UCDx exists – as a community-interest-company, funded by InnovateUK – to make the case for new infrastructure for User Control of Data (UCD), starting in the UK’s education sector.
We envisage that individuals will choose a Personal Data Service from a range of providers, and then use their new account to (i) link to, and interact with, many other parties, both organisations and other individuals; and (ii) control the sharing of trustworthy personal data to and between them.
The lead application is a portable personal achievement record, to be used by learners as a point in the cloud from which to interact with learning providers and transition between them, and into employment, sharing appropriate qualification data at each step. Subsequent applications – in addition to secure comms – include payment and the sharing of: vouchers, identity, student status, age, DBS attribute, loyalty numbers and many more.
UCD is only practical with support from the Department of Education. We are trying hard to persuade them. If we succeed, UCDx will segue into a governance body for the new scheme, and will let a concession contract to a development company, likely to be part owned by the initial PDS providers.