Networked agency
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Electronics and Computer Science
Abstract
The World Wide Web Foundation works to establish the open Web as a basic right and a public good. It envisages a future in which the Web empowers everyone, everywhere, to take part in building a fairer world.
Agency and a distributed network topology are interdependent, and both are critical to sustainability - the health and resilience of living systems including our planet, our societies, and our organisations. The Web both enables and requires individual and collective agency, and yet agency remains frustrated.
My research will explore the question: How might personal and collective agency be enhanced and encouraged?
The research will identify frustrating and enabling factors, and the scope to attenuate the former and develop the latter. Factors will include aspects of privacy, centralisation, openness, and accessibility.
I intend to develop a normative architecture, identifying critical parameters and respective dependencies for individual and collective agency. This may be used to qualify the suitability of existing and proposed architectures, and may indeed inform future proposals.
Agency and a distributed network topology are interdependent, and both are critical to sustainability - the health and resilience of living systems including our planet, our societies, and our organisations. The Web both enables and requires individual and collective agency, and yet agency remains frustrated.
My research will explore the question: How might personal and collective agency be enhanced and encouraged?
The research will identify frustrating and enabling factors, and the scope to attenuate the former and develop the latter. Factors will include aspects of privacy, centralisation, openness, and accessibility.
I intend to develop a normative architecture, identifying critical parameters and respective dependencies for individual and collective agency. This may be used to qualify the suitability of existing and proposed architectures, and may indeed inform future proposals.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EP/N509747/1 | 01/10/2016 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 1659194 | Studentship | EP/N509747/1 | 01/10/2015 | 15/12/2019 | Philip Sheldrake |
| Description | My research has contributed to the founding of the Digital Life Collective, an international co-operative dedicated to nurturing trustworthy technologies. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Societal |