Home Hub-of-all-Things (HAT) as Platform for Multi-sided Market powered by Internet-of-Things: Opportunities for New Economic & Business Model

This research project aims to exploit the data available from a new generation of sensors and devices to develop new economic models. To do this we will carry out the following:

Firstly, we will build on existing research to develop a prototype home-hub that builds upon an extended domestic router capable of capturing a diverse collection of information into the home of 5 members of the project. Existing approaches to home automating have often proffered the use of home hubs as central points of control (e.g. Intel Home or Microsoft HomeOs) within their visions of a future home. However, we believe that the home hub is much more likely to arrive in the home setting in a piecemeal fashion. Consequently, we propose to adopt an evolutionary approach, to supplement the existing technologies in the home based on existing Digital Economy research in the Homework project. To supplement this quantitative data we will use ethnographic methods including technology tours, diary studies, experience sampling as well as a range of in-situ studies structured around unpacking the everday life for each artefact in the intranet of things.

Secondly, we will combine grounded theory and econometric techniques to analyse the data and build a series of theoretical models. Such models will be a simplification of the real world, but will supply testable predictions. We will analyse this data for patterns of use, an example illustrates the point. Consider the activity 'making tea'. This consists of a number of sub-activities including; putting the tea bag into the pot, filling the kettle, boiling the kettle, pouring water onto tea, allowing the tea to steep, deciding when the tea is strong enough, pouring tea into cup, adding milk, adding sugar etc. Sensors on the tea pot, kettle, milk jug, cup etc will provide quantitative data on for example, times of use, frequency of use, timings on use, proxies for distances travelled etc. Continuing with the analogy, the qualitative ethnographic data may provide context on when tea is made, who else is present, what other activities are co-incident etc. Together we will be able to develop a functional form of the activity 'making tea'.

Thirdly, we will test the theoretical models using conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis requires the user to make choices from a series of trade-offs which in turn identifies the relative importance and sensitivities of the variables and their relationship to some monetary value (price). Returning to our previous example, this will enable us to identify which of the activities are most important to the tea-making activity to make more or less tea or different teas, operationalising the latent need for more resources. Each cluster will be operationalised into an algorithm for development into a software app.

Fourthly, the algorithms will be developed into offerings which will then be placed on the H.A.T. to 'sell back' such offerings, simulating a market system using the Dropletpay payment platform. We will use the facilities of the International Institute of Product and Service Innovation (IIPSI) within WMG, to develop a 'H.A.T.'-fest. Here, developers, investors and SMEs will create new offerings based on the commodification of the personal data set ,applying the algorithms created to embed in their offerings, thereby creating a multi-sided market for new offerings to serve the home occupant, landlord or building manager as buyers of such offerings. The structure, conduct and performance of such offerings on the market platform will be then monitored to test its sustainability.

The H.A.T. project aims to bring together industry and home owners/residents as sellers and buyers on a multi-sided market home information hub platform powered by the internet-of-things. The HAT would facilitate the purchase of new offerings to help with lived lives within the home in exchange for economic currency as well as digital personal data. This will be obtained through sensors and other digital capabilities integrated with connected things, as well as yet-to-be connected things. This approach would give an understanding of how future products and technologies should be designed to play a role in value creation, and how new offerings could serve contexts of lived lives better.
The project contributes to academic impact in building research capacity in the domain of value, economic and business models. This is achieved by providing an approach to developing contextual archetypes at the point of usage of products and services and then generating new business and economic models. This research provides an unparalleled opportunity for business, sociology and economics researchers to conduct research in a live social contextual domain that will allow better insights through mixed methods and interdisciplinary activities, providing insights into actual behaviours, which have previously eluded researchers in the business domain. Academic impact on researchers would be achieved through publications, capacity building workshops and seminars through the NEMODE initiative, and realised within 2-3 years from the start of the project.
Industrial impact is achieved through the development of new UK technology businesses by identifying new opportunities available through the HAT. By creating a multi-sided market platform for the internet-of-things to generate new economic and business models, rather than merely a technology platform, businesses are created, existing industrial offerings can be made 'smart and social' which in turn will provide market leading offerings in this space. The project will also impact on UK manufacturers in helping them lead in the digital economy, manufacturing smart and connected things for global markets, creating horizontal business and economic models that integrate connectivity, content and social lives. The industrial impact also includes the creation of new offerings in the healthcare and wellbeing domain to enhance better quality of life that includes the role of the market. This impact is achieved in the last six months of the project when the platform has been deployed into 'the wild'. However, it is expected that the sustainability and impact would continue past the project duration as industry sees the viability of the propositions.
Policy impact of this project lies in informing current policies on personal data privacy and legal issues. By creating a platform for 'digital labour', we show how markets could be created from incentivising more digital visibility in return for offerings to serve lived lives. The project also impacts on future digital economy research, informing initiatives that integrate social science and economics disciplines much closer to the challenges of Digital Economy and technology-driven research. This would be realised through workshops and briefings beginning from the second year of the project and expected to continue beyond the project lifetime.