Investigating Regulative Implications for User-generated Content and a Design Proposal

The rapid increase of the Internet connectivity and the data publishing activity, like user-generated content, has lead Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to establish more efficient mechanisms for content delivery, such as caching. Mechanisms such as content-aware-networks and in-network caching reduce network load, server load, and user response time, thus, manage the network. However, caching of content also raises major implications in terms of legal acts and bills (e.g., data privacy, copyright), dealing with access control, validation scheme, and regulations (e.g., contractual obligation, legal restrictions). In general, user-generated content is linked with sensitive information, such as geographical information, medical and financial information, personal identifiable data, photos, videos, and contact information. Therefore, it is essential to secure data and regulate access. The latter, is gained by including access control mechanisms in the data exchange process, where a user requesting data must prove his access rights. Therefore, a user has to show an access ticket, which includes his rights based on legal and regulative implications. In order to secure any kind of data exchange, authentication of each participating communication entity (e.g., content owner, server, and end-user) is essential, which is part of the proposed two-way authentication handshake in this paper that is performed to generate a secure communication channel. The main contribution of this paper is to show that transmission, storage, and usage of user-generated data in caches within the network is manageable within the legal laws on sensitivity, copyright, and privacy. The scope of studying these laws, acts, and policies is restricted to Switzerland (CH), the European Union (EU), and the United States of America (USA). Finally, a solution is presented including access ticketing and two-way authentication mechanisms based oncommonstandards from IP network

Collaborative trails in e-learning environments

This deliverable focuses on collaboration within groups of learners, and hence collaborative trails. We begin by reviewing the theoretical background to collaborative learning and looking at the kinds of support that computers can give to groups of learners working collaboratively, and then look more deeply at some of the issues in designing environments to support collaborative learning trails and at tools and techniques, including collaborative filtering, that can be used for analysing collaborative trails. We then review the state-of-the-art in supporting collaborative learning in three different areas – experimental academic systems, systems using mobile technology (which are also generally academic), and commercially available systems. The final part of the deliverable presents three scenarios that show where technology that supports groups working collaboratively and producing collaborative trails may be heading in the near future

Institutional and Individual Influences on Scientists\u27 Data Sharing Behaviors

In modern research activities, scientific data sharing is essential, especially in terms of data-intensive science and scholarly communication. Scientific communities are making ongoing endeavors to promote scientific data sharing. Currently, however, data sharing is not always well-deployed throughout diverse science and engineering disciplines. Disciplinary traditions, organizational barriers, lack of technological infrastructure, and individual perceptions often contribute to limit scientists from sharing their data. Since scientists\u27 data sharing practices are embedded in their respective disciplinary contexts, it is necessary to examine institutional influences as well as individual motivations on scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. The objective of this research is to investigate the institutional and individual factors which influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific communities. Two theoretical perspectives, institutional theory and theory of planned behavior, are employed in developing a conceptual model, which shows the complementary nature of the institutional and individual factors influencing scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors. Institutional theory can explain the context in which individual scientists are acting; whereas the theory of planned behavior can explain the underlying motivations behind scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in an institutional context. This research uses a mixed-method approach by combining qualitative and quantitative methods: (1) interviews with the scientists in diverse scientific disciplines to understand the extent to which they share their data with other researchers and explore institutional and individual factors affecting their data sharing behaviors; and (2) survey research to examine to what extent those institutional and individual factors influence scientists\u27 data sharing behaviors in diverse scientific disciplines. The interview study with 25 scientists shows three groups of data sharing factors, including institutional influences (i.e. regulative pressures by funding agencies and journals and normative pressure); individual motivations (i.e. perceived benefit, risk, effort and scholarly altruism); and institutional resources (i.e. metadata and data repositories). The national survey (with 1,317 scientists in 43 disciplines) shows that regulative pressure by journals; normative pressure at a discipline level; and perceived career benefit and scholarly altruism at an individual level have significant positive relationships with data sharing behaviors; and that perceived effort has a significant negative relationship. Regulative pressure by funding agencies and the availability of data repositories at a discipline level and perceived career risk at an individual level were not found to have any significant relationships with data sharing behavior

Bringing social reality to multiagent and service architectures : practical reductions for monitoring of deontic-logic and constitutive norms

