The strategy of the European Trust aWare Project
With the continuous appearance of new IT threats, pilot studies are particularly efficient to experiment strategies on a small scale with control groups and then extending them to larger audiences.
The definition of a pilot study refers to “small-scale testing of methods and procedures used on larger scales” to evaluate the feasibility of an approach, research tool, or specific study.
“The advantage of conducting this type of experiments,” explains Anaïs Fernández from E-Seniors, “is that it allows us to understand where research projects might fail if the methods or procedures are inadequate or too complicated, and then modify them. Another fundamental point is that pilot studies can be conducted and analysed with both quantitative and qualitative methods.
The partners of Project Trust aWare have developed a solution that guarantees privacy and security of users while they use digital devices on-line. Our technical partner Trilateral has developed the Trust aWare Dashboard, a “platform that provides a series of innovative and integrated tools and services co-created by citizens and stakeholders specialized in privacy and security, to identify, evaluate, analyse, prevent, and mitigate the impact of various threats related to privacy and security associated with the digital activities of users.”
In the article published on the official blog of Project Trust aWare, Anaïs Fernández also describes the three-part methodology used to test the dashboard during the pilot sessions: preparation, execution and validation. Four countries are involved: Spain, Italy, Romania, and France.
In Italy, the pilot study is coordinated by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, which experiments dashboard solutions with elders and students involved in educational session on privacy and cookie policies. “The participants are motivated to contribute and have provided precious feedback, understanding the importance of participating in the process of co-creation driven by Trust aWare,” explains Anaïs Fernández. The pilot studies, which will continue until March, are useful to obtain information on accessibility and show the progress and improvements necessary for the development of the dashboard.
Here are some photos from the educational session, organised in synergy with Project Smart & Heart Rome, at the Rome Liceo Edoardo Amaldi . In the intergenerational classroom: Coach Susanna Bulgheroni, students, and over-65s from the Corcolle Elderly Centre (Municipio VI).
