On Tuesday May 30, three of our partners had the opportunity to organise a workshop to explore disruptive technologies from the local community perspective at the 11th International Conference on Communities & Technologies in Lahti, Finland.
This workshop was the occasion to explore what kind of barriers and challenges can national/international software applications, based on disruptive technologies, have when adopted by the local communities, as well as how to consider the contextual aspects to resolve issues of trust, usability, security, and privacy.
The morning started with an interesting presentation about the burden users can experience when using digital solution for public services, by Veronica Cruciani, from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy. This presentation open the discussion whether it is imperative to digitise all public services and to what extent this would affect their efficiency, both from the point of view of the administration and that of the user.
For the second part of the morning, Bertille Auvray, from Pôle TES (France) and IMPULSE WP6 leader, presented IMPULSE roadmaps that are under development in the project and open the discussion on what they should be sure to contain.
After a lunch break, the workshop continued starting with the presentation of Jiri Musto, from LUT University (Finland) and IMPULSE WP2 Leader, presented a paper about “Concerns of using AI – Roots of concerns and possible ways to address them”.
Finally, Nicholas Martin, from Fraunhofer ISI (Germany) and IMPULSE WP4 Leader, presented a paper about the “Chimera of Control – Some Critical Reflections on Self-Sovereign Identity”.
After presentations of ideas and intense discussion, the workshop ended with the traditional photo of the presenters.
Finally, the day ended with a welcome reception during a cruise on Lake Vesijärvi. It was a good opportunity not only to enjoy the view of the magnificent surroundings of Lahti, but also to forge links with the other participants and to talk about future collaborations.
A big thank you as well to Annika Wolff for the organisation and Kari Heikkinen for his participation in the workshop.