What are data spaces? Systematic survey and future outlook

Data spaces, a novel concept pushing data sharing and exchange, are experiencing momentum because of recent developments motivated by the increasing need for interoperability and data sovereignty. After an initial phase, dating back to approximately twenty years ago, in which this concept has been tentatively explored in different scenarios, it is presently going through a consolidation phase in which both specifications and implementations converge towards a common reference for standardisation. In this context, we offer our view on data spaces by presenting a systematic literature survey, a description of the components needed to build them, how they work, and of existing mature software implementations. We thoroughly present the architectural vision behind the concept and we analyse the Reference Architectural Model by IDS. We provide practical pointers to readers interested in experimenting with software components used in data spaces, and we conclude by highlighting open challenges for their success.