XTREME Living Lab - Participatory Technology Assessment

The ULIM Living Lab team is tasked with creating a novel, context-sensitive pTA (participatory technology assessment) methodology for the XTREME project. Task 2.6 of the XTREME proposal identifies the strategy to develop and operationalise a pTA. From the beginning it was recognised that the social facing nature of mixed reality (MR) innovation and especially with the focus on art and culture, a methodology that focuses on inclusion and diversity of voices and actors is key. Hence, for XTREME a pTA is the methodology and framework of choice in responding to the complex requirements of XTREME research.

Multi-stakeholder and broader community participation will be strengthened by leveraging existing research, industry and citizen groups. The central challenge for XTREME is to identify and implement a methodology that effectively empowers contributions from multidisciplinary partners, incorporating their insights into the design, development, and creative processes underpinning XTREME research and prototyping. The importance of this is acute when considering the inherent biases embedded into technological design and development amplified by information and knowledge asymmetries that present differing worldviews regarding the benefits and risks of technological innovation and commercialisation.

A pTA strategy can play a crucial role in shaping policy design, particularly in the realm of scientific and technological advancements. Traditionally, technology assessments have served as tools for informed scientific policy consultation. By incorporating participation to the process, a broader range of voices can be included in the decision-making process, facilitating in the democratisation of the governance of the technology. To note, while pTA has demonstrated varying degrees of influence on scientific research and innovation in the past, concerns about its potential application and value persist. An identifiable concern relates to the context of participation and the risk of tokenism wherein participation becomes a formality rather than a meaningful contribution. To avoid this, it is essential for pTA organisers to address identifiable limitations and continually refine methodologies, fostering genuine engagement and social learning.

The pTA will be carried out in 5 Phases:

Phase 1: Stakeholder Mapping

The identified stakeholders can be grouped into three main groups:

Stakeholder Recruitment Mapping

Phase 2: Engagement Planning and Development

The XTREME pTA method adopts an explicitly co-produced knowledge process to foster an environment of social learning, where all participants can actively contribute, evaluate, and learn from one another. This approach is reinforced by robust feedback mechanisms and firmly grounded in the principles of deliberative democracy.

Phase 3: Implementation

Implementation will begin with a virtual workshop with the three groups to discuss the aims and objectives of the pTA. This will be followed by consultations with the three main groups to gather their feedback and concerns.

Phase 4: Evaluation

In this phase the ULIM Living Lab team will work with the expert panel to develop the final framework further by evaluating how well the feedback from the three main groups has been leveraged and assimilated. The team will develop a report containing the key concerns highlighted by the groups and present it to the Consortium for review. The partners in the Consortium will then be asked to complete a compliance report wherein they demonstrate how the concerns relevant to their aspects of the Project have been addressed.

Phase 5: Informing Broader Deliverables

The objective for the ULIM Living Lab team in this phase will be to ensure that insights from pTA feed into broader project deliverables and frameworks, particularly Tasks 5.5 and 5.7.

Integration with Trustworthy-XR Framework: Ensure that feedback and data collected through pTA are integrated into the development of the Trustworthy-XR framework, addressing stakeholder concerns about risk and usability.

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