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“The State of Responsible IoT 2019” report out now!
“The State of the Responsible IoT 2019” report is also available in a limited first print edition. If you want a printed to copy, please email us on riot@thingscon.org (for more info on a second print edition, see below). Find all prior years’ issues here.
The State of the Responsible IoT – Small Escapes from Surveillance Capitalism
2019 is the year where the term “Surveillance Capitalism” really took root. In its essence, it describes the current economic model of technology companies that make revenue by surveilling our online lives, gathering data that is processed and transformed to result in targeted advertising packages. The better the data, the more likely it is that we do what is expected of us: buy what we are shown. Surveillance Capitalism is therefore not only an economic model, it is a form of control over our behaviour. The Internet of Things plays a crucial role, as it enables to not only track our behaviour in realm of browsers and apps, but in the physical world through tangible connected devices that we invite into our lives.
With ThingsCon we have devoted ourselves to working towards a “responsible IoT”. But what does that look like in the light of Surveillance Capitalism? With this years “responsible IoT Report – RioT for short – we wanted to find out.
We have asked friends and collaborators, new and old, to reflect on this, and showcase how we can resist Surveillance Capitalism today. In the report we present a wide variety of contributions: from reflections Trustable Technology for cities, on the power and responsibility of Design to escape surveillance, to descriptions of projects that point the way and help us find out: in which direction is the responsible IoT?
Get the report
“The State of the Responsible IoT 2019” report is available online and in a limited print edition. You can download it here. We will print a second edition in early 2020. If you want a printed version send us an email until January 31, 2020 with the amount you would like to order. Cost will be approx. 12 € plus shipping. The primary release is on thingscon.org and a secondary, later release on medium.com
Articles and authors include:
Editorial by Andrea Krajewski and Max Krüger
Whose Interest Should Technology Serve? by Kasia Odrozek
Ushahidi: Responsibility for Human Rights by Eriol Fox
Balancing Urban Innovation with a Responsible Approach to the Internet of Things: The Case of Limerick by Helena Fitzgerald, Gerard Walsh, Gabriela Avram, Stephen Kinsella, Javier Buron Garcia
YOU by Elina Faber, Sarah Lerch, Jan Meininghaus, Domenika Tomasovic
Zuversicht – Challenging the Narrative by Philipp Kaltofen, Julia Metzmaier, Anne Schneider
Design Me a Pause Button, Graceful and Dignified by Irina Shklovski
Sex and Magic in Service of Surveillance Capitalism by Namrata Primlani
The Alienating Consequences of Things That Predict by Iskander Smit
Surveillance (Alternatives), by Design by Heather Wiltse
Trusted Technology, from your Living Room to your City by Peter Bihr
Civil Hack Back: Hack, Tweak, Delete Your Digital CV! by Timo Jakobi
Shout-out: Virt-EU Ethical Stack
The VIRT-EU project has produced tools for ethical reflection and self-assessment for designers and developers of connected products and services (IoT). In this presentation we will showcase two interactive tools produced by the project.
The first tool is an interactive implementation of the Privacy, Ethical and Social Impact Assessment (PESIA) questionnaire. This tool includes but also goes significantly beyond the familiar privacy impact assessment (PIA) tools, also addressing ethical and social issues respectively. The tool is interactive and geared specifically towards IoT system development challenges. PESIA is based on the common ethical values recognised by international charters of human rights and fundamental freedoms and draws on the results of our extensive research together with IoT designers and developers.
The second tool, the Ethical Stack is part of a series of tools to support creators of new connected technology to reflect on their product’s ethical and social impacts. These tools are intended to enable developers and designers to expose the difference between what they are trying to make and what they are actually making. The tools allow to uncover these gaps through a structured process, to understand these gaps and to work towards practical solutions.
Presentation by Irina Shklovski and Annelie Berner
Register
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Resources
Check out the ThingsCon Publications and overview of interesting resources
Our events
Check out our upcoming events. Salons in Berlin and Rotterdam, Unconf with peers in Berlin.
Learn more on our Events page
Advocacy
We’re happy to announce that we set up ThingsCon e.V.—a Germany-based membership association—to further promote ThingsCon’s mission: To foster the creation of a human-centric & responsible IoT.
Why a membership association? Having this structure will help us interface with other organizations more easily in terms of advocacy and funding.
Our 7 founding members (in alphabetical order):
- Prof Andrea Krajewski (Hochschule Darmstadt)
- Emanuel Schwarz (ThingsCon)
- Max Krüger (ThingsCon, Global Innovation Gathering)
- Michelle Thorne (Mozilla Open IoT Studio)
- Peter Bihr (ThingsCon, The Waving Cat)
- Ricardo Brito (The ThingCast, IoT Service Kit)
- Simon Höher (ThingsCon, Current Collective)
The full Articles of Association (Satzung) and Regulations of Contribution are available here. They were adopted by the founding members on 17 February 2017.
