Bikestream: Databikes for a user-centric mobility future
Bikestream: Databikes for a user-centric mobility future
This article is an intro to the Bikestream project
I am putting my thoughts down to come up with a whitepaper for Bikestream.
As always, send your feedback to my Twitter account.
Outline — 2021–08–06
- Purpose
- Background on coops, mention platform coop (grab from research cooperative article)
- why alts
- Describe bikestream benefit for individuals
- Examples (include purpose and individual benefits)
Outline — 2021–08–11
- Purpose
- Background on coops, mention platform coop (grab from research cooperative article)
- why alts
- Describe bikestream benefit for individuals
- Example implementations (crowdsourced bikesharing, bike delivery, self-driving e-bikes)
- describe mobility cooperatives
Purpose
To develop a product- and collective-model to support the cooperative sharing of mobility, personal and sensor data from micro-mobility vehicles (or light electric vehicles), and express autonomy over one’s own micro-mobility vehicle’s hardware and software.
Bikestream will develop Proof-of-Concepts (PoCs) to be managed by personal data cooperatives.
Background
Cooperatives
Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) defines a cooperative as “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise” [2].
The cooperative model is an ownership model that can work with various business models.
The seven cooperative principles are:
Voluntary and Open Membership,
Democratic Member Control,
Member Economic Participation,
Autonomy and Independence,
Education, Training, and Information,
Cooperation among Cooperatives, and
Concern for Community [2].
A cooperative is distinguished from other organizations based on democratic governance, member-ownership, and operating for the benefit of members.
Platform Cooperatives
“Platform cooperatives are businesses that use a website, mobile app, or protocol to sell goods or services. They rely on democratic decision-making and shared ownership of the platform by workers and users” [3].
There are four types of platform cooperatives:
- Data,
- Worker,
- Producer, and
- Multi-stakeholder [5].
To learn more about platforms, please read the … slides
Why the need for Bikestream as an alternative?
check the slides
Bikestream serves as an alternative to …
Problems Bikestream is intended to address include:
- Transportation network companies (TNCs) sharing user-generated data with third-parties that users may or may not be aware of (e.g., TNCs may share user-generated data with law enforcement and transportation agencies and the extent or necessity of the amount of data is always in question).
- TNCs prohibiting disclosure (or lack of transparency) of their algorithms (development, usage, etc.) and software to users of their platforms (i.e., use of closed-source software)
- TNCs using user-generated data to train machine learning models for proprietary use and monetary gain (e.g., sharing data with advertisers) at the expense of users
- Fitness and health tracking apps sharing user-generated data with third parties that users may or may not be aware of and data privacy concerns such as securing of user data and preventing data breaches ( (e.g., Tracking apps may share user-generated data with law enforcement and transportation agencies and the extent or necessity of the amount of data is always in question).
- New mobility data specifications are targeted towards TNCs (and rightfully so), but there should be a need to develop a specification specifically for users to offer this data to their local transportation agencies themselves
- The high cost of pre-assembled e-bikes (“… e-bikes sell for more than four times the price of traditional bicycles…”) make them not the most viable option for most middle to low income people to purchase when considering a bicycle as a means of transportation.
- Many people have a bicycle that is not be used to its full potential (i.e., wasting resources) often because of their urban living space (E.g., suburbs with little to no bike lanes, cities with mass sprawl, tough road conditions)
- Lack of PoCs concerning blockchain and mobility
- Lack of education among users about how their data is used and concerning MaaS companies
- Lack of education or opportunities for cyclists to contribute to transportation research
- Lack of education among professional bicycle operators about cooperative models
- Issues with modifying pre-assembled e-bikes can make it tough for users to find maintenance or services or change parts on their own (i.e., removal of right to improve)
- Lack of uniformity on regulations (local and beyond) on micromobility modals.
- High rate of pedestrian and cyclists deaths in the USA.2
- Control of geolocation mapping by very few companies which are often not known for good data privacy practices (e.g., Google)
- TNCs (primarily Uber and Lyft) tend not to play well with public transportation and other TNCs, which often lead to a lack of transparency around payments, mobility options, and inhibition of user choice.
