It’s fall time. But while the days are starting to get shorter, productivity is up. Let’s dive right in.
ThingsCon & the Trustable Tech mark
Lots of progress on the Trustable Tech mark we’re launching under the ThingsCon umbrella.
We just had a lovely two day workshop at Casa Jasmina, Torino’s open source smart home of the future (a project by Bruce Sterling, Jasmina Tesanovic and Davide Gomba).
A warm welcome at Casa Jasmina, and a ThingsCon haiku by Dries de Roeck
There I also spoke, together with Michelle Thorne at Magic Monday, Casa Jasmina’s IoT meetup. Which was extra fun, because 3 years ago we were the first speakers at that meetup, and the first guests at CJ.
We also signed up the first official academic/policy launch partner for the trustmark, one of the globally leading internet & society institutes. It’s super exciting. More on that soon.
In related news, we’ll soon have a business master class from ThingsCon, so keep an eye on our social media and website. Also, the big annual ThingsCon Conference that this year takes place at Rotterdam. Super Early Bird tickets are still up I believe this weekend, end Early Bird through October. It’s going to be amazing and you really don’t want to miss out on this one.
It’s 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.
Our contributors are a veritable all-star lineup from around the globe including 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, and Simon Höher.
Trustable Technology mark
With lots of priceless input from Jason Schultz, the kind help from our partner test companies, and based on feedback from across the ThingsCon network, we’ve managed to hugely streamline the application process for ThingsCon’s Trustable Tech mark—while also making it a lot more robust by putting human experts in the loop.
Current overview presentation from earlier this week:
A lot has happened since we published the first ThingsCon State of Responsible IoT report in 2017: Responsibility and ethics in tech have begun to enter mainstream conversations, and these conversations are having an effect. The media, tech companies, and policy makers all are rethinking the effect of technology on society.
The lines between the Internet of Things (IoT), algorithmic decision-making, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), and data-driven services are all ever-more blurry. We can’t discuss one without considering the others. That’s not a bad thing, it just adds complexity. The 21st century one for black and white thinking: It’s messy, complex, quickly evolving, and a time where simple answers won’t do.
It is all the more important to consider the implications, to make sure that all the new data-driven systems we’ll see deployed across our physical and digital environments work well—not just for the users but for all who are impacted.
Things have evolved and matured in big strides since our last State of Responsible IoT. This year’s report reflects that evolution, as well as the enormous breadth and depth of the debate. We couldn’t be happier with the result.
This text is meant for sharing. The report is published by ThingsCon e.V. and licensed under Creative Commons (attribution/non-commercial/share-alike: CC BY-NC-SA). Images are provided by the author and used with permission. All rights lie with the individual authors. Please reference the author(s) when referencing any part of this report.
Lots of travel and a brief time off means a combined summer-ish edition of month notes for June & July. A lot has happened over the last 8 or so weeks, so let’s dive right in. In no particular order…
Trustable Technology mark
The ThingsCon trustmark for IoT has a name, finally! Meet the Trustable Technology mark, or #trustabletech for short. The URL (trustabletech.com) still forwards to the trustmark page on ThingsCon.com, but will have its own place soon. The most current version of the explainer presentation is up on Slideshare:
What’s more, I’m not alone in this endeavor—far from it! More and more folks from the ThingsCon network have been giving their input, which is priceless. Also, Pete Thomas (University of Dundee) has been taking the design lead and been a great sparring partner on strategy questions, and Jason Schultz (NYU Law) has been thinking about legal and policy implications. A big thank you to Pete & Jason! I’m super excited this is moving along at such a clip.
I got to join a whole bunch of things those last few weeks.
I thoroughly enjoyed both a workshop on IoT security and market surveillance by Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, where we discussed all things certification, incentives and assessment frameworks; and the always fascinating Museum of the Future workshop in Berlin. I’d been to one in Amsterdam before, and even though I’m spoiled by greatly curated events, the group that Noah & team convene in this context is humbling and fascinating and the only thing I wished is that I could have been there full time, which this time alas wasn’t possible.
