SIDN Fund is supporting Candle

Good news! The Dutch SIDN Fund has recently approved a funding request by Candle. With their support we will be able to continue our research into improving privacy in smart homes. It will allow us to get started with some things we wanted to spend more time on:

• - Firstly, it will allow us to explore how we can improve privacy inside the home by adding more privacy protecting features to the WebThings Gateway software that Candle is built on. This is fundamental, and while the basis of a healthy smart home should always be good communication between its residents, having the software make this easier could help mitigate some of the issues around surveillance, data ownership and identity formation.
• - We can explore how our pretty 'far out' design experiments could be remade into an actual product. What would that look like? What new choices would have to be made? In developing this design study we will be supported by Studio Sophisti, an Amsterdam based design studio with years of experience in creating "connected things", and who also care about developing more ethical technology. Product designer Jesse Howard will continue working on Candle as well.
• - Be able to support a growing community of people who are creating their own version of Candle. We are increasingly contacted by people who want to build Candle or otherwise get involved, and with this funding we will be better able to help them, as well as organise things like workshops or create videos that will help people get started.