NIIS among the founding members of Data Spaces Alliance Finland

Data spaces create opportunities for organisations to accelerate growth and innovation, secure access to critical resources, and enable data sharing between multiple actors. Data space technologies are also important enablers for developing artificial intelligence solutions.

At the end of the Nordic Data Festival 2024 on 10 April, the Data Spaces Alliance Finland network was launched. It provides its members with a unified view of developing cross-organisational solutions.

The 22 founding members of the alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which creates a lightweight governance model for goal-oriented cooperation between the actors. The founding members are:

1001 Lakes, Business Finland, CSC, DataSpace Europe, Fintraffic, Finnish Land Survey, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Headai, Kela, Loihde, MyData Global, Nokia, Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS), Platform of Trust, Siili Solutions, Sitra, SIX Mobile Work Machines, Smart City Innovation Cluster (SCIC), Struggle Creative, Technology Industries, TIEKE and VTT. 

The Alliance builds on proven cooperation models in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, and other countries, as well as on lessons learned from data space initiatives in different sectors.

Ukraine becomes a Partner of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Ukraine becomes a Partner of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) to collaborate on the X-Road® data exchange layer and other digital government solutions, participate in respective discussions, and help promote the scope of NIIS.

NIIS, a non-profit association with Estonia, Finland, and Iceland as its Members, focuses on practical collaboration and innovation in digital government solutions. It manages the development of X-Road®, an open-source data exchange layer, and Harmony eDelivery Access®, among other products. Besides Ukraine, the Faroe Islands and the Government of Åland are the current Partners of NIIS.

The partnership with Ukraine is a significant step towards co-development of interoperable digital solutions. Ukraine, as a Partner complementing NIIS’s experience and solution portfolio from its side, can also benefit from the cooperation through knowledge-sharing in technical working groups and further accelerate its digital transformation.

“This partnership shows the commitment of NIIS members and Ukraine to improve digital public infrastructure and highlights the growing importance of international collaboration in this field. As digital challenges transcend national borders, partnerships like this are crucial in building resilient and interconnected digital societies”, says Ville Sirviö, the CEO of NIIS.

“NIIS plays a significant role in driving innovation in digital government and fostering cross-border collaboration. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with NIIS to shape a forward-thinking future together. It's a true honour for our team, particularly as we in Ukraine have firsthand experience in implementing the X-Road model with the Trembita data exchange layer”, says Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

NIIS Announces Proof of Concept for Revolutionary X-Road 8 “Spaceship”

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) is thrilled to announce the start of a proof of concept to develop a new major version of the X-Road.

The X-Road 8 “Spaceship” nurtures the proven ecosystem model and security while it takes X-Road to the next level by providing a solid data space infrastructure.

Additional features such as enhanced monitoring and metrics and advanced cloud compatibility are expected to make X-Road 8 an outstanding solution for any public or private organisation.

With the proof of concept, NIIS aims to validate the feasibility of replacing X-Road’s custom protocol stack with data space protocol stack and align X-Road’s trust framework with the Gaia-X trust framework.

Gaia-X is an initiative that develops, based on European values, a digital governance that can be applied to any existing cloud/edge technology stack to obtain transparency, controllability, portability and interoperability across data and services.

Close to the current concept of the X-Road ecosystem, data space is a distributed system defined by a governance framework that enables secure and trustworthy data transactions between participants while supporting trust and data sovereignty.

"Making X-Road a data space solution creates value through additional features, reduces the need for custom development, increases interoperability and provides new opportunities for X-Road users in Europe and worldwide. Combining the strengths of X-Road and data spaces will make X-Road 8 "Spaceship" an outstanding solution", says Ville Sirviö, CEO of NIIS.

The project also tries to ensure smooth integration with previous X-Road versions for backwards compatibility, estimate the changes required for information systems when transitioning to X-Road 8, and assess potential changes to existing X-Road components.

