From the first experience of OAG with the 1st release of the ICARUS Platform, back in the middle of 2019, it was clear that what had been produced, even in its early form, was an exciting platform with lots of potential.

The key aspects for OAG

From an OAG perspective we were keen to explore a few key aspects of ICARUS that would add value and wanted to ensure that:

· ICARUS was intuitive and easy to use
· Data uploading was streamlined and required minimal process
· Provisioning, selling, and contracting were straightforward yet flexible

How did the ICARUS Platform respond?

The first thing we looked at was the user experience. This was paramount for all users within, and beyond, the consortium. The target user base is a diverse audience, and it was important that a business user felt as comfortable with ICARUS as a data scientist. Our first impressions were good. ICARUS was easy to navigate, and it was easy to find key components, such as the Marketplace which is core to such a platform.

Data uploading, understandably, had its complexities but was a relatively straightforward process. The web platform allowed the user to review a sample of their data and see the results of the semi-automated mapping of these data to the ICARUS Aviation Data Model. Then the user could perform manually any missing mappings or correct those that were not accurately predicted in such a way as to allow the joining of data to existing data sets for further analysis. Afterwards, the user could also define the visibility, licensing, and pricing aspects for the data set. Once everything was set up, the ICARUS Worker Client, which ran on the user’s machine, would manage the uploading of data to the ICARUS Platform and made them available through the Marketplace according to the defined visibility and sharing terms.

Once in the Marketplace, data were easy to find and to purchase. The ability to negotiate on price (as data assets can be priced per row) was a useful feature for both data owners and consumers. Additionally, data owners could stay in control of their data, as they could set specific Terms and Conditions, while the ICARUS platform offered payment flexibility by supporting transactions via the more typical methods (e.g. bank transfer or using credit card).

The overall experience of the initial release was very encouraging and showed the potential that the ICARUS platform had to offer and we are excited to see the new developments in the upcoming releases!

Blog post prepared by OAG

Featured Photo by Maxwell Nelson on Unsplash