With the digitalization process, data has become the center of both traditional and research-intensive industries. Information needs from inside and outside organizations are increasing in depth and breadth. This means that only those organizations that are able to produce high-quality data products will succeed. These products should satisfy the information needs timely and at a reasonable cost.
In this whitepaper we argue that large organizations need to embrace distrib- uted approaches to reference and master data management, as a means of collaboratively aligning their vocabulary without a forced top-down standardization procedure.