How to create an online accommodation sharing community, of which the members trust each other, without massively exposing their private data? How could the community members identify themselves, without using social media profiles? What could be the alternatives to the generally biased reviews in building credible reputation? In this open design workshop, organized by Waag, users and experts are invited to design an alternative accommodation share platform.
Distributed, decentralized & peer-to-peer?
The informally self-employed accommodation hosts currently lack the means of establishing digital trust on their own. The same problem applies to the visitors, who are willing to rent the accommodations. Both parties easily get locked in by the platform providers, such as Airbnb, who mediate in establishing trust. To build trust, Airbnb relies on Verified ID, Detailed Profiles & Reviews Messaging. However, the approach has been criticized, due to private data exposure, social medial surveillance and not always trustworthy reviews.
Is it possible to perform a genuine accommodation share without the former platform provider? If the middle man is removed, who is the new middle men? One way could be the evolution of Bitcoin ecosystems and technologies such as the Blockchain. During the discussion, we will debate if the Blockchain can be suitable and whether the design incentives in decentralized accommodation sharing platforms can achieve similar adjustment that Bitcoin did with digital currencies.
During the workshop we will play with the representation of digital identity, credible reputation in UX to create experiences that would be easy to understand and feel natural to the end users. The workshop involves paper prototyping of an accommodation share interface.
Programme
- Welcome and introduction. By Marleen Stikker, president and co-founder of Waag.
- Designing to facilitate a genuine accommodation sharing. The impact of trust. Brief introduction to the Master’s thesis by Indre Leonaviciute, Human centered multimedia student from University of Amsterdam.
- Trust is the new currency: Identity, reputation and exchange on the blockchain by Richard Kohl, board member of Stichting Bitcoin Nederland and founder of its most visible project, BitcoinWednesday, The Netherlands' longest-running monthly conference on the digital currency revolution.
- Little old ladies and football fans: Reputation management and the sharing economy by Dave Pearce, one of the founders of the Nxt Foundation, an advanced blockchain platform which builds on and improves the basic functionality of pioneering cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
- Q&A, discussion.
- Workshop. Let’s design Airbnb alternative! Paper prototyping of accommodation sharing application based on genuine, secure and peer-to-peer sharing.
- Wrap up.
