AnEkA

Initial situation

Context-sensitive systems use numerous data related to both the user's environment and the user himself to provide situation-adapted services. They present users with appropriate information depending on their location, time, and interests, and support them in their everyday lives and actions. Data is aggregated from many different sources such as various sensors and (partly publicly) available data and information to draw conclusions about the situation, environment and even mood or behavior of users as well as to predict them. The more useful data is available for context recognition and prediction, the higher the probability of a correct forecast and a situation-appropriate adaptation of the application. While the collection and analysis of personal data on the one hand ensures the functionality and high service quality of the systems, on the other hand many of these data are worthy of protection according to applicable legal standards. This creates a fundamental area of tension between high functionality and quality-centeredness of context-sensitive systems on the one hand and the preservation of legal requirements for the protection of informational self-determination on the other. This tension leaves many fundamental questions for the design and development of context-sensitive systems unanswered.

Project goals

The goal of the AnEkA project is the development of interdisciplinary requirement and design patterns for the quality-centered and legally compatible design of context-sensitive applications. For this purpose, quality-centered and legal requirements are to be methodically integrated into the process of system development and directly coordinated with each other in order to achieve both a higher quality of the service process from the user's point of view and a legally compatible technology design while maintaining the same functionality. The overall goal is to significantly facilitate the work of requirements analysts and system developers in the development phase. The project focuses on the application field of smart personal assistants (SPAs), which include prominent representatives such as Amazon Alexa, Samsung Bixby, Apple Siri or Microsoft Cortana. SPAs collect data that can be interpreted and linked to create a personal reference, thus enabling potential for individualization and situation-adapted provision of services and information. The aim of the joint project is therefore to strike the "right balance" between requirements for functionality, quality and legal compliance and to transfer the resulting knowledge into requirements and design patterns. In this way, it should be possible to design both accepted and socially acceptable SPAs in the medium to long term.

Project participants

• University of Kassel, Department of Public Law with a focus on the law of technology and environmental protection, PD Dr. Silke Jandt
• University of Kassel, Department of Information Systems, Prof. Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister
• University of Kassel, Department of Public Law with a focus on the law of technology and environmental protection, Prof. Dr. Alexander Roßnagel
• University of Kassel, Department of Information Systems and Systems Development, Prof. Dr. Matthias Söllner

The AnEkA project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project number is 348084924.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Matthias Söllner