Rather than relying on a Data Owner to send out messages whenever something important needs to be communicated (“fire and forget”), this method allows all involved parties to receive notifications from the Data Owner when a significant event occurs (“publish event to subscribers”). These notifications include metadata and a link to the original data source. The receiving party can then evaluate the metadata and decide whether to follow the link to access the data as needed.

Advantages of Event-Driven Communication

This approach has many advantages:

• efficient:
  • No need for constant polling, reducing unnecessary data requests.
  • Low resource load, as data is only retrieved when necessary.
• effective:
  • Easy distribution to multiple involved parties simultaneously.
  • Maintains a “single source of truth” by keeping the data at its source.
  • Synchronizes activities across different entities, ensuring everyone is working with the same data.
• controlled:
  • Distributing events with minimal metadata limits exposure to potential misuse by malicious actors.
  • Access to data requires authentication at the source, ensuring that only authorized parties can retrieve the information.
  • Authorization rules determine what data can be accessed by which role or party.
  • The Data Owner tracks who accessed the data, when they accessed it, and who has not accessed it, providing a clear audit trail.

Event driven communication requires:

• Semantic Definitions of Events: Clearly defined meanings for each type of event ensure consistency and understanding across all parties.
• Distribution Mechanism (Pub/Sub): A publish/subscribe model to efficiently distribute notifications to all relevant parties.
• Choreography: A system to relate notifications to one another, ensuring that the sequence of events and their interactions are well-coordinated.
• Audit Trail: The ability to “go back in time,” review past events, and maintain a comprehensive audit trail for transparency and accountability.