Maritime Informatics for Increased Collaboration

To overcome the challenges that the maritime sector faces, the future must embody more efficient and effective collaboration. This cannot realistically be achieved without further digitalisation. This chapter identifies the principal tensions and opportunities that impact the inevitable and ongoing digitalisation process that is underway in the maritime transportation sector. The chapter also identifies the trends of development at large and those associated with the key stakeholders that are involved in global maritime operations. The digital trends emerging in shipping companies, ports with its actors, authorities and associations, and movements that are being made by diverse digital solution providers, within and outside the maritime domain are also identified. The discussion takes the point of view that shipping is a global phenomenon enabled by ship movements creating a global network of sea transport facilitated by ports. Achieving higher levels of collaboration through digitalisation requires that tools and systems are interoperable by adopting harmonised open standards. It requires the use of standardised formats and standardised interfaces for communication, building upon commonly agreed definitions of phenomena and processes associated with port call operations. The chapter closes with a brief discussion on the emergence of “smart” ports and “smart” ships, which rely heavily of digitalisation, collaboration and the continuous sharing of and access to relevant data.