Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WhiteRabbit (WhiteRabbit: easily revealing and managing personal information.)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-04-01 do 2018-07-31
The commercial value of data (commonly referred as the 'oil of the 21st century') has exploded over the last years and, as such, it is becoming more and more regulated worldwide. This is especially true in Europe thanks to the approval of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and its impending coming into effect (on 25 May 2018), which has left several European and international companies unsure about the best way of complying. This will not only inevitably increase the costs for management of data but also demand the design and implementation of new personal data management paradigms that would not only comply with these requirements but also offer the required level of control and transparency to the end users in a way that they are able to understand and manage.
The analysis of this trove of personal data is currently leveraged to produce quantifiable benefits (up to €1 trillion by 2021) by private and public organisations in order to design new services and products that better suit consumer preferences. Nevertheless, several companies have also misused or failed to regulate the use of this information either directly (for example snooping, reselling, leaking personal data without user consent) or also indirectly (failing to provide the mechanisms to control or manage very sensitive information). This impacts not only the businesses and reputations but also the personal lives of people who deal with real life repercussions because of their information being mishandled or leaked online
To address these challenges, WhiteRabbit aims at developing a off-the-shelf software platform able to become a 'privacy accountant' that, with minimal configuration and investment, will allow to extract value from data while keeping its subjects in the loop and also complying with upcoming regulations. Such platform will allow companies willing to manage personal data in a quicker, less expensive and more end-user driven way. In a “data vs. money” comparison, the platform has an analogous role of an automated “tax accountant” that helps to deal with complexities and regulations related to “tax returns”. To do so, when installed in the client's servers as a middleware, the software will provide an extra layer of transparency and granularity for management of all operations related to personal information.
Taking a step back from the content and focusing on the process necessary for an innovation to reach the market, it has been proven that no “easy to follow pathway” exists from the intellectual property produced from research projects to actual market-ready products. The lack of knowledge, within research environments, on subjects like Intellectual Property management and business/market needs are frequently cited as the main reasons for this.
Among the project's specific original objectives we can cite:
* To validate the Lean Canvas’ assumptions: the project needed to validate of initial assumptions and extend them to from the base of the business model towards a punctual roadmap for commercialisation.
* To fine tune the main features of the platform: compiling feedback from early adopters trial to set up the final product with the right features to match customers’ needs and make it attractive to the market and consequently, to investors.
* To set up the commercial vehicle, a new company, to market and sell WhiteRabbit.
* To contact and engage potential customers and seed investors. The success of the new venture will depend by the availability of financial resources to reinforce the staff and sell first licences.
* To raise awareness on exploitation within the research community. The lessons learned during the implementation of the project will be shared with the research community (in particular the FET) acting as a role model and motivating researchers to exploit their own results.
The analysis of this trove of personal data is currently leveraged to produce quantifiable benefits (up to €1 trillion by 2021) by private and public organisations in order to design new services and products that better suit consumer preferences. Nevertheless, several companies have also misused or failed to regulate the use of this information either directly (for example snooping, reselling, leaking personal data without user consent) or also indirectly (failing to provide the mechanisms to control or manage very sensitive information). This impacts not only the businesses and reputations but also the personal lives of people who deal with real life repercussions because of their information being mishandled or leaked online
To address these challenges, WhiteRabbit aims at developing a off-the-shelf software platform able to become a 'privacy accountant' that, with minimal configuration and investment, will allow to extract value from data while keeping its subjects in the loop and also complying with upcoming regulations. Such platform will allow companies willing to manage personal data in a quicker, less expensive and more end-user driven way. In a “data vs. money” comparison, the platform has an analogous role of an automated “tax accountant” that helps to deal with complexities and regulations related to “tax returns”. To do so, when installed in the client's servers as a middleware, the software will provide an extra layer of transparency and granularity for management of all operations related to personal information.
Taking a step back from the content and focusing on the process necessary for an innovation to reach the market, it has been proven that no “easy to follow pathway” exists from the intellectual property produced from research projects to actual market-ready products. The lack of knowledge, within research environments, on subjects like Intellectual Property management and business/market needs are frequently cited as the main reasons for this.
Among the project's specific original objectives we can cite:
* To validate the Lean Canvas’ assumptions: the project needed to validate of initial assumptions and extend them to from the base of the business model towards a punctual roadmap for commercialisation.
* To fine tune the main features of the platform: compiling feedback from early adopters trial to set up the final product with the right features to match customers’ needs and make it attractive to the market and consequently, to investors.
