OpenDoTT (Open Design of Trusted Things) was "a PhD programme to explore how to build a more open, secure, and trustworthy Internet of Things". I have moved in 2019 to Dundee to work at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and relocated later to Berlin to work at the Mozilla Foundation. The academic side of the project has migrated from the University of Dundee to Northumbria University in June 2020.
The title of my thesis is Generous cities – weaving commons-oriented systems for the reuse of excess materials in urban contexts.
I am gradually moving relevant documentation to a public wiki. I maintain a list of links with the tag opendott in my infinite bookmark collection.
I have used this blog to document what I read, learnt and discovered as I went deeper into my research. Earlier outputs can be seen in this set of concept ideas(2020) and this repository with second year deliverables (2021).
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 813508.
Posted on 3rd Jun 2021
Some weeks ago I had the opportunity to present my PhD research for the first time in Portuguese. I was invited by André Lemos, coordinator of Lab404 at the Federal University of Bahia, to one of their online meetings: "Encontros do Lab404 debate sobre práticas sociais de reuso de matéria nos pr...
Posted on 27th May 2021
As OpenDoTT moves steadily towards the end of its second year, I feel my research changing into a different mode. Whilst in the first phase I have decided on a particular topic and explored ways to approach it, I am currently expanding my activities in two directions: prototyping with open hardw...
Posted on 27th Apr 2021
Smart cities, superficially understood as "using information technologies to make urban management more informed, efficient and easy", are a trend already being implemented in many parts of the world. Trying to persuade municipalities to use more IT is not something I feel my research would contribu...
Posted on 4th Mar 2021
Repair tech at MozFest In one week I will conduct the first public activity of my research project in 2021. It will be an open discussion during the Mozilla Festival, called "Universal Registry of Things - promoting the reuse of materials and objects in smart cities". This year the Festival will...
Posted on 17th Feb 2021
Public Abundance is the Secret to the Green New Deal The same principle need not be limited to food. “Repair cafés” could be places to meet and relax in every neighbourhood, and where you can also learn how to fix appliances and gadgets, mend clothes, or maintain bicycles. Community tool librari...
Posted on 16th Feb 2021
Soon after we moved to Berlin last September I had the chance to host a workshop called "Hacking waste management for the smart city" (originally "Reusing things in the smart city", but apparently that title did not attract many participants) at the Data Cities Conference organized by Disruption N...
Posted on 11th Feb 2021
This is a slightly edited version of an email I sent some weeks ago to my supervisors (all four of them) and project management. Update: the plans below may be outdated. Please refer to documentation in this GitHub repository. 1 In February, we're having the IoT tech training with Officine...
Posted on 10th Feb 2021
I start typing these words as the sunlight reaches my window for the first time since I arrived back in Berlin, six days ago. I am isolating with my children at our place until the coming weekend, when our mandatory quarantine will be over. If you are reading this so far in the future that our curre...
Posted on 26th Nov 2020
! 0.2. This is a snapshot of the working version of a text I wrote for the OpenDoTT blog, as part of our training on Internet Health and Open Leadership. It feeds from and interacts with other materials kept in this repository. After an unusual summer (wasn't it?), my second year at the O...
Posted on 9th Oct 2020
! This post is oudated. Its contents have been moved to my research wiki. In the Repair Journey, I have asked a group of participants to choose an object they would like to repair or repurpose, and spend some weeks keeping a diary of how the repair (or attempt to repair) went. Design of ...
Posted on 9th Oct 2020
! This post is outdated. Its contents have been moved to my research wiki. See also Repair Journey, my research study exploring individual/citizen perceptions, behaviour and decision-making around the reuse of things. An Ecosystem Mapping of reuse and repair. Concept Ideas based on b...
Posted on 9th Oct 2020
! This post is outdated. Updated contents have been moved to my research wiki. For the Ecosystem Mapping, I have interviewed people who are related (either professionally or informally) with repair and reuse. The main idea was to understand how the value of discarded materials can be assessed...
Posted on 9th Sep 2020
! This post will be updated every time my research questions have changed. Current version: January 2021, following my successful Annual Progression review. Research Question 1 (RQ1): What prevents more widespread reuse of discarded materials in contemporary cities? To address RQ1, I will inv...
Posted on 21st Aug 2020
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this year's edition of Fixfest UK, originally planned to take place in Glasgow, moved to a series of online meetings. I had the chance to present my research and some of the things I am planning to do in next phases of the project. Now, this move to a strictly onlin...
Posted on 13th Aug 2020
At the current stage - August 2020 - of the OpenDoTT project, I am working on design concepts that respond to data collected in this first year of work. The data comes from two design research studies; my explorations towards literature review; and reflection upon projects I have been involved w...
Posted on 17th Jul 2020
Head In recent weeks I've been skimming through interview transcripts and my (copious) notes. It's a tiresome but rewarding phase of research. Things are starting to make sense, even if I feel it still is over my current grasp. As I work through, though, I find different forms of useful informatio...
Posted on 30th Jun 2020
OpenDoTT Waste Avoidance in Smart Cities I am Felipe Schmidt Fonseca, a researcher at Northumbria University. At the time of publishing this page (August 2020), I'm working on design concepts that respond to insights on data collected during my first year of research in the OpenDoTT pr...
Posted on 3rd Jun 2020
Sketching... The common sense associates recycling with sustainability, leading citizens to think that ideally, all the materials disposed of in a city should undertake that path. Evidence indicates, however, a different reality. There are solid arguments proposing that recycling is not the most...
Posted on 29th May 2020
One of these days I went out for groceries and decided to turn my way back home into the allowed outdoor exercise hour. I was on the free bike and took a longer path back. Right before crossing the Riverside Drive to get to the bike path by the Tay, I saw a dancing unicorn. A plush one, I mean...
Posted on 11th May 2020
As part of the Repair Journey research study, I decided to apply to myself what I am asking participants to do. So upon asking them to keep a repair diary for what was originally meant to be two weeks, I started a diary myself. Two weeks into it, it feels the duration is somewhat arbitrary. Amid a...