Pervasive adaptation: knowledge commons and design contractualism

The convergence of pervasive computing, adaptive systems and big data is creating new range of technological opportunities: new interfaces, new affordances, new signals. It is also creating a new range of social perils, especially those related to privacy and civil liberties, the (so-called) sharing economy, and the commodification of social concepts. In this talk, we discuss a technological readiness and risk assessment inspired by a comparative evaluation against Ira Levin?s dystopian novel “This Perfect Day”, and propose to re-think models of security, privacy, and usability. We also discuss engineering self-organisation in the context of knowledge commons and design contractualism, to ensure that data generators are also the primary beneficiaries.