Digital Trust for Places and Routines

Introduction

Digital technology is everywhere, even if we can’t always see it. To help people understand smart technology better, a trial is being run in Sydney Olympic Park. It will test the international Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) communication standards.

This experiment is the first time DTPR is being used in the Southern Hemisphere. DTPR is part of the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Connected World Global Action Plan and is stewarded by the group called Helpful Places.

This trial received the 2024 IoT Award for Trusted IoT Service.

Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) – Smart Places
Digital technology is all around us, but often invisible. To help people engage with new smart technologies in Sydney Olympic Park, a trial of the Digital Trust for...
Digital technology is all around us, but often invisible. To help people engage with new smart technologies in Sydney Olympic Park, a trial of the Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) communication standard is underway.
DTPR includes a visual system of signs and icons posted around technologies in public spaces, such as traffic sensors or air quality sensors. The signs let people know what data the technology is collecting, who’s collecting it, and what the data is being used for.
Signs have been installed in the parks around the Olympic Park Station and sporting facilities, and in the business and residential parts of the precinct. They include QR codes for people to seek more information and provide feedback.
The trial is the first use of the DTPR standard in the Southern Hemisphere. DTPR is a featured initiative of the World Economic Forum’s Future of the Connected World Global Action Plan and stewarded by the organisation Helpful Places.

Challenge

Sydney Olympic Park is a major events and sporting precinct, large urban parkland and fast-growing neighbourhood with over 20,000 daily residents, workers and students. The Park attracts over 10 million visitors and stages 5000 events each year, often with multiple events occurring at the same time.

Sydney Olympic Park has a range of smart technologies around the precinct. These help to address:

safe crowd monitoring during large events
water irrigation management
public Wi-Fi and CCTV.

People may wish to quickly understand how these digital technologies work and the purpose they serve. DTPR is helping to communicate this.

Solution

Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR) is an open-source communication standard to increase transparency and accountability for digital technology in public places. It’s a way of making data collection more visible.

DTPR includes a visual system of signs and icons posted around technologies in public spaces. These smart devices include those such as traffic or air quality sensors. The signs let people know what data the technology is collecting, who’s collecting it and what the data is being used for.

These signs are now placed in parks near the Olympic Park Station, including:

nearby sports facilities
in the business and residential areas of the park.

The signs have QR codes that people can scan to learn more and share feedback. By scanning a QR code on a sign, you can learn more about the technology, ask questions and share feedback.

The pilots have been subject to an ethical review. This ensures that:

the use of the new technologies is appropriate
personal information is protected
the technology delivers real benefits to the community without compromising privacy or data security in any way.

Expected outcomes

Smart Places outcome areas:

collaboration and connection
safety and security.

The project will also:

improve levels of transparency, accountability and control for people in public places
deliver a transparent communication standard that can be used as an example for the rest of Australia
deliver enhanced safety for people in public places without compromising privacy or data security.