BBC R&D
As part of Digital Technology module in Hyper Island UK, we received a brief from BBC R&D to explore ways of using BBC Box as part of the tool to keep your online data safe.
Through the research, the team uncovered that most of them were either lacking awareness or they only have little awareness about the use of their data and they were concerned about their privacy, but couldn’t find better ways to protect themselves. There were some people were aware and knew how to protect themselves, but they had worked in tech all their lives.
The solution is a project called ‘Origin - Back to the Roots to get Ahead’.
Origin is a long-term (5+ year) project and could be a software that lives on the BBC box; its main purpose is to increase the user's control of their digital presence. In order to achieve this the user must be transitioned from a centralised web to a decentralised web, which can be done by considering three components: awareness, data sovereignty and the development of new opportunities on the decentralised web.
Origin would live on the BBC box and raise awareness by showing an interactive documentary that gives the user an individual report on their digital presence. Data sovereignty is created by downloading the data into the box. However, due to the way the current centralised web is built, true data sovereignty remains elusive. Within the centralised web, users cannot modify their digital presence effectively. By transitioning
the user to the decentralised web, it will become easier for the user to modify their presence.
These new decentralised platforms can be seen as front-ends that adhere to backend of the BBC Box.