As distributed systems grow in complexity, the interactions among individuals (agents, services) of such systems become increasingly more complex and therefore more difficult to constrain and monitor. We propose to view such systems as socio-technical systems, in which organisational and institutional concepts, such as norms, can be applied to improve not only control on the components but also their autonomy by the definition of soft rather than hard constraints. Norms can be described as rules that guide the behavior of individual agents pertaining to groups that abide to them, either by explicit or implicit support. The study of norms, and regulatory systems in general, in their many forms -e.g. social norms, conventions, laws, regulations- has been of interest since the beginning of philosophy, but has seen a lot of evolution during the 20th century due to the progress in the philosophy of language, especially concerning speech acts and deontic logic. Although there is a myriad of definitions and related terminologies about the concept of norm, and as such there are many perspectives on how to analyse their impact, a common denominator is that norms constrain the behaviour of groups of agents in a way that each individual agent can build, with a fair degree of confidence, expectations on how each of their counterparts will behave in the situations that the norms are meant to cover. For example, on a road each driver expects everybody else to drive on only one side of the road (right or left, depending on the country). Therefore, normative contexts, usually wrapped in the form of institutions, are effective mechanisms to ensure the stability of a complex system such as an organisation, a society, or even of electronic systems. The latter has been an object of interest in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and it has been seen as a paradigm of coordination among electronic agents either in multi-agent systems or in service-oriented architectures. In order to apply norms to electronic systems, research has come up with abstractions of normative systems. In some cases these abstractions are based on regimented systems with flexible definitions of the notion of norm, in order to include meanings of the concept with a coarse-grained level of logic formality such as conventions. Other approaches, on the other hand, propose the use of deontic logic for describing, from a more theoretical perspective, norm-governed interaction environments. In both cases, the purpose is to enable the monitoring and enforcement of norms on systems that include -although not limited to- electronic agents. In the present dissertation we will focus on the latter type, focusing on preserving the deontic aspect of norms. Monitoring in norm-governed systems requires making agents aware of: 1) what their normative context is, i.e. which obligations, permissions and prohibitions are applicable to each of them and how they are updated and triggered; and 2) what their current normative status is, i.e. which norms are active, and in what instances they are being fullfilled or violated, in order words, what their social -institutional- reality is. The current challenge is on designing systems that allow computational components to infer both the normative context and social reality in real-time, based on a theoretical formalism that makes such inferences sound and correct from a philosophical perspective. In the scope of multi-agent systems, many are the approaches proposed and implemented that full these requirements up to this date. However, the literature is still lacking a proposal that is suited to the current state-of-the-art in service-oriented architectures, more focused nowadays on automatically scalable, polyglot amalgams of lightweight services with extremely simple communication and coordination mechanisms- a trend that is being called “microservices”. This dissertation tackles this issue, by 1) studying what properties we can infer from distributed systems that allow us to treat them as part of a socio-technical system, and 2) analysing which mechanisms we can provide to distributed systems so that they can properly act as socio-technical systems. The main product of the thesis is therefore a collection of computational elements required for formally grounded and real-time e¬fficient understanding and monitoring of normative contexts, more specially: 1. An ontology of events to properly model the inputs from the external world and convert them into brute facts or institutional events; 2. A lightweight language for norms, suitable for its use in distributed systems; 3. An especially tailored formalism for the detection of social reality, based on and reducible to deontic logic with support for constitutive norms; 4. A reduction of such formalism to production rule systems; and 5. One or more implementations of this reduction, proven to e¬fficiently work on several scenarios. This document presents the related work, the rationale and the design/implementation of each one of these elements. By combining them, we are able to present novel, relevant work that enables the application of normative reasoning mechanisms in realworld systems in the form of a practical reasoner. Of special relevance is the fact that the work presented in this