Kenner futures

Kenner Futures: The Phone That Serves You, Not Platforms

Find a report on the workshop at the end of the page.

What if your next phone ran computation locally, kept your data under your control, and connected you through community-owned networks rather than extractive platforms?

The IEEE, which is the global organization that sets the technical standards behind modern technology, has just formed its first workgroup to define the infrastructure for the next generation of connectivity. The technical foundations are being laid now. At the TH/NGS we have a rare window to help shape them before the usual players lock in another decade of surveillance and extraction.

In this workshop, we’ll collectively imagine what a citizen phone ecosystem could look like in 2035, then map backwards to identify the decisions, policies, and designs that would make it possible. We call this future device the “kenner”. It’s named after Marge Piercy’s 1976 vision of technology that empowers citizens rather than controlling them. These outputs will be openly published and submitted to the IEEE workgroup as citizen input on what next-generation infrastructure should prioritize.

Our Purpose

Beyond the IEEE submission, we’re driven by something personal: contributing to a positive vision for the next generation of phones: devices that are genuinely better for people and planet. We believe this future is possible. Are you ready to help? No technical background required: everyone is an expert through their own experience, and it’s this collective intelligence we need to embody, energize, and give direction.

Hosts

Maarten Lens-FitzGerald is co-founder of Project Kenner and works at the crossroads of technology, civics, and transformation. With a background spanning augmented reality (Layar), AI, voice interfaces (author of Voice: The Speech Revolution), and government innovation on local (City of Amsterdam), national (SVB), and European level (Systems Innovation Network), he now focuses on European strategic autonomy through the lens of systems innovation. His motto: tending movements that shape the future.

Rob van Kranenburg is a writer who founded the IoT Council in 2009 and IoT Day in 2010 with a mission to bring awareness and agency of the digital transition to a broader audience. He is a Member of the EU’s General-Purpose AI Code of Practice Group and author of Statecraft and Policymaking in the Age of Digital Twins (Springer, 2024). Rob is the driver behind the IEEE Industry Activity “A Technical Reference Architecture Framework for an Open 6G Device Ecosystem,” believing a 6G phone could enable new forms of connectivity, governance, taxation, and mental health balance. He is co-founder of Project Kenner.

Report on the workshop

(taken from LinkedIn)

By 2030, 6G will be in all our devices. The successor to 5G, embedded in everything. The architecture decisions being made right now will shape how we live, think, and govern ourselves for decades. Almost nobody outside the telecom industry is paying attention.

Project Kenner is an initiative with Rob van Kranenburg to change that. We want to bend the linear trajectory of the mobile phone ecosystem toward something more humane, within planetary boundaries.

Last Friday at the ThingsCon.org in Amsterdam, we held our first garage session. Eight participants created five visions for a citizen-centered 6G future over two hours of structured conversation.

Using backcasting, we envision desired futures and work backwards to identify the pathways that could get us there. Results are published publicly and shared with relevant bodies like the IEEE 6G Architecture Exploration board (the ones who also do the Wifi standard and others 8-).

Thank you to Iskander Smit, Pieter Diepenmaat and Monique van Dusseldorp plus and amazing the attendees for providing the space and the input that made this first step of Project Kenner possible.

Get the full report: https://docs.proton.me/doc?mode=open-url&token=24CY3J3RMW#BxNDq2q07OA5

If you are interested in partnering to help influence the otherwise liniar 6G trajectory, send me a message.