The proof of concept results are expected for review in May 2024. The second half of the year will witness another project to test the results within Estonia’s X-Road ecosystem.

NIIS CEO Ville Sirviö elected to the Gaia-X board of directors

On Monday, 5 June 2023, the Gaia-X Ordinary General Assembly convened, bringing together the association members to vote on critical aspects of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL.

Gaia-X represents the next generation of data infrastructure: an open, transparent, and secure digital ecosystem where data and services can be made available, collated, and shared in an environment of trust.

One of the key highlights of the Gaia-X assembly was the election of a new board of directors, highlighting the importance of this event in shaping the future direction of Gaia-X.

Ville Sirviö, the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions CEO, was elected to the board of directors with 25 other candidates representing the Gaia-X members from all over Europe.

"I'm committed to developing Gaia-X so that there is mutual trust in the project and its role in Europe. Let's make Gaia-X a key enabler for European interoperability, data sharing, and collaboration!" says Sirviö.

The Government of Åland becomes a partner of NIIS

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) members have approved the Government of Åland as a NIIS partner. The official partnership is the second for NIIS after the Faroe Islands first joined NIIS as a partner in 2019.

As a partner of NIIS, the Åland Islands wish to share information about the X-Road® and other components relating to the e-government core infrastructure, participate in respective discussions, and help promote the scope of NIIS. Åland will also join the technical X-Road working group.

"We are delighted to have been granted this opportunity to become a partner of NIIS. This will increase the interoperability and set the path for Åland's digitalisation journey with our Nordic neighbours", says Francois Maugis, Chief Digital Officer of the Åland Government.

Åland is utilising X-Road® technology through the use of the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer, the Finnish X-Road environment maintained by the Finnish Digital Agency (DVV). Åland Government and DVV together aim to advance X-Road use in Åland, an autonomous, demilitarised, Swedish-speaking region of Finland.

Statement regarding the research piece by Privacy International

On 12th January 2022, Privacy International published a research piece titled ID systems analysed: e-Estonia (X-Road). Unfortunately, there are several inaccuracies about X-Road® in the content, and on 18th January, NIIS has approached Privacy International requesting a correction.

Because the inaccurate information regarding X-Road is already spreading on the Internet and NIIS has not received an answer from Privacy International so far, NIIS is releasing this statement to correct and clarify the essential points to the audience:

• e-Estonia is not X-Road, and X-Road is not an ID system.

• X-Road is a data exchange layer between information systems.

• If X-Road is used as a data exchange layer in a process that involves end-users and requires their authentication, the service consumer and service provider are responsible for the end-user authentication.

• X-Road is not an "underlying technology" in the ID system. The ID system (in Estonia) allows citizens to log in to different citizen services. X-Road operates in the background between different information systems only, and the citizens don't have any direct touchpoint with it.

• The physical ID cards and the digital identity are not used to access X-Road. The citizens only use citizen services, such as the services accessible through the eesti.ee state portal, and the information systems in the background are connected via X-Road.

• ID cards are one authentication alternative when using digital services, but there are other alternatives too, e.g., Mobile ID.

• X-tee nowadays is the name used for the Estonian X-Road environment. X-Road is the name of the open-source software.

• X-Road is regularly audited, and it has a public bug bounty program. More information about X-Road's security is available here.

• "The fact that Estonia's e-ID had fundamental implementation failures" has nothing to do with X-Road, unlike the text suggests.

• Citizens in Estonia don't have access to the log files (of X-Road). Instead, there's a system for controlling who has accessed your own data at certain Estonian authorities called "Andmejälgija".

• "X-Road Members" mentioned in the article are, in fact, NIIS Members. X-Road members are member organisations of a specific X-Road ecosystem (i.e. the Estonian X-tee).

• There are no X-Road members globally. There's the global X-Road Community (the open-source community of X-Road users and other enthusiasts; facilitated by NIIS) and X-Road Technology Partners, which provide commercial support and other services related to X-Road.