We’re very happy that our little rebel alliance for responsible IoT keeps growing and maturing. It now includes a “core” ThingsCon group made up one association in Germany and the Netherlands plus local organizers, plus (helping out wherever needed) the founders’ companies (The Waving Cat in Germany and The Incredible Machine & info.nl in the Netherlands). And we work very closely and side-by-side with a number of other organizations with aligned values and mission statements including the Just Things Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and many others.
With this organically grown, trust-based setup we’re in a great position to do what we set out to do: Promote a responsible IoT and make sure that IoT works well for everyone.
ThingsCon Report: The State of Responsible IoT 2018
The ThingsCon report The State of Responsible IoT is an annual collection of essays by experts from the ThingsCon community.
With the Riot Report 2018 we want to investigate the current state of responsible IoT. In this report we explore observations, questions, concerns and hopes from practitioners and researchers alike. The authors share the challenges and opportunities they perceive right now for the development of an IoT that serves us all, based on their experiences in the field. The report presents a variety of differing opinions and experiences across the technological, regional, social, philosophical domains the IoT touches upon.
The whole report is available as a publication on Medium as well as a PDF download.
The State of Responsible IoT 2018 includes contributions from:
- Christian Villum
- David Li
- Dries de Roeck
- Prof. Dr. Eduardo Magrani
- Prof. Dr. Elisa Giaccardi
- Ester Fritsch
- Prof. Dr. Gaia Scagnetti
- Holly Robbins
- Iohanna Nicenboim
- Prof. Dr. Irina Shklovski
- Iskander Smit
- Dr. James Pierce
- Dr. Laura James
- Luca van der Heide
- Maya Indira Ganesh
- Peter Bihr
- Dr. Rachel Douglas-Jones
- Dr. Ronaldo Lemos
- Prof. Dr. Seyram Avle
- Prof. Dr. Silvia Lindtner
- Simon Höher
The State of Responsible IoT 2017 report is available here.
This report is published by ThingsCon e.V. and licensed under Creative Commons (attribution/non-commercial/share-alike: CC BY-NC-SA). Please reference the author’s or the authors’ name(s). Images are provided by the author(s) and used with permission.
ThingsCon Report: The State of Responsible IoT 2017
The 2017 ThingsCon report The State of Responsible IoT is an annual collection of essays by experts from the ThingsCon community of IoT experts and practitioners. It explores the challenges, opportunities and questions surrounding the creation of a responsible & human-centric Internet of Things (IoT). For your convenience you can read it on Medium or download a PDF.
It’s a critical time in the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). We believe the ThingsCon community has a valuable contribution to make to ensure a future where IoT works for everyone: A responsible & human-centric IoT.
As part of our advocacy this key issue we gathered contributors from across the ThingsCon community and put together a report on the state of responsible IoT.
This report is a collection of essays and articles by experts from a wide range of disciplines covering a wide range of topics, issues and questions around responsible & human-centric IoT.
We find it important to cover a wide range of issues and perspectives—disciplinary, regional, cultural—and so asked authors to take a high degree of freedom. The collection encompasses very different voices: Essays range from bird’s eye perspective to hands-on advice; some stem from an academic context, others are grounded in practice.
We see this is a first step on a longer journey—a kickoff if you will. We will keep adding to this collection: As the questions surrounding responsible IoT change, so will this project. We will continue to do this as much in the open as possible (see the section “Keep it open!” below).
Content overview
The links below go directly to the articles on Medium.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino: The Whole Internet of Things
In IoT, the issues and challenges aren’t the same for everyone. To strengthen the whole industry we need to build bridges between communities of practitioners.
Prof. Andrea Krajewski: User Centred IoT-Design
Designing IoT for user needs and user empowerment is the responsibility of designers.
Christian Villum: Designing the Digital Futures We Want
We can design better futures by putting people first.
Dietrich Ayala: Trust, Lies and Fitness Wearables
When designing wearables, especially fitness wearables, focus on your users’ goals—and trust them.
Dries de Roeck: On IoT Design Processes
The key to developing an IoT design process—and a successful IoT product—is to focus on user research.
Dr. Gaia Scagnetti: The here and now of dystopian scenarios
IoT mediates our relationship with the world. What if the difference between a traditional object and a smart one is that one talks to you while the other talks aboutyou?
Holly Robbins: The Path for Transparency for IoT Technologies
As connected technologies have an ever-larger impact on society they need to be transparent and legible.
Iskander Smit: Touch base dialogues with things: Responsible IoT & tangible interfaces
As we develop a closer relationship with wearable technologies, the UX of touch interfaces becomes a focal point of responsible IoT design.
Jorge Appiah: IoT in Africa: Are we waiting to consume for sustainable development?