* To set up the commercial vehicle, a new company, to market and sell WhiteRabbit.
* To contact and engage potential customers and seed investors. The success of the new venture will depend by the availability of financial resources to reinforce the staff and sell first licences.
* To raise awareness on exploitation within the research community. The lessons learned during the implementation of the project will be shared with the research community (in particular the FET) acting as a role model and motivating researchers to exploit their own results.
The WhiteRabbit project was originally based on two major components: i) the technical and research work done by the research group led by the Prof. Fausto Giunchiglia at the University of Trento also as part of the SmartSociety project and; ii) the preliminary business analysis Lean Canvas performed through participation in the FET2rin project.
With these two components at the start of the project the WhiteRabbit project, first and foremost, performed a market/opportunity analysis that was ultimately crystallized into a revised business plan that is currently in execution and complying/exceeding most of its previsions. Using this business plan as the foundation the architecture and implementation plan of the WhiteRabbit enabling platform (called the Witmee platform) was organized into three incremental stages of development.
As per this organization the development of Stage 1 was completed and, as part of the WhiteRabbit project, it was trialled in two “early adopter” sites: the University of Trento in Italy and the University of Jilin at China. The trialing brought forward a myriad of technical details related to putting a system in production that were previously unaddressed, gave us important feedback on performance and success of our implemented features and created new requirements for the future development stages 2 and 3. Out of the two trials, the one at the University of Trento went on to production and became the Digital University Trento website ( https://webapps.unitn.it/du/en ).
Two other lines of activities ran in parallel to the previous, the first is the company and IPR related activities that resulted into the consolidation of Witmee S.R.L. and its subsequent submission of a proposal for cession of IPR rights to the University of Trento. This proposal is expected to be accepted in the following months, which would enable Witmee S.R.L to have all necessary rights for the commercialization of the resulting product.
The other, and final line of activities, is related to dissemination and networking. The WhiteRabbit consortium participated in numerous pitching exercises and discussed the finer details of the product with business-minded people (investors, VCs, policy makers, educators) from private initiatives and the EC. This produced valuable feedback to both the business plan and product.
With these two components at the start of the project the WhiteRabbit project, first and foremost, performed a market/opportunity analysis that was ultimately crystallized into a revised business plan that is currently in execution and complying/exceeding most of its previsions. Using this business plan as the foundation the architecture and implementation plan of the WhiteRabbit enabling platform (called the Witmee platform) was organized into three incremental stages of development.
As per this organization the development of Stage 1 was completed and, as part of the WhiteRabbit project, it was trialled in two “early adopter” sites: the University of Trento in Italy and the University of Jilin at China. The trialing brought forward a myriad of technical details related to putting a system in production that were previously unaddressed, gave us important feedback on performance and success of our implemented features and created new requirements for the future development stages 2 and 3. Out of the two trials, the one at the University of Trento went on to production and became the Digital University Trento website ( https://webapps.unitn.it/du/en ).
Two other lines of activities ran in parallel to the previous, the first is the company and IPR related activities that resulted into the consolidation of Witmee S.R.L. and its subsequent submission of a proposal for cession of IPR rights to the University of Trento. This proposal is expected to be accepted in the following months, which would enable Witmee S.R.L to have all necessary rights for the commercialization of the resulting product.
The other, and final line of activities, is related to dissemination and networking. The WhiteRabbit consortium participated in numerous pitching exercises and discussed the finer details of the product with business-minded people (investors, VCs, policy makers, educators) from private initiatives and the EC. This produced valuable feedback to both the business plan and product.
We believe that our solution will represent a way of making the protection of personal data an integral part of the process of the data management and processing (as opposed to ‘a posteriori’ fix that is done to comply with regulations). And to get there we plan to use several techniques and technologies emerging from the fields of knowledge representation and AI; mainly semantic data integration, policy creation/matching/enforcing, contextual privacy, and privacy-enhancing profiles. We expect this to ultimately lower the currently high burden imposed on the end-users to manage and understand how their personal information is used by the different services they use on their daily lives. Thus leading to a better understanding, valorization and treatment of data from service providers and users alike.
Additionally, we believe our particular example as a company born from research projects and the academia will add to increasing list of examples of similar cases emerging from innovation focused programs; helping solidify the variety of possible pathways and methodologies applicable from research to market.
Additionally, we believe our particular example as a company born from research projects and the academia will add to increasing list of examples of similar cases emerging from innovation focused programs; helping solidify the variety of possible pathways and methodologies applicable from research to market.