• "X-Road Partners" mentioned in the article are, in fact, NIIS partners. NIIS has a model for partnerships with administrations that have implemented X-Road. There are no "X-Road Partners".

NIIS respects the work of Privacy International and shares their ambition for a world where technology will empower and enable us, not exploit our data for profit and power.

Update: Privacy International contacted NIIS on 19 January 2022 at 18.50 EET with a promise to check the information.

A new version of the world-renowned X-Road® data exchange solution released

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has released a new version of their world-renowned data exchange solution: X-Road 7 “Unicorn” provides a better user experience and is more secure, scalable and environmentally friendly than its predecessors.

X-Road is open-source software and ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations.

The most significant new features of X-Road 7 are about protecting data at rest. Another important new feature is a production-level Docker support that makes X-Road more scalable and cloud friendly.

“Overall, the new features make X-Road more secure, configurable and scalable. Also, the latest changes enable reducing the environmental footprint of the Security Server”, explains Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

By utilising the new features, users can achieve significant benefits on the ecosystem level. According to Kivimäki, upgrading to version 7.0.0 paves the way for the following releases that will also provide substantial changes and improvements.

”Of course, it’s always recommended to use officially supported X-Road versions only because they receive patches and security fixes. The good news is that X-Road 7 is backwards compatible on the interface level with X-Road 6, so the migration should be smooth”, Kivimäki says.

X-Road is a digital public good verified by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and it’s released under the MIT open-source license and is available free of charge. The solution is implemented in several countries worldwide, and its global user community has over a thousand members from more than sixty countries.

NIIS releases Harmony eDelivery Access for data exchange between organisations within the EU

Harmony eDelivery Access from the developers of the world-renowned X-Road® is a free and actively maintained open-source component for joining eDelivery policy domains.

eDelivery is one of the building blocks of the European Commission (EC) Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) that enables the exchange of data between networked organisations in an interoperable, reliable and secure manner.

Harmony eDelivery Access is based on the European Commission’s sample implementations of the eDelivery AS4 access point and SMP components. On top of their existing features, the first release of Harmony eDelivery Access provides automated installation, upgrade and configuration process with additional documentation. The security of Harmony eDelivery Access is assured by a third-party security assessment.

”Even if Harmony eDelivery Access is a new product, it’s based on existing open-source products enhanced with the best practices learned over years of X-Road development and maintenance”, explains Ville Sirviö, CEO of NIIS.

Harmony eDelivery Access can be used in both existing and new eDelivery implementations by organisations acting as service consumers, producers, or both. Also, Harmony eDelivery Access supports joining multiple eDelivery policy domains using a single Harmony instance.

New features will be added in future releases based on the requests and ideas coming from the Harmony eDelivery Access users.

”All the existing and new eDelivery users are welcome to try Harmony and see whether it could be a good fit for them”, Sirviö says.

Harmony eDelivery access website is launched and the source code is released on 17 December 2021: https://edelivery.digital

Iceland joins the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Iceland joins the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) on 1st June 2021 and becomes the third member government in the international consortium after initial founders Estonia and Finland. NIIS is developing digital government solutions for its members, including X-Road® for unified and secure data exchange between organisations.

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) is a non-profit association with the mission to ensure the development and strategic management of X-Road® and other cross-border components for digital government infrastructure.

“Co-development has increased cost-effectiveness. It ensures quality, enables innovation and builds capacity for cross-border digital government infrastructure components. In addition, the joint institute enables multilateral international cooperation, which we are particularly pleased about today, as we are welcoming Iceland to NIIS as a new member” Finnish Minister of Local Government Ms Sirpa Paatero sums up some of the benefits of the cooperation.

X-Road is open-source software and an ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations. X-Road forms the national data exchange infrastructure of NIIS member countries that jointly finance the development of X-Road core technology and steer its development.

“X-Road has truly become an international solution, beyond the great foundation it provides for well-working and seamless digital public services and society in Estonia,” said Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT, Mr Andres Sutt.