How can IoT and its production be shaped to truly and sustainably benefit Africa?
Max Krüger: Expanding the boundaries for caring
Can connected technology also help us improve connection between one another?
Michelle Thorne: Internet Health and IoT
The internet is a public resource and IoT emerges as the next front in the battle for a healthy internet.
Peter Bihr: We need more a more transparent Internet of Things
In order to deserve consumers’ trust, IoT needs to become more transparent and legible. Consumer trust marks offer a promising path forward.
Rob van Kranenburg: How to run a country (I know where that door is)
A personal journey of discovery, and a heureka moment about the Internet of Things.
IP protection in the Internet of Things is unusual in that it engages all intellectual property rights in more or less equal measure.
Simon Höher: Controlling Machines—AI, intentions, and games and in the IoT
Does our technology have intentions, and how can we be deliberate about using, engaging with, or hacking the technologies in our lives?
Usman Haque: How Might We Grow Diverse Internets of Things? Learning from Project Xanadu & the WWW
How could we design IoT to be different—to be truly radically and legitimately collaborative? Ted Nelson’s vision of Project Xanadu offers some inspiration.
Keep it open!
We believe there is an inherent value in openness, and in working in public.
- License: All contributors kindly agreed to publish their pieces under a Creative Commons license (CC by-nc-sa), so you can share the content without asking permission. (Please reference the author.)
- Available online for free: For comfortable reading, we publish this as a publication on Medium. It’s a great platform for authors. If you prefer, you can also download a PDF.
- Powered by Github: We also keep all content in a Github repository (in Markdown) to make updating extra easy, and to allow for extra-easy future contributions and collaborative editing.
Contributors
We thank our initial contributors (in alphabetical order):
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Andrea Krajewski, Chris Villum, Dietrich Ayala, Dries de Roeck, Gaia Scagnetti, Holly Robbins, Iskander Smit, Jorge Appiah, Max Krüger, Michelle Thorne, Peter Bihr, Rob van Kranenburg, Rosie Burbidge, Simon Höher, and Usman Haque.
May there be many more in the coming months!
About this report
This report is licensed under a Creative Commons (CC by-nc-sa) license. Please reference the author by name.
ThingsCon is a global community of IoT practitioners dedicated to fostering the creation of a human-centric & responsible Internet of Things. Learn more on ThingsCon.org, join an event near you, and follow us on Twitter.
To link to this page, you can also use the shortlink bit.ly/riot-report.
Get in touch
We love to hear back from you, be it with feedback or because you have a contribution to make.
- If you would like to reproduce individual pieces, please get in touch with the author directly; all rights are in their hands.
- If you’d like to contribute a piece to this essay collection, please get in touch (info at thingscon.org).
For any other question, please also get in touch on any channel (@thingscon on Twitter or by email, info at thingscon.org).
Student programme
At this year’s ThingsCon we will have our second edition of the student IoT Talent Award. Enter your project and you can win a nice award and attention for you work.
How does it work?
You apply to be part of the Talent Awards
When you meet the requirements you project will be part of the competition
Every contestant will receive a ticket for ThingsCon and will be able to present her/his work with a poster at Thursday.
A jury will select the best 5 for pitching at the stage end of day 1 for all participants and the judges.
We will choose one winner and one runner-up prize
Requirements for entry:
– Individuals or teams can enter
– The work should be made as student in the academic year 2017/2018
– You must be able to present your work at ThingsCon on Thursday 6 December 2018 in Rotterdam
– The work should be a product and/or service that can be classified as IoT (Internet of Things), meaning physical objects that create value by being wireless connected to other objects and/or the internet.
– We will value responsible and human-centric IoT
– The jury always has the final call
Deadline for entry: Wednesday November 28 at the latest
If you have any questions, contact info@thingscon.nlApply for Student IoT Contest
ThingsCon 2018 Hack Challenge
After the successful edition of last year we will organize again a hack challenge during day 1 of ThingsCon. The conference will take place on December 6 & 7 in Rotterdam (BlueCity), The Netherlands.
The hack challenge will take place on December 6 starting at 9.30 with kickoff till 20.00 when the prize winners are announced.
The hack challenge is open for both individual students and teams.
The program is roughly like this:
09:30 kick-off with assignment and breakfast
10:00 start the challenge
12:00 coaches will be available to check your concepts
17:00 prepare for pitches
18:00 food and finalize presentations
18:30 teams pitch for audience ThingsCon
19:30 announcement of winner
Depending of the number of teams the program can change.
You will get a case at the start of the day. We will have several types of kits available to work with, but one of them is Snips.
We will have one prize for the winning team and one runner-up. Every participant can visit ThingsCon on Friday too.
Deadline for entry: Wednesday November 28 at the latest
If you have questions, let us know via info@thingscon.nl
Apply for Hack Challenge