Engaging citizens in the smart city
project through DIY networking
Panayotis Antoniadis, Ileana Apostol, Katalin Hausel
2nd International Conference on Internet Science
Brussels, May 27th 2015
Smart cities
Engaged citizens
Do-It-Yourself Networking
firechat
Thinking outside the Internet
http://www.jrbaldwin.com/tidepoolswifi/
Why?
DIY networking has special characteristics
- De facto physical proximity
- Ownership and control
- Inclusive access and tangibility
- Options for anonymity and privacy
The Internet is a dangerous place ...
… but also very attractive
Photo: bekathwia@flickr
DIY networking for location-based collective awareness
Zurich, November 2014
Without location disclosure to third parties
Zurich, November 2014
Customized according to the context
Photo: Tridib Banerjee
Affirming difference
Protecting and encouraging freedom of expression
Express yourself
Lisbon, June 2013
Facilitating contact
… while preserving privacy and lowering commitment
Bonus reason 1: resilience
Photo: Iwan Baan
Bonus reason 2: small data
Internet science without the Internet
- network evolution
- self-organization
- privacy
- behaviour
- and more …
Antoniadis & Apostol. (forthcoming). Collective awareness as a public good: bottom-up
experimentation with the NetHood toolkit, First Monday, special issue on Internet Science
But ...
“The only common interest I have with my neighbor is that
we both like my wife”
... and more challenges
- Usability issues
- Failures and abuse
- Competition with the Internet
- Political and social issues
- High complexity!
The details matter …
http://nethood.org
Software
DIY networking
Input
Output
Symbolic elements
Which is an appropriate boundary object?
Computer
science
Electrical
engineering
Networking
Human-Computer
Interaction
Social
sciences
Economics
Urban
planning
Sociology
Ethnography
Boundary object?
Technology
Artifacts
Concepts
Locations
Industry
ICT
Urban design
Smart cities
Practitioners
Activists
Hackers
Artists
Civil society
Dagstuhl seminar on
“DIY networking: an interdisciplinary approach”
http://www.dagstuhl.de/14042/
Boundary object: DIY networking
Computer
science
Social
sciences
Electrical
engineering
Networking
DIY networking
Urban
planning
Sociology
P2P systems
Ethnography
Human-Computer
Interaction
Activists
Industry
Occupy.here
PARC
http://www.dagstuhl.de/14042
RedHood WiFi
First interdisciplinary workshop on DIY networking
→ next year will take place at NordiCHI 2016
Qaul.net
Hybrid
letterbox
obsy
liberouter
http://diynetworking.net
Boundary object: Policy
Boundary object: Framing
Offline networks discussion at Transmediale festival, Berlin, January 31 st 2015
“Like the first days of the Internet but at the city scale”
Your Offline Network
Logo?
A DIY networking toolkit?
Service level software
Bottom-up
real-life
experimentation
Forums, questionnaires, apps
Input/Output
Audio, projections, analogue
Context-specific
guidelines and
customization
Physical interventions
Street furniture, artifacts
Networking
Hardware, scripts
Data
analysis
Inspiration example: the yellow chair
Photo: Anab Jain
http://superflux.in/work/yellowchair-stories
Eleni Dimopoulou, Evangelia Kokolaki, Antoine Loriette, Anja
Mück, Vasilis Niaros, Michael Smyth, Andreas Unteidig
3rd EINS summer school: From smart cities to engaged citizens
http://internet-science.eu/summer-school-2014
Inspiration example: the stupid forum
By Miltos Manetas
http://stupidforum.com
Unmonastery workshop, Transmediale Festival, Berlin February 2014
https://github.com/nethood/toolkit
Unmonastery workshop, Transmediale Festival, Berlin February 2014
The hybrid letterbox
By the Design Research Lab, Berlin University of the Arts
http://www.design-research-lab.org/?projects=hybrid-letter-box
Community Now?
By the Design Research Lab, Berlin University of the Arts
Interdisciplinarity (is about compromises)
●
efficiency vs. sustainability
●
modelling vs. context-specificity
●
solutionism vs. ambiguity
http://poachedmag.com/
http://www.futuristspeaker.com/
Lessons learned so far
- Balanced groups and respect
- Low expectations
- Boundary objects
- Fun and the joy of diversity
A growing network ...
The DIY networking roundtable
Theory
Place making
The stranger
Field
research
Speculative
design
Roundtable 14h00-17h00
DIY networking as a mediator for interactions between strangers
1) Context matters
Space diagnosis, participant
Observations, place making
(urban planning)
2) People matter
The role of the stranger/catalyst
(artistic urban interventions)
Katalin Hausel
MA in Philosophy,
MA in History,
MFA in Visual Art
William H. Whyte 1980: Social Life of small urban spaces
http://www.pps.org/reference/grplacefeat/
Kevin Lynch 1960: Taxonomy of Images
●
landmarks, nodes, edges, paths, districts
Roundtable 14h00-17h00
DIY networking as a mediator for interactions between strangers
1) Context matters
Space diagnosis, participant
Observations, place making
(urban planning)
2) People matter
The role of the stranger/catalyst
(artistic urban interventions)
Field research
Identify target locations and expected interactions
Roundtable 14h00-17h00
DIY networking as a mediator for interactions between strangers
1) Context matters
Space diagnosis, participant
Observations, place making
(urban planning)
2) People matter
The role of the stranger/catalyst
(artistic urban interventions)
Field research
Identify target locations and expected interactions
(Speculative) hybrid design and future scenarios
See you at the DIY networking roundtable!
Theory
Field
research
Speculative
design