“We are also glad to see NIIS grow, especially with Iceland as another Nordic country joining. As the name hints, the rationale behind NIIS has been from the start that we would join forces in Nordics as a world’s leading digital region to build the best possible digital government together,” added Minister Sutt.

Since 2018, Iceland has participated in NIIS working groups and contributed to the development of X-Road. Iceland is currently implementing X-Road and aims to make digital services available through the national data exchange ecosystem Straumurinn.

“Iceland aims to be one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to digital services and joining NIIS with Finland and Estonia is an important step in that direction. Together these countries can become global leaders when it comes to e-government infrastructures and cross border digital services. We are very proud to join forces with NIIS.” Mr Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs says.

X-Road's environmental footprint is being identified by NIIS, Gofore and the Stockholm Environment Institute

The EU is fighting climate change and has put forward a plan to further cut emissions by 2030. By 2050, Europe aims to become the world's first climate-neutral continent.

Running a software also has a carbon footprint, and in order to contribute to climate neutrality, it is fundamental to determine the extent of the environmental footprint and the possibilities for reducing it.

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) is including sustainability in the different areas of its operations: the environmental footprint of the organisation, sustainable procurement, sustainable development process, sustainable solution X-Road® and sustainable use of X-Road. Sustainability is one of the NIIS' values.

X-Road® is open-source software and ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations. Until now, sustainability has not played a significant role in the development of X-Road. Therefore, NIIS has initiated a project with Gofore Plc and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to identify the extent of X-Road's environmental footprint and submit proposals for reducing the environmental footprint.

The short-term goal is to focus on the direct and tangible environmental impact of the X-Road software. The long-term goal is to make X-Road the most sustainable data exchange solution in the world. Before starting to make X-Road more sustainable, the current situation must be assessed, and the next steps defined based on the assessment's results.

The study results are the basis for future decisions in the activities of NIIS to systematically take into account the environmental aspect and reduce negative impacts as much as possible, thereby contributing to the achievement of European and global climate goals.

"It is necessary to focus on the strategic view and to point out the most critical opportunities for X-Road to contribute to climate goals, which are technically possible and necessary for making strategically wise future decisions and investments", says Ville Sirviö, CEO of NIIS.

X-Road® 7 "Unicorn" beta version released

The first beta version of X-Road® 7 "Unicorn" has been released. The beta version of the Security Server software provides a sneak peek to the X-Road 7 look and feel.

The beta is a visually enhanced version that provides the same features as the latest X-Road 6.25.0 release. Beta versions with new features will be released in 2021 before the first production release.

X-Road is being developed iteratively using agile software development methods. All the changes in X-Road 7 will not be included in the first production version but in various minor versions over time.

X-Road is open-source software and ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations. X-Road is a digital public good verified by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and it’s released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge.

X-Road identified as one of the key projects by the Digital Public Goods Alliance

X-Road® has been reviewed by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) and found to be a digital public good in alignment with the Digital Public Goods Standard.

The Digital Public Goods Standard is a set of specifications and guidelines designed to maximize consensus about whether something conforms to the definition of digital public goods laid out by the UN Secretary-General in the 2020 Roadmap to Digital Cooperation.

X-Road now appears in the digital public goods registry where it will be discoverable as a digital public good and reflected on a growing network of catalogues and aggregated lists of digital public goods.

Besides, X-Road has been identified by the DPGA Financial Inclusion Community of Practice as one of seven key projects at the critical intersection of digital public goods (DPGs) and digital public infrastructures (DPIs).

X-Road is open-source software and ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations. X-Road is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge.

​International X-Road technology event takes place in Finland in September

The annual X-Road Community Event takes place this time in Helsinki, Finland, on 6th September 2019. The organizers are expecting 200 participants from around the world.

The X-Road Community Event is aimed for anyone interested in X-Road – users consuming or producing services by using X-Road, developers of X-Road open source software or related components, operators of X-Road environments or servers, and decision-makers and e-governance experts.

