S04E08: Let's launch a Trustmark, shall we?
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I'm writing this from my hotel room on Saturday afternoon after two days of event craziness: I co-hosted the annual ThingsCon conference in Rotterdam; although I was so distracted by also launching the Trustable Technology Mark that all credit there goes to the team on the ground around Iskander, Monique, Marcel, Dries, Pieter and the gang. A big thank you there! So I'm kind of hiding in the hotel after intense socializing, media work and heavy multi-tasking, finishing up some presentations for the next stops on this trip, but also with an officially launched Trustmark to show for - and hence very happy indeed. Let's dive in, shall we?
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What's been going on / what I've been working on
ThingsCon & the Trustable Technology Mark
At ThingsCon Rotterdam, our annual conference, we celebrated 5 years of ThingsCon. This is mind-blowing to me, and I'm more than grateful for the opportunities this has opened up for me: So many things I learned, inspiring people I met, project I got involved in through ThingsCon. 🙏
But there's also a sense of opportunity and urgency that if anything is stronger than ever there, and that I sensed in conversations throughout the event, from students to their professors, from agency designers to entrepreneurs and researchers: There's a window of opportunity to move the needle in this space, to establish a valid and important counter narrative to the ultra liberal startup and growth rhetoric.
In the words of Dr. Laura James (of Doteveryone and Cambridge University's Trust & Technology initative). I'm paraphrasing; this is based on the quick notes I managed to jot down during the event:
We're pioneering responsible technology. There is an alternative
And:
We need 1) to empower people & public institutions to demand responsible tech, 2) better business models guiding the tech industry in how to create responsible tech, 3) bold policy making helping governments lead the drive for responsible technology
So that alone would be enough to keep me motivating. But there's more!
We did launch the Trustable Technology Mark which as of now is open to the public for applications so we can grow it from a small number of invite-only partners that represent some of the most interesting categories (toys, voice assistants) to a broader range of products. If you know anyone who has a product that might benefit from the Trustmark, please do send them my way or to trustabletech.org/apply.
Some key links in case you want to dig deeper:
- Trustable Technology Mark website
- Trustmark announcement
- Trustmark partners
- Launch presentation (Slideshare)
"The Trustable Technology Mark. It’s like being certified organic, but for the Internet of Things." (FastCo)
I'm happy to say there has been quite a bit of media interest. Not all got the details quite right, but the overall notion came across. Just a note of clarification: The Trustable Technology Mark is not a certification but a license given out if certain conditions are met. It's legally an important distinction; beyond that you don't need to bother with it. Also, it's developed by ThingsCon, so we're the only ones responsible; Mozilla supports the development of initiative through my Mozilla Fellowship, which doesn't imply an endorsement. So now that we have the small print out of the way, here's some of the coverage I've seen so far:
While I cannot know if the Trustmark is going to fly and succeed in the long run, the feedback so far has been very promising, and it's been sparking the right kind of discussions. I'm planning to take it step by step, but I'm very hopeful.
Today is for catching a breath, tomorrow the whole ThingsCon team will sit down to discuss what the next 5 years of ThingsCon should look like, what we want to aim for, where we want to grow this. Then on to the next plane, this time to NYC.
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The territory of the human mind
Renee DiResta (also a Mozilla Fellow) wrote a piece the other day that took my timeline by storm: The Digital Maginot Line. It's super interesting, and Renee certainly knows what she's talking about.
I won't go into the details of her piece on the warm information war we're seeing unfold every day in different ways right now. It's too well composed, and worth reading in full. But I can't resist pulling out some quotes that have been bouncing around my head since I read it; consider them teasers, and just nuggets of food for thought.
These quotes are about the mental framing of the issues at hand, and I have a hunch that this particular war is lost or won by the party that gets the framing right. So far, this framing is the best I've seen, and on a societal level (policy makers, researchers, activists, and the tech stack) better adopt this to even get ready to act; the other side in this is ahead by a mile and a half.
"regular civilian users view these [social media] platforms as ordinary extensions of physical public and social spaces – the new public square, with a bit of a pollution problem. Academic leaders and technologists wonder if faster fact checking might solve the problem, and attempt to engage in good-faith debate about whether moderation is censorship. There’s a fundamental disconnect here, driven by underestimation and misinterpretation. The combatants view this as a Hobbesian information war of all against all and a tactical arms race; the other side sees it as a peacetime civil governance problem."
and:
"ultimately the information war is about territory — just not the geographic kind. In a warm information war, the human mind is the territory. If you aren’t a combatant, you are the territory. And once a combatant wins over a sufficient number of minds, they have the power to influence culture and society, policy and politics."
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Now, some good news!
OpenDoTT (for Open Design of Trusted Things), the EU-funded PhD program around trust and technology that ThingsCon is involved in together with other orgs, is now open for applications. University of Dundee and Mozilla Foundation in the lead, some cool smaller orgs like Officine Innesto, Quicksand, STBY, University of the Arts Berlin, SimplySecure and ThingsCon are in supporting roles. One of the five PhDs will be focusing on researching the trustmark, but all of them have a lot of leeway for defining their areas. Oh, and the PhD is a paid PhD, to the tune of 40K a year. PhD applications are now open, and you'd better hurry, the decision will be made in the beginning of 2019 already: https://opendott.org/apply/
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What's next?
Onwards to New York City to see if and how we can translate the underlying principles of the trustmark apply for the smart city context. Then a brief stop at home followed by another smart city policy workshop in Oslo. Then: 😴
I wish you an excellent weekend.
Yours truly,
Peter
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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores the impact of emerging technologies — like Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research, strategy & foresight company. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that fosters the creation of a responsible Internet of Things. In 2018, Peter is a Mozilla Fellow. He tweets at @peterbihr. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.
Know someone who might enjoy this newsletter or benefit from it? A shout out to tinyletter.com/pbihr or a forward is appreciated!
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"My name is Peter, I'm a smart power plug!" Automato.farm's brought their excellent immersive VR installation to ThingsCon.
Picture at the top by Daniel Hjalmarsson (unsplash), at the bottom my own.