P-PITEE virtual walkshop for IoT and cyber security experts

Participatory Policies for IoT (at the Edge) Ethics (P-PITEE) virtual walkshop, Friday 1^st October 11.00am – 12.30pm (online)

 We would like to invite participants who are interested in Cybersecurity to an online workshop that will explore how IoT and Edge Computing are being used in public places and the implications this has on developing policies for their design and deployment at the local level.

P-PITEE uses design methods to develop new policies for transparent and ethical deployment of secure Internet of Things sensors in public spaces. Using our Field Guide to IoT in the City we will explore and interact with a range of speculative and real IoT and Edge computing deployments using the Gather Town platform. The aim of the workshop is to gather understandings of how experts perceive IoT and Edge deployments in public spaces, which will help to inform the policy we are developing with the district council.

Project background: Local governments need to account for practical, technical and ethical considerations when using IoT sensors in public spaces and when managing proposals for installation and use by others. By partnering with a local council, this project will allow development of policy and guidance tools relating to the use of secure IoT sensors in public spaces. This will cover collection, use and sharing of data, considerations of data transfer vs edge processing, cybersecurity questions relating to data storage and sharing, and how all these concerns can impact on privacy.

The project explores using participatory methods to engage with a variety of stakeholders including local SMEs, residents, and community groups. The project will develop a new, robust policy for ethical use of IoT data in Lancaster, research publications on interdisciplinary topics including design for technology policy and the ethical management and cybersecurity implications of public space IoT and associated data, and a fully implemented IoT Transparency Guidelines tool which can be used by organisations who are considering IoT deployments and wish to consider the transparency aspects and ethical data use.

Walkshop: The walkshop will take 90 minutes and prior to the event we will send you a copy of the Field Guide through the post to use during the event. We will also email you the ethical participation and consent forms prior to the workshop. You do not need any specialist software to take part, we will provide the link for Gather Town and instructions when you sign up. Places are limited to 30 and booking will be via Eventbrite, via this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-iot-city-walk-tickets-170273684173

For further information please contact: Louise Mullagh, Senior Research Associate (Beyond Imagination Project and P-PITEE) l.mullagh@lancaster.ac.uk