Individual benefits from bikestream
Bikestream is expected to provide the following benefits to individuals:
- a protected datastore for member’s personal or business data
- choice/control over the terms upon which (how, when, and for what purposes) personal mobility and sensor data is shared with third parties
- remuneration for data sharing and being a host on Streamr network
- say in decision-making in cooperative with equal voting power, acess to records, and ability to elect or recall board of directors
- individual gain from using a product developed based on the collective’s data aggregation or being used to develop new insights into a problem
- social gains as data aggregation can also be used to help non-members
- alternative to surveillance capitalism
- control over the hardware and software used in their micro-mobility vehicles by using mostly open-source software and plug-and-play parts
- members can build their own micro-mobility vehicles by using mostly open-source software and plug-and-play parts
- discounted pricing on purchasing electric conversion parts and repairing micro-mobility devices
- insurance for micro-mobility devices
- token-gated access to a global fleet of micro-mobility vehicles
Example implementations
We expect Bikestream to be implemented in multiple use-cases, including:
- decentralized/crowdsourced bikesharing systems,
- bike delivery service,
- self-driving e-bikes,
- data unions (i.e., data cooperatives and data commons),
- geolocation mapping,
- e-bike education,
- citizen science projects including measuring vibration on cycling surfaces
- Providing a variety of bicycle related services
Mobility Cooperatives
Further Readings
add stories here.
Podcasts
- https://anchor.fm/philomath-ledgerback/episodes/Charles-Adjovu-on-implementing-Bikestream-based-on-A-Novel-Crowdsourcing-Model-for-Micro-Mobility-Ride-Sharing-Systems-e164ojk
- https://anchor.fm/philomath-ledgerback/episodes/Charles-Adjovu-on-implementing-Access-Control-in-Bikestream-with-Token-Gates-TGs-via-Unlock-Protocol-e164ptq
Resources
- Github Repo
- Slides
References
[1] https://speakerdeck.com/ledgerback/bikestream-litedeck
For Gavin (read below)
What is Bikestream?
A research project on how to converge (connect annd integrate) Web 3 and Platform Cooperativism via micro-mobility modals.
A research project on using emerging tech and democratic ownership models to support data and vehicle sovereignty of micro-mobility modals.
A research project on using social technology and democratic ownership models to support data and vehicle sovereignty of micro-mobility modals.
A research project on using social technology and democratic ownership models to support data and vehicle sovereignty of micro-mobility modals as we move towards Industry 4.0.
A research project on using emerging and social technology and democratic ownership models to support data and vehicle sovereignty of micro-mobility modals as we move towards Industry 4.0.
%%
What is Bikestream’s purpose/ How will work be done?
We are developing product- and collective-models to support the cooperative sharing of mobility, personal, vehicle, and sensor data from micro-mobility vehicles (or light electric vehicles). Specifically, we use electric bicycles.
Notably, we execute on our ideas by building proof-of-concepts (PoCs).
We will be developing a knowledge/data commons on information relevant to the project (such as cycling-related markets and Web3 mobility companies), and a newsletter to help people keep up with Bikestream.
Additionally, we will see if we can operate a data marketplace and provide data storage, visualization and analysis tools.
A research project on using social technology and democratic ownership models to support data and vehicle sovereignty of micro-mobility modals as we move towards Industry 4.0.
Should publish Bikestream Data Cooperative (& Federation through frannchising) model with a post. And a Bikestream DAO model. %%
What are the problems that Bikestream addresses?
Change to “Why you should care?”
- Transportation network companies (TNCs) sharing user-generated data with third-parties that users may or may not be aware of (e.g., TNCs may share user-generated data with law enforcement and transportation agencies and the extent or necessity of the amount of data is always in question).
- TNCs prohibiting disclosure (or lack of transparency) of their algorithms (development, usage, etc.) and software to users of their platforms (i.e., use of closed-source software)
- TNCs using user-generated data to train machine learning models for proprietary use and monetary gain (e.g., sharing data with advertisers) at the expense of users
- Fitness and health tracking apps sharing user-generated data with third parties that users may or may not be aware of and data privacy concerns such as securing of user data and preventing data breaches ( (e.g., Tracking apps may share user-generated data with law enforcement and transportation agencies and the extent or necessity of the amount of data is always in question).
- New mobility data specifications are targeted towards TNCs (and rightfully so), but there should be a need to develop a specification specifically for users to offer this data to their local transportation agencies themselves
- The high cost of pre-assembled e-bikes (“… e-bikes sell for more than four times the price of traditional bicycles…”) make them not the most viable option for most middle to low income people to purchase when considering a bicycle as a means of transportation.