“It’s an international flagship event for X-Road enthusiasts around the world and the event is much awaited by the global user community", says Ville Sirviö, CEO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) that is the organizer of the event.

The global X-Road Community has members from more than 10 different time zones and there are over 20 countries currently considering, studying or implementing the X-Road or other solutions based on it. Last year the X-Road Community Event was held in Tallinn, Estonia, where it gathered guests from Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Madagascar, Sweden and the United States.

X-Road is an open source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information over the Internet. X-Road technology is used nationwide in Estonia, Finland, Iceland and several other countries around the world. Since February 2018 Estonia and Finland have established cross-border data exchange through X-Road trust federation.

The Faroe Islands becomes a partner of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

The Faroe Islands have signed a partnership agreement with the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) and the parties aim to deepen their cooperation.

The Faroe Islands have implemented X-Road data exchange layer version 5 back in 2016 and are aiming to migrate to version 6, which is nowadays under development by NIIS. The X-Road data exchange layer enables secure data exchange within a country, but also as an X-Road federation between the countries which have implemented their own X-Road environments.

"We look forward to cooperate with the Faroe Islands in the development of X-Road core software. The Faroe Islands have valuable user experience as the software has already been implemented there, and their forthcoming migration to X-Road version 6 will bring new opportunities. The start of cooperation with the Faroe Islands marks a milestone in building cross-border interoperability in the Nordic region", explains Ville Sirviö, the CEO of NIIS.

“Secure data transportation is vital for trust in our digital solutions. Therefore, since 2016, the X-Road has been a crucial component of the Faroe Islands’ digital infrastructure. Together with our eID, it allows us to develop digital solutions that rely on our basic data. All data is transferred in a standardized and secure way. Today, all public institutions use X-Road for their data exchange while maintaining autonomy over their IT-solutions. To be able to use the same technology and security in cross-border data exchange is a remarkable step for the digital cooperation in the Nordic and Baltic region”, says Kristina Háfoss, Minister of Finance and Digitalization in the Faroe Islands.

X-Road is an open source data exchange layer solution that enables organizations to exchange information over the Internet. X-Road ensures confidentiality, integrity and interoperability between data exchange parties. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in Estonia, Finland, Iceland and several other countries around the world.

X-Road version with REST support released by the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has on 30th April 2019 released version 6.21.0 of X-Road data exchange layer that provides support for consuming and producing both SOAP and REST services. From now on REST-based information systems can be integrated to X-Road without technical changes and an additional adapter service component.

Adding support for REST does not mean dropping support for SOAP from X-Road. No changes are required to information systems consuming and producing SOAP services via X-Road. Instead, the architectural styles can co-exist side by side which means that all existing SOAP services are supported in the future as well.

"REST support has been requested by X-Road user organisations in Estonia and Finland for some time already, and we're glad to be able to provide it to them now. User organisations have commented REST protocol's draft versions and participated in design workshops related to the implementation over the last year. This is the most significant change in X-Road core since the release of version 6 in 2015", says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

Another major improvement in the new X-Road core version is streamlined onboarding process of new X-Road member organisations and information systems. The streamlined onboarding process speeds up registration and reduces daily management tasks of X-Road operators.

X-Road data exchange layer software is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge for any individual or organization.

New version of X-Road published by the ​Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has for the first time published a new version of X-Road data exchange layer. Estonia and Finland developed X-Road together from 2015 until June 2018 when the development was handed over to NIIS.

Next level in the Estonian-Finnish cross-border collaboration

"Releasing this X-Road core version is a big step for NIIS as it’s the first version released by the institute. It is also an important milestone to our members, Estonia and Finland, because until now they have published their own releases using a shared code base. Now NIIS is taking the collaboration to the next level by moving to common releases", says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

New version provides improvements and bug fixes

X-Road core version 6.19.0 was published on 28th September 2018 and it provides multiple minor improvements and bug fixes. Improvements include enhancement regarding performance, certificates and recovery from service breaks. In addition, documentation for developers has been improved to provide more detailed instructions on X-Road development.

