Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OpenDoTT (Open Design of Trusted Things)
Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-12-31
With the widespread growth in “IoT” – the Internet of Things, ie internet-connected devices – in recent years, questions of trust, agency, privacy, and security have become ever-more pressing. There is now a broad understanding of the risks and disadvantages, alongside the benefits, of the connectedness provided by computers, tablets and smart phones. However, the rapid growth of “smart” connected devices (e.g. smart speakers, doorbells, fridges, health monitors) has the potential to amplify the risks and challenges to individuals, families, communities and wider society, through harvesting and sharing data in ways that are often opaque or misleading.
Research and development in smart technology and the IoT is often driven by technical capability and functionality, alongside business models based on a data capture and exploitation. Technical developments have outpaced the critical debates around trust and agency, putting policy makers on the back foot in seeking to provide a legal foundation for fairer, and so more trusted, relationships between commercial enterprises and their customers.
There is a need to bridge the gap between the fields of Interaction Design and/or Product Design - through which new products and services are developed - and areas such as Open Internet Advocacy - which are thinking deeply about the ways to make our relationship with IoT and the wider internet healthier.
OpenDoTT – the Open Design of Trusted Things – was an Innovative Training Network uniquely positioned within this intersection between all 3 fields: Design Research; Open Hardware; and Open Internet Policy & Advocacy. Running from 2019-2022, the Network brought together expertise in Design Research from Northumbria University, Open Internet Policy & Advocacy from Mozilla, and specific expertise including Open Hardware, design, security and legal policy, from the Consortium of 8 international partners: University of Dundee; Universität der Künste Berlin; Officine Innesto; STBY; Superbloom (formerly Simply Secure); Quicksand; Future Everything and ThingsCon.
Objective 1: Train 5 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with the capabilities and competences to understand and design for the complex human relationships between IoT technologies and society.
Objective 2: Create a cohort of new leaders who can both practice and advocate for a trusted and healthy IoT.
Objective 3: Ensure that ESRs can interpret and communicate policy in order to design for trusted IoT.
OpenDoTT provided a research training opportunity which included delivery of the European Industrial Doctorate, in order to support the development of 5 future leaders who can “design for trust” and are equipped with the capability to meet challenges and opportunities presented by IoT. OpenDoTT placed Mozilla's “Health of the Internet” agenda at the heart of a unique training programme that advocated design informed by trust, openness, privacy, decentralization, inclusion and digital literacy.
OpenDoTT has both deepened and broadened the understanding of the risks and challenges that IoT presents, and the 5 ESRs have proposed both some new lenses through which those can be considered, and ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more fruitfully together.
Research and development in smart technology and the IoT is often driven by technical capability and functionality, alongside business models based on a data capture and exploitation. Technical developments have outpaced the critical debates around trust and agency, putting policy makers on the back foot in seeking to provide a legal foundation for fairer, and so more trusted, relationships between commercial enterprises and their customers.
There is a need to bridge the gap between the fields of Interaction Design and/or Product Design - through which new products and services are developed - and areas such as Open Internet Advocacy - which are thinking deeply about the ways to make our relationship with IoT and the wider internet healthier.
OpenDoTT – the Open Design of Trusted Things – was an Innovative Training Network uniquely positioned within this intersection between all 3 fields: Design Research; Open Hardware; and Open Internet Policy & Advocacy. Running from 2019-2022, the Network brought together expertise in Design Research from Northumbria University, Open Internet Policy & Advocacy from Mozilla, and specific expertise including Open Hardware, design, security and legal policy, from the Consortium of 8 international partners: University of Dundee; Universität der Künste Berlin; Officine Innesto; STBY; Superbloom (formerly Simply Secure); Quicksand; Future Everything and ThingsCon.
Objective 1: Train 5 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) with the capabilities and competences to understand and design for the complex human relationships between IoT technologies and society.
Objective 2: Create a cohort of new leaders who can both practice and advocate for a trusted and healthy IoT.
Objective 3: Ensure that ESRs can interpret and communicate policy in order to design for trusted IoT.
OpenDoTT provided a research training opportunity which included delivery of the European Industrial Doctorate, in order to support the development of 5 future leaders who can “design for trust” and are equipped with the capability to meet challenges and opportunities presented by IoT. OpenDoTT placed Mozilla's “Health of the Internet” agenda at the heart of a unique training programme that advocated design informed by trust, openness, privacy, decentralization, inclusion and digital literacy.
OpenDoTT has both deepened and broadened the understanding of the risks and challenges that IoT presents, and the 5 ESRs have proposed both some new lenses through which those can be considered, and ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more fruitfully together.
OpenDoTT fulfilled its remit, with the five Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) receiving specialist training and making promising progress in their focussed areas of research. Throughout the three years of OpenDoTT, the intensive research training - delivered by Mozilla and the University of Dundee / Northumbria University - was augmented by bespoke blocks of training from Consortium partners. After each block of training, the ESRs then applied their learning to inform their subsequent research activities.
Work Package 1, during the first year of the programme, focussed on Design Research. Expert training was provided by STBY and Quicksand, alongside Research Skills and Ethics training from the University of Dundee for Work Package 4. The ESRs were given opportunities for career development and networking by ThingsCon.
