The rise of the digital currency bitcoin, along with its supporting technology Blockchain, offers a radical new model of peer-to-peer trading, which raises questions about our existing economic models, and threatens to undermine long accepted financial power structures. The world has changed. The push economy that has long dominated the way we consume products and services has been disrupted by a new pull economy, characterised by platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, where consumers take part in providing and shaping the services provided. This has precipitated an explosion of new products and thinking around decentralised trading of goods and services. Design Informatics and Design In Action bring two sessions to Inverness on 5 Dec: 10:30-12:30 Lego BlockExchange – Interactive Workshop 12:30 Light lunch 13:30-14:30 Seminar: Designing things with Spending Power More info: Lego BlockExchange Workshop (10:30-12:30) Explore the future of value beyond money in a dynamic workshop activity, run by you! The Lego BlockExchange workshop is a toolkit is a for anyone interested in exploring this rapidly developing new territory. Block Exchange is a fast-paced workshop activity that will open minds to alternative means of value exchange. Using Lego to simulate the Blockchain, participants will experiment with different ways of trading, starting from the basic acquisition of resources, through a fluctuating market and finally exploring peer-to-peer trading of value where anything goes! The session will be delivered by Professor Chris Speed, Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, and his team. Designing things with spending power (13:30-14:30) Design Informatics Seminar by Professor Chris Speed What happens when we give physical things wallets containing digital currencies? How can this alter power relationships and shift social dynamics? Chris Speed will explore these questions by highlighting the use of smart contracts in design, from a coffee machine that lets you vote for your coffee bean and pays those who clean it, to a hairdryer that trades on the energy market to offer the best price for drying your hair. As objects are connected to the Internet, forming the ‘Internet of Things’, Chris asks what happens when technologies are given their own spending power, and what this implies for the human. About Chris Speed Chris Speed is Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh where his research focuses upon the Network Society, Interaction Design, and The Internet of Things. At present Chris is working on funded projects that include coffee cups as cryptocurrencies, internet of toilet roll holders, and an argument that chickens are actually robots. Chris co-directs the Centre for Design Informatics Research that is home to a combination of researchers working across the fields of interaction design, temporal design, anthropology, software engineering and smart contracts, as well as PhD, MA/MFA and MSc and Advanced MSc programmes. The session will take place at #hellodigital within An Lochran, 10 Inverness Campus. Accessible car parking is available to the rear of An Lòchran. Can’t make it in person? Register to watch online and you can watch live, or use the link to watch-again later. #hellodigital was launched by HIE with aim of supporting enterprises to make the most of digital opportunities in how they promote and operate their business. This event is organised and supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Government's economic and community development agency for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Find out more at www.hie.co.uk
starting on 2018-12-05 10:30:00
Address:
An Lochran , Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Inverness
United Kingdom
