1. OtaSizzle - an Open Platform to
Transfer Technology from a Research
Project to Practice
Olli Pitkänen,
Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT
Aalto University
www.hiit.fi/olli.pitkanen
OW2Con 2011, November 23-24, Orange Labs, Paris.
www.ow2.org.

2. Four faces of OtaSizzle
• Research: Study social (mobile)
interaction services by combining
qualitative research with a large-scale
experimental platform for data acquisition
and analysis - instrumented for detailed
data collection on use and behaviour in
real-life environment
• Campus: Develop - and enable
development – of mobile social interaction
services for – and by - Aalto students,
faculty, and personnel –> locally &
situationally relevant services
• Innovation Ecology: Provide an open
platform to users, developers, content
producers, and research projects on
campuses
• Federation: Replicate the platform to
partners worldwide
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3. Research themes
• Service use, appropriation, and
diffusion in social networks
• Service innovations by end users
– users as developers in “ecosystems”
• Privacy / publicity & identity
management (social, technology-
assisted)
• Enabling technologies for mobile
social interaction services
• Scalability (technical, social)
• Distributed platform and service
development and architectures
– Need for local adaptation
– Complementary contributions by nodes (e.g.
Beijing, Nairobi)
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4. The Sizzlelab platform – and the types of users
Users
Developers
Researchers
Developers
Why Campus?
Local community, common needs, campus & university life
related services, shared physical environment – and
“unleashed” innovation potential in population
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5. Example of a Sizzle Service:
Kassi – Exchanging Favors and Items
Profile
What can people do for What items can
others? people borrow?
Favors Items
How can people help What is sold or
each other? given away?
Listings
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6. Developing OtaSizzle international network
Enable research on use and development of ”locally relevant” services in
environments with a large variety of everyday life needs,
in different technology, business and cultural contexts.

7. Sizzle Virtual Center of Excellence: Developing a
globally distributed LivingLab with partnering universities

8. International Sizzle -> a Networkd LivingLab for joint
development, distributed experiments and comparative
studies
The Sizzle ”core node” where
platform is being developed, user
studies have been conducted and
services developed.
Interlinked
platform &
service
development.
Several user studies have Interlinked platform &
A localized
been conducted and Kassi service development.
version of Kassi.
has been taken into use with ASI has been taken into
Extensions for
a local community use and modified to
sensors and IoT
support SMS
are being
messaging.
developped.
Code camp has been
AaltoApps
organized together with
adoption for local
Nokia.
ecosystem.

9. Example of Localized Service – Kassi in China
• A localized version of the Kassi
service has been developed and
released by the BUPT team in
August, 2010
• The adaptation and cultural
differences of such social media
service are being currently studied
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10. Open Source – no legal rights?
No legal problems?
• Open Source refers to the practice of licensing computer
programs etc in liberal terms
• It does not mean that IPR (copyright, patent) is voided,
but licenses are based on existing copyright
– The copyright holder grants the others a right to use, modify,
and redistribute the copyrighted work
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11. Copyright
• A creative work is automatically
protected by copyright
• In Europe, copyright is still the main
legal protection of software although
patents have become important
• Copyright does NOT protect facts,
ideas, plot, algorithms, etc., but merely
the original expression
• It is possible to transfer copyrighted
technology with open source licenses
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12. Patent
• An invention that is new, includes an inventive step, and
is susceptible of industrial application can be patented
• Application is needed, expensive, time consuming,
difficult – patenting is an investment that needs to be
carefully considered
• Third party patents may prevent from using technology
even if it is open source licensed

13. User information
• Open data is increasingly important
– (eg applications that avail of open geographical data and maps)
• Personal data are protected by privacy and data
protection laws
– Cannot be open at large, individual consent is usually required if
data are transferred to third parties
• No open source licensing models

14. Open Source Technology Transfer
• For research results, IPR protection (patents, copyright)
is important – sometimes
• Open source is often the best way to distribute research
outcome
– Supports the needs of academia and researchers
• Commercial companies may favour proprietary rights,
but it is also possible to do business on OS basis
– Kassi – Avoin Interactive being a good example
• IPR is not the most difficult legal area, but privacy and
data protection – no open source personal data
– It requires special attention not to violate users’ rights