In between the two I got to go to New York City for meetings and a quick swing-by at Data & Society, as well as Toronto for the Mozilla Foundation’s all-hands where I was kindly invited to participate as a fellow. Speaking of committed & warm & driven groups!
After that, some family time in the Pacific Northwest, and a short vacation, which included a little road trip through the Cascades. What a stunning & wonderful region!
What’s next?
On one hand I’m gearing up the planning for fall. If you’d like to work with me in the upcoming months, I have very limited availability but am always happy to have a chat.
On the other I’m pretty much heads-down to get the trustmark to the next level. This includes the nitty gritty work of both improving the trustmark assessment tool, and of lining up launch partners. It also means planning a little road show to expose this idea to more eyes and ears, including ThingsCon Salon Cologne, Mozfest, ThingsCon Amsterdam, and a few other events in between. We’re also in the middle of copy-editing the upcoming 2018 issue of the ThingsCon report “The State of Responsible IoT” (#RIoT). More on that soon.
I was very happy to be interviewed by Christoph Koch for the current issue (07/2018) of Brand Eins. We spoke about the Internet of Things (IoT), how it challenges the notion of ownership, and how we can know which products to trust. Featuring the Trustable Technology mark we’ve been working on!
One of the joys of my working at the intersection of emerging tech and its impact is that I get to discuss things that are by definition cutting edge with people from entirely different backgrounds—like recently with my dad. He’s 77 years old and has a background in business, not tech.
We chatted about IoT, and voice-enabled connected devices, and the tradeoffs they bring between convenience and privacy. How significant chunks of the internet of things are optimized for costs at the expense of privacy and security. How IoT is, by and large, a network of black boxes.
When I tried to explain why I think we need a trustmark for IoT (which I’m building with ThingsCon and as a Mozilla fellow)—especially regarding voice-enabled IoT—he listened intently, thought about it for a moment, and then said:
“We’re at a point in time where the world doesn’t know where it wants to go.”
And somehow that exactly sums it up, ever so much more eloquently than I could have phrased it.
Only I’m thinking: Even though I can’t tell where the world should be going, I think I know where to plant our first step—and that is, towards a more transparent and trustworthy IoT. I hope the trustmark can be our compass.
As part of some prep work for Dundee Design Festival with fellow Mozfellow Jon Rogers and the Open IoT Studio, I had the opportunity to spend a couple days working with Pete Thomas on the design aspects of the trustmark (visuals, naming, etc.).
Speaking of collaborators, I also had the chance to chat with a whole bunch of organizations in the same space to see if and how we can work together, including Ranking Digital Rights, The Digital Standard, Doteveryone, #iotmark, Consumer Reports, and the University of Dresden. More on that soon.
And on a more hands-on note, I got a Google AIY Voice kit and a Snips.ai kit and started playing with them.
We’re planning a ThingsCon Salon Berlin with a focus on the trustmark, with legal super star Jason Schultz (NYU) in mid-July. Thingscon.com/events has all up-to-date details once it’s all confirmed.
Got interviewed about IoT, ownership & trust, and of course the trustmark, once more—and for one of my favorite mags, no less. Exciting! I’ll share the link once it’s available.
We had a super interesting workshop in Antwerp around IoT and ideation tool kits with designer and PhD researcher Dries de Roeck, who also hosted a ThingsCon Salon in Antwerp the evening before. So that was awesome. Thanks Dries!
What’s next?
NYC then Toronto in June for conferences and meetings. Then a family vacation break after that.
If you’d like to work with me in the upcoming months, I have very limited availability but happy to have a chat.
A warm welcome at Casa Jasmina, and a ThingsCon haiku by Dries de Roeck
Image: Compass by Valentin Antonucci (Unsplash)