EPSRC Network Project
\nEPSRC Reference: EP\/L012626\/1<\/a><\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
The Digital Economy Theme has therefore initiated a \u00a35M programme of research in ‘Digital Personhood’ comprising five research projects led by eminent academics from a wide variety of disciplines. The initial remit covers: <\/p>\n
a)\tOvercoming barriers to the expression of digital identity.<\/p>\n
b)\tCurating personal, digital narratives and memories. <\/p>\n
c)\tPhysical proxies of digital self: connecting the digital and physical world.<\/p>\n
d)\tMultiple, digital projections and online identities. <\/p>\n
e)\tUnderstanding how citizens could be empowered by utilizing the value of their digital self.<\/p>\n
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. hese 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. <\/p>\n
Started: 31 December 2013<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | Ends: 31 December 2017<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n | Value (\u00a3): \t156k<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nDigital Personhood: Charting the digital lifespan<\/strong><\/h1>\n\nEPSRC Reference: EP\/L00383X\/1<\/a><\/p>\n We have yet to experience a complete lifespan in the Digital Age, from conception to death in old age. Those who have grown up interacting with digital technology from a very early age are still young, whilst older technology adopters have identities that pre-date the Digital Age, populated with paper trails of memories. Many citizens have only a limited awareness of the permanency and consequence of posting in public and extended social circles. Digital posts from student or teenage years reflecting opinions or behaviour that seemed socially appropriate at that time may not reflect well in future professional life. Digitally mediated interactions produced in life may develop an undesirable perspective if they linger after physical death. The lifelong digital trails generated through our digitally mediated interactions, including online, echo our ‘offline’ lives, but unlike a physical life, the Digital Lifespan can persist indefinitely, and the rich personal context it provides can be harnessed in ways an individual might not expect or desire.<\/p>\n In this EPSRC-funded research, we will produce unique insights into the digital lifespan of UK citizens both now and in a future where our young Digital Natives approach adulthood, become parents, retire, and pass away. To help generate<\/p>\n these insights, we will first chart the unmapped territory of the “Digital Lifespan” as it is now in the UK, exploring the ways in which virtual and physical aspects of our lives converge, diverge and clash. This chart will be grounded in a series of in-depth studies with UK citizens at four transition points in their lives: approaching adulthood, becoming parents, retiring, and bereavement.<\/p>\n The chart that we create will guide us as we look into a future where citizens increasingly live out their lives through digitally mediated interactions. We will explore the implications of this future with individuals, policymakers, legislators and industry representatives. The knowledge and insight developed into issues surrounding ownership and management of citizens’ Digital Lifespans will be used to raise digital literacy. New technologies will be designed and developed, bringing personal digital content together in one place to create a far richer picture than that afforded by currently available tools. Our new technologies will automatically draw out the personal context of such content, making inferential links and distilling the impressions that citizens present of themselves through digital media. These distilled impressions will be reflected back to individuals, raising digital literacy by promoting awareness of how individuals’ digital identities are (or will in future be) represented online over their entire lifespan. Further these novel technologies will equip citizens with ways to manage the impression that they give.<\/p>\n Beyond individual citizens, our work will inform educators, policymakers and legislators providing a deeper understanding of what it means to live as a UK citizen in a Digital Age. <\/p>\n
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