Digital Objects as Drivers towards Convergence in Data Infrastructures

In a recent paper Wittenburg & Strawn argued that it is time to come to convergence in the domain of data based on an analysis of the developments of earlier large infrastructures such as electricity, the Internet and the Web. In this paper we look from a technical point of view how the concept of Digital Objects (DO) with its inherent abstraction, binding and encapsulation potential could help us to build FAIR compliant data infrastructures as envisaged for example by the European Open Science Cloud. Basic components of such a DO-based approach have been specified and are being used by some scientific communities.