The ESRs developed their first IoT experience prototypes and co-designed concepts, aligning their concepts and designs with their individual topic of focus:
ESR1:Wearables and the Self;
ESR2:Smart Homes;
ESR3:Communities and Neighbourhoods;
ESR4:Smart Cities;
ESR5: A Trusted Label for IoT.
The resulting themes and concepts were developed further during the second year. Work Package 2 focussed on Open Hardware and Work Package 5 focussed on Internet Health. During global lockdown, Officine Innesto developed custom-made hardware kits and delivered a bespoke training programme; Mozilla supplied training in Internet Health; while Superbloom (formerly Simply Secure) and Universität der Künste Berlin provided training in Privacy, Security and Trust. The ESRs then developed their prototypes using Open Hardware, with Mozilla’s Internet Health values shaping the design process.
During the third year, themes of Policy and Advocacy were explored, with Mozilla supplying bespoke training. Further career and researcher development training was provided by Northumbria University. The ESRs then critiqued their design concepts and prototypes from a policy and legal perspective, with the aim of shaping and advocating for policy changes and directions in relation to future IoT designs.
The ESRs are, at the end of the OpenDoTT project, completing their PhD theses in preparation for examination. By the OpenDoTT end date, a total of seven papers have been published, with more in the pipeline. Each ESR has actively participated in a range of seminars, workshops, conferences and events. They have all proposed new lenses through which Trust and the IoT can be considered and have identified ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more fruitfully together. Northumbria University, supported by Future Everything, will continue to support the ESRs in dissemination and exploitation activities following the conclusion of OpenDoTT.
Work Package 1, during the first year of the programme, focussed on Design Research. Expert training was provided by STBY and Quicksand, alongside Research Skills and Ethics training from the University of Dundee for Work Package 4. The ESRs were given opportunities for career development and networking by ThingsCon.
The ESRs developed their first IoT experience prototypes and co-designed concepts, aligning their concepts and designs with their individual topic of focus:
ESR1:Wearables and the Self;
ESR2:Smart Homes;
ESR3:Communities and Neighbourhoods;
ESR4:Smart Cities;
ESR5: A Trusted Label for IoT.
The resulting themes and concepts were developed further during the second year. Work Package 2 focussed on Open Hardware and Work Package 5 focussed on Internet Health. During global lockdown, Officine Innesto developed custom-made hardware kits and delivered a bespoke training programme; Mozilla supplied training in Internet Health; while Superbloom (formerly Simply Secure) and Universität der Künste Berlin provided training in Privacy, Security and Trust. The ESRs then developed their prototypes using Open Hardware, with Mozilla’s Internet Health values shaping the design process.
During the third year, themes of Policy and Advocacy were explored, with Mozilla supplying bespoke training. Further career and researcher development training was provided by Northumbria University. The ESRs then critiqued their design concepts and prototypes from a policy and legal perspective, with the aim of shaping and advocating for policy changes and directions in relation to future IoT designs.
The ESRs are, at the end of the OpenDoTT project, completing their PhD theses in preparation for examination. By the OpenDoTT end date, a total of seven papers have been published, with more in the pipeline. Each ESR has actively participated in a range of seminars, workshops, conferences and events. They have all proposed new lenses through which Trust and the IoT can be considered and have identified ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more fruitfully together. Northumbria University, supported by Future Everything, will continue to support the ESRs in dissemination and exploitation activities following the conclusion of OpenDoTT.
OpenDoTT has trained 5 ESRs, who now have the capacity to be leaders who are capable of meeting the many challenges and opportunities presented by the need for Trust to be considered in the continual growth of IoT.
OpenDoTT has forged a fundamental link between EU policy-making and designing for a healthy IoT. The project has both deepened and broadened the understanding of the risks and challenges that IoT presents, and the 5 ESRs have proposed new ways in which to consider those risks and challenges, in addition to ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more collaboratively:
ESR1 has reconsidered the relationship between the body and connected devices by embracing creative technology and advocating for nourishing relationships with IoT.
ESR2 has focussed on ethics and smart home technology, and designing ways in which to re-imagine home IoT with a stronger ethical approach and focus on care.
ESR3 has explored community-based IoT from a grassroots perspective and advocated for enabling communities to make more informed decisions about the implications of IoT design.
ESR4 has reimagined the role of openness and IoT in smart cities, proposing new models for the generous reuse of materials in an urban context.
ESR5 has crafted a new way of thinking about Trust in IoT and made proposals around engaging policy-makers through a design fiction methodology.
OpenDoTT has forged a fundamental link between EU policy-making and designing for a healthy IoT. The project has both deepened and broadened the understanding of the risks and challenges that IoT presents, and the 5 ESRs have proposed new ways in which to consider those risks and challenges, in addition to ways in which designers and policy-makers might work more collaboratively:
ESR1 has reconsidered the relationship between the body and connected devices by embracing creative technology and advocating for nourishing relationships with IoT.
ESR2 has focussed on ethics and smart home technology, and designing ways in which to re-imagine home IoT with a stronger ethical approach and focus on care.
ESR3 has explored community-based IoT from a grassroots perspective and advocated for enabling communities to make more informed decisions about the implications of IoT design.
ESR4 has reimagined the role of openness and IoT in smart cities, proposing new models for the generous reuse of materials in an urban context.
ESR5 has crafted a new way of thinking about Trust in IoT and made proposals around engaging policy-makers through a design fiction methodology.