X-Road core is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge for any individual or organization.

Iceland becomes a partner of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions

Iceland has signed a partnership agreement with the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS). Iceland is the first partner of NIIS and the parties aim to deepen the cooperation towards a membership of Iceland in the future.

Iceland is currently implementing X-Road data exchange layer which is nowadays developed by NIIS. The X-Road data exchange layer enables secure data exchange within a country, but also as an X-Road federation between the countries which have implemented their own X-Road environments.

"We are happy to get Iceland join the Nordic X-Road family and NIIS, as a partner country first and hopefully as a full member in the future. We look forward to cooperate also with other Nordic and EU countries. It is beneficial for the countries to develop a common platform for data exchange, to enable data exchange between the countries, and finally to provide private companies with new business opportunities through services connected via the platform", explains Ville Sirviö, the CEO of NIIS.

"In Iceland, there is a huge focus on increasing and improving online public service. Iceland is prepared to meet those challenges and exploiting the opportunities inherent in ever-increasing technological change. Implementation of X-Road is a major milestone in our roadmap and it will play key role in our IT infrastructure", says Einar Birkir Einarsson, Head of Division from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Iceland.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is already used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first software releases

Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has published its first software release. NIIS published version 0.3.0 of XRd4J X-Road extension on 5th September 2018. REST Adapter Service version 1.0.0 will be published within few days.

REST support to X-Road

REST Adapter Service provides REST support to X-Road and it can be used for both consuming and producing REST services via X-Road. XRd4J is a Java library for building X-Road compatible clients and services. 

REST Adapter Service and XRd4J are released under the MIT open source license and are available free of charge for any individual or organization. 

X-Road Community contributing to the code base

"REST Adapter Service and XRd4J have originally been developed by the X-Road Community, and they were handed over to NIIS earlier this year. We think that in addition to developing the X-Road core, it's important to provide tools that facilitate connecting new services to X-Road. We're happy to continue the development of these community initiated extensions and provide the results back to the community", says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of NIIS.

REST Adapter Service

https://github.com/nordic-institute/REST-Adapter-service

XRd4J

https://github.com/nordic-institute/xrd4j

NIIS Software Repository

https://artifactory.niis.org/

Estonia and Finland started common development of X-Road software core

The Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) has started its first agile development sprint of X-Road software core. The development by NIIS was kicked off on 7th August when the first sprint officially started.

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Finnish Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service. X-Road is released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge for any individual or organization.

“Estonia and Finland have developed X-Road core together since 2015, but until now the development has been done by country specific teams using their own development tools and processes. This is the first time when Estonia and Finland develop software together under a joint organization and with a common release schedule”, says Petteri Kivimäki, CTO of the NIIS.

Global X-Road technology event to take place in Tallinn, Estonia

X-Road, the data exchange layer for information systems, is a technological and organizational environment enabling a secure Internet-based data exchange between information systems. The X-Road technology is used nationwide in the Estonian X-tee and in the Suomi.fi Data Exchange Layer service.

The X-Road Community Event is aimed for anyone interested in the X-Road – users consuming or producing services by using the X-Road, developers of the X-Road open source software or related components, operators of X-Road environments or servers, and decision-makers and e-governance experts interested in the X-Road.

The global X-Road Community has members from 11 different time zones and there are over 30 countries currently considering, studying or implementing the X-Road or related technologies.

"There has been an annual joint X-Road event organized between Estonia and Finland. Now it was time to have an international flagship event for X-Road enthusiasts around the world", says Ville Sirviö, CEO of the Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions (NIIS) that is organizer of the event.

The X-Road Community Event takes place in Swissôtel Tallinn on 12th September 2018. The organizers are expecting 200 participants from around the world to arrive.