New European project: digital platform to create social networks

La UAB participa al projecte europeu Helios

A UAB research team led by Professor Pilar Orero forms part of the European project HELIOS: A Context-aware Distributed Social Networking Framework, which aims to create an open code platform to allow citizens to create their own social media services and networks.

06/02/2019

The research team describes the concept of this project as a “Facebook without Facebook” in which individuals can acquire a high level of confidence and control over digital social network services and platforms.

The new tool, which will be developed in the next three years, aims to eliminate the need for an intermediary who controls what information is given, and when, how and with whom it is shared. “Current platforms focus on the distribution of content, not on favouring important relationships based on user control and trust between users”, explains the research team participating in the project whose members recently met in Helsinki for the official launch of the project.

Helios will create a decentralised social media platform based on the natural dynamics of human communication in three dimensions: context, space and time. Developed with Android OS, it will work as an extension of mobile devices, providing features such as a network of equals (peer-to-peer networks) and easy to use by third-party developers. The new platform will be modular, extensible and open coded, which will permit developing the software through collaborations.

Communications based on confidence

The Helios team will introduce innovative concepts into the management and creation of the social interactions they propose. These will permit:

- Offering support to the management and creation of social graphics within a context of user proximity.

- Providing information on the requirements needed for a design based on user confidence, such as a decentralisation, creation and sharing of contents.

- Guaranteeing the maximum level of privacy and meeting all ethical and legal requirements.

The concept will be validates in open and closed forums with individuals from different contexts and countries.

The participation of the UAB in the Helios project, funded by the H2020 programme, is made up of a multidisciplinary team integrated by Pilar Orero, Pau Pamplona and Estel·la Oncins, from the Department of Translation and Interpreting and East Asian Studies, and with the collaboration of Olga Soler-Vilageliu, from the Department of Basic, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

A total of 15 institutions and companies will be participating: the UAB, the Massana School of Design, ATOS, Worldline, Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) / Information Technologies Institute (ITI), Grassroots Arts and Research (GRA), Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB), Nagoon AB (NG), Swiss TXT AG (STXT), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University of Pisa (UNIPI), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Universität Passau (UP) and University of Helsinki (UH).

Més informació: Projecte Helios