that different evolutionary paths can be pursued during the early stages of an MSP’s lifecycle. Furthermore, the IDS initiative considers trust and data sovereignty more relevant regulatory instruments compared to pricing, for example. Finally, the study advances the body of scientific knowledge with regard to data being a boundary resource on MSPs.

Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FOSS, or FLOSS)? Look at the Numbers!

This paper provides quantitative data that, in many cases, open source software / free software is equal to or superior to their proprietary competition. The paper examines market share, reliability, performance, scalability, scaleability, security, and total cost of ownership; it also comments on non-quantitative issues and unnecessary fears.

LLM Agents Are the Antidote to Walled Gardens

While the Internet's core infrastructure was designed to be open and universal, today's application layer is dominated by closed, proprietary platforms. Open and interoperable APIs require significant investment, and market leaders have little incentive to enable data exchange that could erode their user lock-in. We argue that LLM-based agents fundamentally disrupt this status quo. Agents can automatically translate between data formats and interact with interfaces designed for humans: this makes interoperability dramatically cheaper and effectively unavoidable. We name this shift universal interoperability: the ability for any two digital services to exchange data seamlessly using AI-mediated adapters. Universal interoperability undermines monopolistic behaviours and promotes data portability. However, it can also lead to new security risks and technical debt. Our position is that the ML community should embrace this development while building the appropriate frameworks to mitigate the downsides. By acting now, we can harness AI to restore user freedom and competitive markets without sacrificing security.

The future for platform holders is cooperation, not just competition | Opinion

When an industry changes -- even quite radically -- it can be hard to pinpoint the moment that the shift began. There a…

Web Components Interoperability | Unpacked

Web Components Interoperability — explained clearly with diagrams.

Eventual Interoperability – Pieter Colpaert

A pragmatic approach to interoperability: model your data richly for your own needs, then allow the eventual creation of one‑to‑many alignments.

Weave

Weave is accelerating the interoperability of the internet's missing trust layer. True community portability. Trust that travels.

Weave

Weave is accelerating the interoperability of the internet's missing trust layer. True community portability. Trust that travels.