Workshop design your ideal mobile phone

About the workshop

Publicly-funded organisations like municipalities and ministries are increasingly sensitive for their mobile phones and the apps they are using. The recent ban of TikTok is only one example. However, to be more independent from commercial mobile phones, public sector organisations can use a wide variety of open-source technologies – including operating system, an app store, cloud storage and various communication apps. Being open-source, these technologies can be tailored to the values and needs of public sector organisations. If civil servants could design their ideal mobile telephone, what would it look like?

During the Dutch Design Week we invite civil servants to join this interactive workshop where we design an ideal mobile phone for civil servants. The workshop begins with an introduction of the topic of mobile phone/app governance in public institutions. Afterwards, civil servants will share their experiences using mobile phones for work, what works well for them and what they struggle with. Then, participants ideate their ideal mobile phone for work.

What will you be doing?

As a participant you’ll learn about the mobile phone and its current challenges for public institutions (e. g. data leakages and other compliance issues, vendor lock-in, etc.). Participants will learn a participatory method to discuss shared opportunities and problems with mobile phone use and ideate solutions that are aligned with organizational values and missions. Public institutions can replicate this workshop in their own institutions. Lastly, the input from the session feeds into a project by Waag Futurelab to design better open-source alternatives for mobile phones that are aligned with the interests of civil servants.

Who can participate:

The workshop invites members of these two groups:
• Employees in publicly funded organisations (municipalities, ministries, publicly broadcasters, uitvoeringsorganisaties) who use company phones and/or their personal mobile devices for work. We invite open-source hobbyists as well as people who do not use open source applications yet, but would like to test alternatives for their mobile phones.
• IT administrators who manage devices, apps or data of your employees.