The State Government is launching a new initiative to make data sharing safer and simpler for Western Australian farmers by replacing dense legal jargon with picture-based licence agreements.
The constantly evolving agriculture industry is fed by data-driven decisions to create services, aid, and research — decisions relying on data provided from farmers across the country.
Information from farmers is often shared to data service providers; such as research organisations in the public and private sectors, commercial services, and consultants.
A risk to sharing data is often complicated and difficult to understand licence agreements which can lead to eroded ownership of data and information, transparency, trust, and the potential exposure of farmers to legal liabilities.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development project, eConnect+, is under way and delivered by the University of Western Australia.
It will seek to overcome complex agreements through the creation of simple licencing agreements based on pictures, known as a pictorial or comic book contracts.
These types of agreements are expressed in a pictorial storyboard, and simplifies complex information and increasing accessibility without compromising the integrity of the contract.
Project manager Darren Gibbon said the simple pictorial contracts were the next step in assisting WA farmers in adopting data sharing and benefitting.
“It is important for farmers, as data owners, to fully understand what they are signing up to when reviewing licence agreements with data service providers,” he said.
“Pictorial contracts are a legally binding, practical tool to communicate complex information in a simple format, marketing and data governance to deliver a robust product to help farmers engage in data sharing.
“UWA will draw on leading experts in pictorial or comic book contracts, across legal and intellectual property, marketing and data governance to deliver a robust product to help farmers engage in data sharing.”
The contracts will developed with collaboration from industry focus groups — with a focus beginning with mixed grain and sheep operations — and will be used by DPIRD’s Extrata data sharing platform.
Mr Gibbon said data captured by modern farming businesses has become relied upon by agriculture science and production.
“Exrata securely transfers this data using the highest data security protocols, accredited under the National Farmers’ Federation Farm Data Code,” he said.
“Unlike other data sharing services, Extrata does not retain the data at any point, merely couriering the information to a destination bound by a third-party contract.
“This means farmers can take control of their data — who gets to use it, what for, and how long.”