- Many people have a bicycle that is not be used to its full potential (i.e., wasting resources) often because of their urban living space (E.g., suburbs with little to no bike lanes, cities with mass sprawl, tough road conditions)
- Lack of PoCs concerning blockchain and mobility
- Lack of education among users about how their data is used and concerning MaaS companies
- Lack of education or opportunities for cyclists to contribute to transportation research
- Lack of education among professional bicycle operators about cooperative models
- Issues with modifying pre-assembled e-bikes can make it tough for users to find maintenance or services or change parts on their own (i.e., removal of right to improve)
- Lack of uniformity on regulations (local and beyond) on micromobility modals.
- High rate of pedestrian and cyclists deaths in the USA.2
- Control of geolocation mapping by very few companies which are often not known for good data privacy practices (e.g., Google)
- TNCs (primarily Uber and Lyft) tend not to play well with public transportation and other TNCs, which often lead to a lack of transparency around payments, mobility options, and inhibition of user choice.
- Lack of alternative, community-owned marketplaces for cycling
Problems we will address
We plan to address the following problems:
pick 3 - 5
Initial plan to address them
- Develop a build-and-rent model where people can buy databikes and rent them out
- Develop jupyter notebooks for common cycling analytics
- Develop a mobile app for booking rides
- Develop a marketplace for training plans or events
What are the use-cases of Bikestream?
- de/centralized bikesharing systems,
- bike delivery service,
- self-driving e-bikes,
- e-bike insurance,
- e-bike disposal,
- data unions (also, data cooperatives and data commons),
- geolocation mapping,
- e-bike education,
- citizen science
- e-bike development
- Providing a variety of bicycle related services
- cycling analytics
- cyclist social tokens
- route validation
- AI commons
- fractionalized ownership of e-bikes
- evaluate bicycle infrastructure
What recent work has come out of the Bikestream project?
Our most recent work is the Databike Zeta 001 (DBZ-001) Proof-of-Concept (PoC).
You can read the report here.
Thus, cycling analytics is a major focus for us.
What work is coming out soon from of the Bikestream project?
Our next work after developing the Databike Zeta 001 will be some additional work on developing the databike’s physical setup (especially adding a smart-lock), improving data- and bike-specifications and logging software, and these PoCs:
- try token-gated locks with unlock-protocol/mintgate for databikes,
- try a Helium+Streamr integration,
- procure partners for data monetization,
- use an open source bikesharing/booking mobile app with databikes, and
- develop a data cooperative model for member-based services and products.
Additional stuff:
- Mention in Kickstarter that we will develop BikePi and go with Pony business model, develop marketplaces (training plans and events), will develop prototype with Adalo, making jupyter notebooks, and develop library (or a wiki) and put out a newsletter.
- BikePi like Home Assistant Amber
- wallet with fuse
- streaming tokens with Superfluid
- a toolkit for the selection, visualization, and easy combination of telematics data from e-bikes with other data sources.
What future is the Bikestream project cycling towards? (i.e., vision)
We hope to develop Bikestream into a mobility data platform and a future where global and local communities can own and manage their micro-mobility data and vehicles.
Mobility goal
- self-directed databikes and bikesharing
- community-owned IoT
- p2p bikesharing
- sustainability
- reduce GHGs
- promote alt. mobility options to fossil fuels
- safely dispose of electric parts
- healthier cycling
- support data-driven athletes
- improve cyclist safety
What are the expected benefits people will receive from Bikestream’s outputs?
We plan to make our outputs open-source and prvodie assistannce to people developing the Bikestream use-cases.
Who are the expected beneficiaries people of Bikestream’s outputs?
- data-driven cyclists
- athletes
- bike couriers
- mobility cooperative developers
- bicycle educators
- cycling coaches
- DIY e-bike developers
- data analysts
- data consumers
- researchers
- bikesharing system operators
- Government transportation agencies?
Where can I find more information on Bikestream?
- Github Repository
- Slides
Any further readings to get oriented with the project?
Crowdfund
- what will we do?
- why crowdfund?
- benefits for crowdfunders
- what money will get used for
what will we do?
Additional stuff:
- develop BikePi and
- go with Pony business model,
- develop marketplaces (training plans and events),
- will develop prototype with Adalo for bikesharing (and look for open source versions),
- develop data-schema and databike/stremcycle schema
- making jupyter notebooks, and
- wallet with Fuse
- develop library (or a wiki) and
- put out a newsletter.
- apply to grants