It would take a global endeavor, probably something under the United Nations. Suppose there was a group that took care of everything associated with Personally Identifiable Information, another for education, another for health, another for accounting, etc etc etc… It’s mind-boggling. There’d have to a group just to decide which group a piece of data should be sent to for management (is ‘checking account’ part of banking, accounting, personal, or business information?)
There would be arguments. It’s been tried before of course, on much smaller scales by small organizations. None have been successful primarily because the group didn’t actually own the data. You can’t control what you don’t own. I argue here, however, that it is no longer a matter of choice. If we are to avoid becoming that Second Dark Ages, we must find a way to get control of our data and it must be a universal endeavor.