A framework for and issues in the management and governance of data on elderly citizens (ongoing res.)

A research project involving researchers from European Union, Japan and the US has been discussed under the title "Governing Aging Society". The governance of data on elderly citizens is seen as one research topic within that project. The current situation is characterized by a dilemma. Potentials offered by the mining, analysis, visualization, etc. of data can be used to manage the societal impacts of aging and to provide new innovative services to elderly citizens. On the other hand, fragmentation and flaws in data interoperability and transfer seriously undermine these potentials. This paper proposes a framework for the governance of data on elderly citizens. The focus is on the framework as a whole; in its background and ability to capture data categories, data attributes and data sources. Attention is also paid to the ontological nature of the framework. Work to specify each element of the framework in detail and the use of it is left to ongoing research and the research project under discussion.