Fixing the Future: the Right to Repair and Equal-IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) products are becoming the default, with wireless connectivity and automation bundled into mundane household items, such as TVs, energy meters, toys and phones. Whilst the IoT can still be a consumer choice now, its growth means we may see it imposed upon us more in the future.

The Right to Repair and Equal-IoT project will draw together expertise in human computer interaction, design research, technology, law, ethics, and digital humanities to investigate how to build more equitable IoT devices that enable inclusive participation in the digital economy.

This is a 2 year project which is funded by the EPSRC and led by the University of Edinburgh, partnered by the University of Nottingham, Lancaster University.

External partners:

• Local community repair and maker space, The Making Rooms Blackburn,
• Consumer rights and advocacy group, Which?
• Public broadcaster and new media experience developers, BBC Research & Development
• IoT cybersecurity firm, NCC Group
• Climate futures focused artist, Rachel Jacobs/Active Ingredient,
• Social inclusion and digital skills body, the Department of Employment and Social Development in the Canadian Government.

Start Date 1/5/2022 – 30/9/2024  (EP/W024780/1)  Project blogsite

University of Nottingham Press Release

University of Edinburgh Press Release

Lancaster University Press Release

Outputs:

Castle-Green, T., & Sailaja, N. (2024). Addressing E-Waste: Repair Café Processes as Barriers to Repair of Smart Devices . Base Diseño E Innovación, 9(10), 150–161.

Exploration of User Perspectives around Software and Data-Related Challenges Associated with IoT Repair and Maintenance against Obsolescence. In Nordic Conference on Human Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2024), October 13–16, 2024, Uppsala, Sweden. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 17 pages.

Creating Sustainable Internet of Things Futures: Aligning Legal and Design Research Agendas, DIS Companion ’24, July 01–05, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3656156.3658391

UbiFix: Tackling Repairability Challenges in Smart Devices, UbiComp/ISWC 2023 Adjunct – Adjunct Proceedings of the 2023 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and the 2023 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing, pages 802-806, 8 October 2023.

User-Centred Repair: From Current Practices to Future Design, Damla, Kilic & Neelima Sailaja: Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) Volume 14718 LNCS, Pages 52 – 712024 12th International Conference on Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions, DAPI 2024, held as part of the 26th HCI International Conference, HCII 2024Washington29 June 2024through 4 July 2024: DOI10.1007/978-3-031-59988-0_4