Trustmark Progress Log for April 2018

What has been happening with the ThingsCon trustmark project? We are committed to developing this and learning out in the open. Learn more about this project on the ThingsCon IoT Trustmark page. You can read all other trustmark updates on the ThingsCon blog or over on the ThingsCon channel on Medium. This research is conducted as part of my Mozilla Fellowship.

Media

• The trustmark project was featured in the Wall Street Journal’s Cybersecurity newsletter (alas, paywalled) with an extensive interview.
• Our 2017 trustmark research report got a shout out in Mozilla’s Internet Health Report.
• In Offscreen Mag (issue 19) I contributed a piece on creating IoT products more responsibly, and the relevance of a trustmark for IoT to communicate which products are created that way.

Progress & activities

• Started work on the visual identity of the trustmark with Pete Thomas of University of Dundee & Tom Pigeon fame.
• Started looking into legal requirements and options to make the trustmark pledge binding.
• Lots of conversations with allied orgs to explore opportunities to collaborate and to align efforts where possible.
• Been refining the trustmark dimensions, especially the wording to convey more concisely what each dimension means. A rare moment of excellent feedback from Twitter, no less! The one worth pointing out is that the category formerly known as sustainability (cfkas) is likely to be labeled stability. This conveys the intersection of reliability and longevity and resilience better.
• Updating the trustmark presentation (I’ll publish the updated version very soon) and first presented it at an internal Mozilla meeting.
• Arranging the first round of feedback workshops to gather feedback on the trustmark, the first one at Antwerp.

Upcoming events/appearances

• Feedback gathering workshop, May 8th in Antwerp, before the ThingsCon Salon. (Details TBD.) Ping me if you happen to be in town.
• Trying to see if we can host something in NYC in June as I’ll be passing through. Unclear as of yet!

Next steps

• Find a snappy name for the trustmark project
• Refine the partnership & participation pathways
• Work out the questionnaire/checklist for evaluating each trustmark dimension