«With great power comes great responsibility»

«The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks», said the creator of Facebook's data team as he resigned. He was right. That sucks. But he was wrong too: some of the «best minds of his generation» refuse to let a few multinationals control the huge profits from our shared data. And you know what? They work on HestiaLabs.

At HestiaLabs, we dream of a digital world where users take back control over their data. A digital world where the benefits generated by data processing are shared with those who produce them. A digital world where service providers and users decide together which data will be used and for what purpose. A digital world where transparency is the norm.

A truly user-centric digital world.

To make this dream come true, we must deconstruct the idea that the current data valuation model is the norm to build a more ethical one.

Habits are hard to change. We are not afraid of the difficulties. We rely on the Four Dimensions of Change framework to shift mindsets. At the individual collective and societal levels (see below).

We do this not by shouting one opinion among many, but by taking concrete actions. How? We do the - hard - job no one else does: processing data.

You have a meaningful project in mind that requires data?

4 (non-sequential) steps to change the world

Personal transformation

Each individual should realise, within himself, those three things:

  1. His or her data is valuable
  2. He or she is currently dispossessed of it
  3. He or she has rights in this regard, which he or she must actively use

HestiaLabs takes care to select projects and partners mature in this raising-awareness aspect, and focuses on its key asset: collective action.

A conversation strikes up

Now aware of a problem that he/she understands well, the individual wonders how to deal with it. He or she discusses it around him or her and seeks out peers who are concerned about the same issues.

This «individual external» dimension of the theory of change is the playground of our partner PersonalData.io: it invites anyone who feels lost as to their individual data rights to talk to each other, start getting active on their own, and pool a set of resources.

Collective evolution

Once many people realise their data rights can create change, how do they work together? Here are many unanswered questions . This is the «collective internal» dimension of our theory of change.

The core of HestiaLabs’ activities are here, «transforming collective patterns of action and thinking». To achieve this, we support data collectives in their governance, their goal setting and mostly in their infrastructure.

With the help of recognized academic partners, we do the hard work of analyzing collectivized data and transforming it into actionable insights.

Societal change

When a group of individuals work together towards a common goal and produce results, how do they reach out to those outside their collective to bring about change?

A project creating new knowledge from the data collectivized does not achieve its goal. To be successful, its outputs must have an impact.

Through our media partners and the MyData network, these outcomes are brought to the attention of decision-makers who can give them the social/legal impact they deserve.

YOUR projects make this happen

Your project directly benefits you and the data sharers who joined the data collective we built together.

Your project leads by example, and its outputs become further evidence of a possible world where people decide how and why their data is used.

Communicating your outcomes to the general public sparks a change of mindset in some and ideas for new projects in others.

Your results add to those of the various initiatives under the common HestiaLabs umbrella. Their impact is multiplied and they are part of the global movement of data reappropriation by users.

The sum of these efforts paves the way to a world where data-driven innovations are made in collaboration with the people who produce them, and not without their consent anymore.

We don’t appropriate the data. We don’t speak in a vacuum. We focus on the very concrete development of legal and technical mechanisms to enable trust and data-driven bottom-up innovation in a sustainable way.