On Wednesday, April 30th, enthusiastic visitors gathered during the fourth edition of Expeditie NEXT, the national science festival, in Roermond. The Centre for BOLD Cities was pleased to participate in this edition once again. Together with fellow researchers and staff of universities (of applied sciences) and museums from across the country, we inspired children up to twelve years old for the marvellous world of science.
Digital Data walks and 'Jouw buurt, jouw data'
Similar to the previous editions, the Centre for BOLD Cities participated with our 'digital data walks' in the game ‘Jouw buurt, jouw data’. In the game, players go on a 'virtual data walk' in a fictional town. With a combination of questions and assignments in various parts of this town, players reveal what they know about smart technologies and data collection, while other parts of the game ask participants about their opinions. In doing so, players compose a 'privacy profile', which is shown to them at the end of the game and provides them with feedback on the 'data points’ they encountered along the way.
‘I will just choose something different then, I did not want to see the Sint Pieter anyway,’ says Lars (9 years old), slightly frustrated. He was a firm protector of his data and received his results with pride: at the end of the game, Lars was a ‘frugal data sharer’ (identifies many data points, shares little personal data). All of our young participants were assigned a privacy profile. This not only demonstrated differences between children, but also amongst friends, parents and siblings. It inspired families to talk about data use, a topic that previously remained untouched. ‘Once I am outside, I will count all the cameras I see around me,’ says Sam (eleven years old) with dedication. ‘Why do we need so many to begin with?’
A year of frugal data sharers
This year, the frugal data sharers were the majority. They were followed closely by the
‘generous data sharers’. These two privacy profiles have in common that they have the ability to spot and identify data points. However, the frugal data sharers decide to share their data less often.
All participants received a sticker that corresponded with their privacy profile. This provided a clear visual of the distribution of privacy profiles during this year’s edition. Our young players continued their journey of science during Expeditie Next with new curiosity and a button saying ‘data detectives’ or ‘smart city sherlock’ (slimme stad speurneuzen).
We would like to thank Bibliotheek Roermond and Expeditie NEXT for all the support and for hosting this wonderful event day. We are looking forward to the next edition.
About Expeditie NEXT
Expeditie NEXT is one of the projects of the National Science Agenda (Nationale Wetenschaps Agenda), in which the bundling of forces of many knowledge institutions, businesses and civil society organization is stimulated. The aim of the National Science Agenda is to make science more accessible for a broader audience by organizing several activities. This was the third time that Expeditie NEXT had been organized.