A series of tools and experiences to support creators of new connected technology to reflect on their product’s ethical and social impacts.
We are daily exposed to news telling creepy stories about smart objects gathering people’s data, yet such an unethical practice is widely left unaddressed for the sake of technology-led economic-growth. No one yet knows how to solve the challenges of ensuring ethical data practices in the way new technologies are designed; we lack practical guidelines and assessment procedures to embed ethical, social and data protection values in the design and development of data intensive technologies and services.
The Ethical Stack is a series of tools to support creators of new connected technology to reflect on their product’s ethical and social impacts. Through the interactive, online website, we structured an experience that enables creators to confront and deal with present & future ethical challenges. We created the Ethical Stack based on our co-creation workshops with developers, designers, and leaders of connected device companies. As VIRT-EU sought to bring ethics into action, the Ethical Stack seeks to map out that action in a structured, experiential form in order to identify where the ethical challenges might be and how to handle them.
Bear & Co
Bear & Co. is a fictitious immersion into the world of being part of an IOT start-up. It is a learning and expansive experience for public audiences to engage with the challenges of making ethical decisions when working in the field of new, connected technology. We invite visitors to join the “company” and facilitate their journey through various ethical conundrums as they become part of the company. First, they must state their values - what they will bring to the company and care most about. We then test their ethical values in an interactive object, running through different scenarios and problems that are unexpected and don’t have easy answers. Finally, we debrief our visitors and invite them to peruse explanations for various ethical approaches presented as maps and diagrams, where they can interrogate their own decisions against three different philosophical viewpoints.
Credits:
Ethical Technologies was developed by CIID Research as part of the VirtEU
Awards:
Core77 Design Awards, Design for Social Impact, Notable
2020, Ethical Stack
Core77 Design Awards, Strategy & Research, Notable
2020, Ethical Stack
Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards, Honorable Mention
2020, Ethical Stack