How to Develop a GDPR-Compliant Blockchain Solution for Cross-Organizational Workflow Management: Evidence from the German Asylum Procedure

Blockchain technology has the potential to resolve trust concerns in cross-organizational workflows and to reduce reliance on paper-based documents as trust anchors. Although these prospects are real, so is regulatory uncertainty. In particular, the reconciliation of blockchain with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is proving to be a significant challenge. We tackled this challenge with the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Here, we explain how we used Action Research to guide the Federal Office in creating a GDPR-compliant blockchain solution for the German asylum procedure. Moreover, we explain the architecture of the Federal Office’s solution and present two design principles for developing GDPR-compliant blockchain solutions for cross-organizational workflow management

Challenges and Opportunities of Blockchain-based Platformization of Digital Identities in the Public Sector

Digitalization promises unprecedented opportunities for public sector institutions to increase efficiency of current and to introduce new services. One of these opportunities are unique digital identities which could improve migration and refugee management, simplify distribution of social services, and improve healthcare systems. A major challenge, however, to the adoption of such digital identities is finding a suitable technological basis. Blockchain might be such a technology. The challenges of introducing blockchain-based digital identities, however, are both significant and fuzzy. To provide guidance on how to overcome these challenges, we provide a detailed exploration of blockchain-based platformization of digital identities and discuss interview insights from refugee and migration management in Germany. We find that blockchain offers promising solutions for unique digital identity management. Likewise, we find that implementation in the public sector would entail a range of organizational and technological challenges. Successful adoption, on the other hand, might ultimately pave the way for decentral and efficient e-government services

Supporting communication and cooperation in the asylum procedure with Blockchain technology : A proof of concept by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees

The proof of concept showed that the use of Blockchain technology could support cross-organisational communication and cooperation in the asylum procedure. In addition, Blockchain could provide an important foundation for the establishment of digital identities and allow an asylum seeker’s procedure to be tracked based on this identity. Admittedly, not all applicable data protection regulations were fully implemented in the proof of concept. However, the findings gained as part of the project provide a promising basis for the development of a Blockchain-based solution for the asylum procedure that complies with data protection requirements. Moreover, the developed concept could scale beyond Germany’s borders. Blockchain-based, transnational management of asylum procedures could therefore become a joint project of the European member states to strengthen cooperation while safeguarding federal structures. This means that Blockchain technology could be the start of digital federalism in Europe (including the asylum procedure)

Developing an Evaluation Framework for Blockchain in the Public Sector : The Example of the German Asylum Process

The public sector presents several promising applications for blockchain technology. Global organizations and innovative ministries in countries such as Dubai, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, and Germany have recognized these potentials and have initiated projects to evaluate the adoption of blockchain technology. As these projects can have a far-reaching impact on crucial government services and processes, they should involve a particularly thorough evaluation. In this paper, we provide insights into the development of a framework to support such an evaluation for the German asylum process. We built this framework evolutionarily together with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Its final version consists of three levels and eighteen categories of evaluation criteria across the technical, functional and legal domains and allows specifying use-case specific key performance indicators or knockout criteria

How ill is your IT Portfolio? – Measuring Criticality in IT Portfolios Using Epidemiology

IT project portfolios, consisting of IT projects, also interact with the entire IT landscape. In case of a failure of only one element, existing dependencies can lead to a cascade failure, which can cause high losses. Despite the present effects of systemic risk, research into IT portfolio management lacks suitable methods to quantitatively assess systemic risk. We follow the design science research paradigm to develop and evaluate our ‘on track’ or ‘in difficulty’ (TD) method by applying the SI model, representing a recognized network diffusion model in epidemiology, in an IT portfolio context. We evaluate our method using a real-world dataset. We introduce a criticality measure for diffusion models in IT portfolios and compare the TD method’s results and the alpha centrality to human judgment as a benchmark. From our evaluation, we conclude that the TD method outperforms alpha centrality and is a suitable risk measure in IT portfolio management

Die nachhaltige Universität. Plädoyer für einen interdisziplinären und ideologiefreien Diskurs

Nicht erst seit der letzten US-amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahl scheint es in einzelnen Ländern wieder mehrheitsfähig zu sein, wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zum Klimawandel in Zweifel zu ziehen und dies, obwohl ein nachhaltiger Umgang mit der Natur weit mehr Vorteile bringt als viele, die solche Zweifel in der Öffentlichkeit verbreiten, wahrhaben wollen. Hochschulen tragen eine besondere Verantwortung dafür, das Leitbild der nachhaltigen Entwicklung in der Gesellschaft zu verankern

Poster abstract: Big Data beats engineering in residential energy performance assessment - a case study

Engineering-based energy performance assessments, e.g., required for the award of energy certificates, evoke significant effort and lack accuracy. This paper introduces the idea of building energy performance assessment on Big Data Analytics and information on buildings and occupants while respecting people’s privacy. Using a case study, we investigate whether the proposed method can outperform engineering-based methods in the field of residential buildings in terms of cost and accuracy

Building a Blockchain Application that Complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation

Complying with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) poses significant challenges for blockchain projects, including establishing clear responsibilities for compliance, securing lawful bases for processing personal data, and observing rights to rectification and erasure. We describe how Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees addressed these challenges and created a GDPR-compliant blockchain solution for cross-organizational workflow coordination. Based on the lessons learned, we provide three recommendations for ensuring blockchain solutions are GDPR-compliant