thedataexistsbutcan’ttalktoitself

These 19 problems share one barrier: data sits in separate organizations' systems in formats that don't match, and no single organization has a reason to fix it. Members include government computer systems with five decades of mismatched data structures, logistics chains with more than 40 document formats, clinical trial data split across sponsors and regulators, utility grids tied to one vendor's equipment, and freight tracked across several modes of transport. Dependence on one vendor and old systems drive much of it. Health records offer a model: a shared standard succeeded there because organizations could adopt it gradually, one piece at a time.

The data exists, and the systems that hold it can't read each other. No one has a reason to build the translator, because the cost is shared and the benefit goes to someone else.