digital age evidence and the living lab: keynote for sicsa madness
TRANSCRIPT
Digital Age Evidence and the Living Lab James Stewart
Science Technology and Innova<on Studies University of Edinburgh
[email protected] @jamesks
EVIDENCE
Common forms of evidence
• Polls • RCTs • Official sta<s<cs • User research • Administra<ve data • Prospec<ve studies • Detailed case study • Computer model
• Compe<tor informa<on • Expert knowledge • Sales figures • Military Intelligence • Technical tests • Guilty face and s<cky fingers
• Blush
OED Defini<on
1. The available body of facts or informa<on indica<ng whether a belief or proposi<on is true or valid. 2. Informa<on drawn from personal tes<mony, a document, or a material object, used to establish facts in a legal inves<ga<on or admissible as tes<mony in a law court.
Examples of evidence • An object • A statement • An observa<on • First hand accounts –text, video, recording
• Stories and Narra<ves • Quan<ta<ve data • Comparison • Accepted knowledge • Logical argument
• Analogies • Theory-‐backed proof • A model • Money • Visualisa<on • Interac<ve simula<on or model
• Indicators of something in the world
Evidence
• Resource for decision making – In law, everyday life, design, business, policy • Punctual use • Con<nual use
• To reduce uncertainty, • To shape opinion • Legi7mise a decision, or lack of decision • Handle contested issues
A social process and prac<ce
Legi<mate evidence • Experts and exper<se • Method • Tradi<on • Scien<sts, business people, poli<cians, policy makers, mangers, individuals
• (Sociology of Science Knowledge)
Evidence is provided at the right 7me and in the right place and in a form that can be used by those making decisions, with
legima7ng support
Norma<ve, empiricist approach
• It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence
• W. K. Clifford (1879)
Evidence-‐based • Natural Philosophy=Science
• Policy • Management • Personal decision making
• Medicine • etc
Make Evident
Obvious Incontestable
How to make something evident • Visualisa<on – Comparison, Trend,
• Narra<ve – Chain of hypotheses
• Emo<ve – Witness, visualisa<on
• Theory – Scien<fically proven hypotheses
• Sta<s<cal tests
• Experts and other respected agents make evidence legi<mate e.g. Scien<st, Accountant, BBC, Government Minister
Failures of evidence processes
• Costs – evidence is expensive • Exper<se scarce • Legi<mising agents and processes can fail or lose power • Misuse – evidence is used without cri<cal examina<on
Evidence in the Digital Age
• New Visualisa<ons (interac<ve, scalable etc) • Data collec<on at scale • ‘Big Data’ methods • Easily accessed administra<ve data • Open Data • System logs • Computa<onal models • Distributed collec<on and analysis (crowd)
Digital ‘crowd’ methods • Crowdsourced labour
– Tools for distributed analysis of data as part of human compu<ng service
– Data collec<on – Reliability, mo<va<on, engagement
• Cloud exper<se – Access to a global pool or market of exper<se
• Ci<zen Science – Data collec<on, – Analysis e.g. classifica<on – Visualiza<on and contextualisa<on
‘Ci<zen’ ini<ated and governed evidence crea<on
Tools and approaches to enable people to collect data, classify and test the data, and ‘make evident’ in the right form and at the
right <me and place, with sufficient legi<macy to influence decision-‐making
processes.
Why? • Ocen there is no or very poort exis<ng evidence on a topic– due to cost, lack of interest
• Lack of trust in exis<ng evidence – failure of exisi<ng legi<misa<on processes
• Evidence crea<on is also an engagement process – of gedng people interested in a topic
• It is hard to bring legi<mate evidence of the right form to the right place at the right <me (hence lawyers, scien<sts, lobbyists etc).
THE LIVING LAB
What is a Lab A Place to:
Observe Test
Conduct Experiments – controlled comparisons, within or against Theory or Laws
Experiment -‐ trying out new things
Looking for Truth Crea<ng and tes<ng novelty
Produce Evidence and legi<mising tools
The Lab
Lab -‐ an infrastructure for reuse:
Cupboard full of equipment, lab technicians, reputa<on, funding etc
From Lab to Living Lab Lab – highly controlled – but ‘unreal’ ‘HCI living room’ –pseudo-‐real life Web experiments – in use, naturalis<c, but limited to the web. Lived and Living • Allows par<cipants to through appropria<on process of novel ideas
and prac<ces, as people live in ‘real’ circumstances. • ‘In the wild’
– Digital city experiments – e.g. giving everyone a PC and classes, see what happens
– Par<cipa<ve design prac<ces
• More generally a living, working place for Genera<ng, Tes<ng and Evalua<ng interven<ons
The Living Lab
A city-‐scale lab infrastructure for tes<ng and innova<on
ICTs for evidence produc7on,
not as interven7ons • Open to different actors • Provides Legi<macy • Offers Technical, methodological, legal and policy support
Edinburgh Living Lab
Stair Treads
The Edinburgh LL team
• James Stewart, Social and Poli<cal Studies • Ewan Klein, School of Informa<cs, UoE • Arno Verhoeven, School of Design, UoE – Chris Speed, Social Informa<cs
Edinburgh University Crowdsourcing and Ci<zen Science Network
Many others…..
Edinburgh Living Lab Aims • Develop new means of crea7ng evidence • Open to different stakeholders • Design, development and tes<ng of interven<ons • Engaging stakeholders, ac<vists, ci<zens and students
Who • Council and University • Neighbourhood partnerships • Third sector • Students – learning by developing, developing with data,
crea<on of evidence with impact.
Pilot: AcCve Travel in Inverleith
Example: Air Quality
• Liile understood, contested, poor data. • Liile poli<cal will • City data collec<on to check regulatory compliance, failure triggering ac<on.
• Contested : Policy a poli<cal balancing act. • Ci<zen engagement with Data and Pollu<on models – Prof Steve Yearley
Air Inverleith
Implemen<ng and legi<mising Ci<zen-‐sourced air quality
Traffic movement – cycle movement
Evidence to increase cycling – Surveys – Point counters – No actual journey data
Require a diversity of evidence and novel ideas to s<mulate policy ac<on, raise public and business awareness. Data collec<on becomes awareness raising issue. But needs robustness Break down received wisdom.
Paths by Beta
Brains on Bikes
hip://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Opportuni<es for the Living Lab
• Improve poor evidence currently available • Ci<zen science approach – data collec<on and produc<on of evidence increases awareness in community and decision makers
• Counter-‐evidence • Low cost of widespread data collec<on, and of analysis
Challenges
• Low par<cipa<on • ‘weak’ method v. exis<ng evidence • Problem of Legi<misa<on of evidence • Costs of city scale Lab • Risk of Capture by stakeholders
Engagement • How to get people to take part? – Ac<vists – Organisa<ons with resources – Organisa<ons with power – Ci<zens
• Expecta<on that something will be done! • Ease of par<cipa<on • Engagement mechanisms – from Peer-‐to-‐peer, games, mass media,
• etc
Tools and Methods for the Living Lab • Quality Data Collec<on • Context and Method • Visualisa<on • Analysis
• Mo<va<on/Engagement • Legi<macy • Right place and right <me
• Scale • Re-‐use • Sustainability
• Your ideas, input? • Please join us.
• [email protected] • hip://www.edinburghlivinglab.org • hip://www.iss<.ed.ac.uk • hip://www.s<s.ed.ac.uk