Digital Personhood Network

In January 2013 the Government Office for Science published the results of a year-long Foresight study on Future Identities. It was led by Sir John Beddington, the Government Chief Scientific Advisor. One of its main conclusions was that people's identities are likely to be significantly affected by technology over the next 10 years due to the emergence hyper-connectivity (afforded by smart phones and similar devices), the spread of social media and the increase in online personal information. People now have multiple overlapping and not necessarily consistent identities and they often express their identities through membership of social and professional groups, often not being aware of conditions of use, or ownership, or that some organisations may use information intended for social use for vetting purposes.

What is clear is that digital identity and digital personhood are playing increasingly important roles in our lives and that we are not fully aware of the implications of their potential use, creation, ownership, exploitation or control.

The Digital Economy Theme has therefore initiated a £5M programme of research in 'Digital Personhood' comprising five research projects led by eminent academics from a wide variety of disciplines. The initial remit covers:

a) Overcoming barriers to the expression of digital identity.
b) Curating personal, digital narratives and memories.
c) Physical proxies of digital self: connecting the digital and physical world.
d) Multiple, digital projections and online identities.
e) Understanding how citizens could be empowered by utilizing the value of their digital self.

The Digital Personhood Network will facilitate collaboration across all of these and other relevant research projects in order that can they maximise their collective impact. A series of open meetings will be held that will include other relevant stakeholders and will allow projects to share and benefit from each other's results, expertise and contacts. These meetings will also allow the participants to develop a common view or 'map' of this emerging research area and its associated societal challenges. This 'map' will help aid public understanding of the different aspects, contexts and issues concerning Digital Personhood. It will allow the results from the projects to be quickly located via the Network's website and applications which will be similarly structured. Finally we expect that it will inform and structure discussion of the issues and area at government and funding council level.

The network will increase and generate impact by:

1. Providing an agreed structuring (taxonomy) of the Digital Personhood that will enable this research field to present a unified, well-organised body of activity which is aligned with key societal challenges.

2. Informing and facilitating development of RCUK strategy, by reporting via the DE PAB and the ICT SAT (both of which Chantler is a member), and by ensuring a fit of the Network's taxonomy with that of the DE.

3. Inviting targeted members of relevant strategic advisory committees (including ICT SAT, DE PAB, ESRC's Research Committee, EPSRC SAN and Foresight groups) to provide presentations to, and collaborate with, network members (e.g. Dr Paul Nightingale on policy issues and Prof Brian Collins on BIS).

4. Collaborating closely with Prof. Chris Hankin, chair of the Foresight Expert Panel on Identity, to help continue the BIS Foresight activity and engage its stakeholders. (Chris Hankin is keen to use the Network together with the results of the "Who do you think you are?" sandpit projects to maintain the visibility and impact of this area, and to continue collaboration with stakeholders in the security sector).

5. Actively seeking to advertise and obtain coverage of project results in both the electronic and traditional media (e.g. BBC Click, Guardian Technology, BBC Today programme, together with a wide range of electronic magazines and influential blogs) (e.g. BBC Click, Guardian Technology, BBC Today programme).

6. Providing rapid an intuitive access to Digital Personhood results, projects and challenges.

7. Sharing best practice across projects and facilitating impact generation (in a similar but much more extended manner to that used in the DE All Hands 2011 Impact Workshop organised by Chantler and Dr Chris Speed).

8. Actively engaging financial and business communities and their stakeholders via the £1.5M Network+ in New Economic Models (of which Chantler is a CI). This is creating a rapidly expanding network of practitioners and academics. Professor Roger Maull (PI) has exceptional contacts with a wide variety of Corporates e.g. CTOs of Aviva and other financial institutions. Roger is keen for NEMODE to be able to exploit the Digital Personhood work especially in the area of commodification and digital rights of personal data.