dissertation simplifies, while preserving formal soundness, theoretically complex forms of reasoning. Nonetheless, the use of production systems as the implementation-level materialisation of normative monitoring allows our work to be applied in any language and/or platform available, either in the form of rule engines, ECA rules or even if-then-else patterns. The work presented has been tested and successfully used in a wide range of domains and actual applications. The thesis also describes how our mechanisms have been applied to practical use cases based on their integration into distributed eldercare management and to commercial games.Con el incremento en la complejidad de los sistemas distribuidos, las interacciones entre los individuos (agentes, servicios) de dichos sistemas se vuelven más y más complejas y, por ello, más difíciles de restringir y monitorizar. Proponemos ver a estos sistemas como sistemas socio-técnicos, en los que conceptos organizacionales e institucionales (como las normas) pueden aplicarse para mejorar no solo el control sobre los componentes sino también su autonomía mediante la definición de restricciones débiles (en vez de fuertes). Las Normas se pueden describir como reglas que guían el comportamiento de agentes individuales que pertenecen a grupos que las siguen, ya sea con un apoyo explícito o implícito. El estudio de las normas y de los sistemas regulatorios en general y en sus formas diversas -normas sociales, convenciones, leyes, reglamentos- ha sido de interés para los eruditos desde los inicios de la filosofía, pero ha sufrido una evolución mayor durante el siglo 20 debido a los avances en filosofía del lenguaje, en especial los relacionados con los actos del habla -speech acts en inglés- y formas deónticas de la lógica modal. Aunque hay una gran variedad de definiciones y terminología asociadas al concepto de norma, y por ello existen varios puntos de vista sobre como analizar su impacto, el denominador común es que las normas restringen el comportamiento de grupos de agentes de forma que cada agente individual puede construir, con un buen nivel de confianza, expectativas sobre cómo cada uno de los otros actores se comportará en las situaciones que las normas han de cubrir. Por ejemplo, en una carretera cada conductor espera que los demás conduzcan solo en un lado de la carretera (derecha o izquierda, dependiendo del país). Por lo tanto, los contextos normativos, normalmente envueltos en la forma de instituciones, constituyen mecanismos efectivos para asegurar la estabilidad de un sistema complejo como una organización, una sociedad o incluso un sistema electrónico. Lo último ha sido objeto de estudio en el campo de la Inteligencia Artificial, y se ha visto como paradigma de coordinación entre agentes electrónicos, tanto en sistemas multiagentes como en arquitecturas orientadas a servicios. Para aplicar normas en sistemas electrónicos, los investigadores han creado abstracciones de sistemas normativos. En algunos casos estas abstracciones se basan en sistemas regimentados con definiciones flexibles del concepto de norma para poder influir algunos significados del concepto con un menor nivel de granularidad formal como es el caso de las convenciones. Otras aproximaciones proponen el uso de lógica deóntica para describir, desde un punto de vista más teórico, entornos de interacción gobernados por normas. En ambos casos el propósito es el permitir la monitorización y la aplicación de las normas en sistemas que incluyen -aunque no están limitados a- agentes electrónicos. En el presente documento nos centraremos en el segundo tipo, teniendo cuidado en mantener el aspecto deóntico de las normas. La monitorización en sistemas gobernados por normas requiere el hacer a los agentes conscientes de: 1) cual es su contexto normativo, es decir, que obligaciones permisos y prohibiciones se aplican a cada uno de ellos y cómo se actualizan y activan; y 2) cual es su estado normativo actual, esto es, que normas están activas, y que instancias están siendo cumplidas o violadas, en definitiva, cual es su realidad social -o institucional-. En la actualidad el reto consiste en diseñar sistemas que permiten inferir a componentes computacionales tanto el contexto normativo como la realidad social en tiempo real, basándose en un formalismo teórico que haga que dichas inferencias sean correctas y bien fundamentadas desde el punto de vista filosófico. En el ámbito de los sistemas multiagente existen muchas aproximaciones propuestas e implementadas que cubren estos requisitos. Sin embargo, esta literatura aun carece de una propuesta que sea adecuada para la tecnología de las arquitecturas orientadas a servicios, que están más centradas en amalgamas políglotas y escalables de servicios ligeros con mecanismos de coordinación y comunicación extremadamente simples, una tendencia moderna que lleva el nombre de microservicios. Esta tesis aborda esta problemática 1) estudiando que propiedades podemos inferir de los sistemas distribuidos que nos permitan tratarlos como parte de un sistema sociotécnico, y 2) analizando que mecanismos podemos proporcionar a los sistemas distribuidos de forma que puedan actuar de forma correcta como sistemas socio-técnicos. El producto principal de la tesis es, por tanto, una colección de elementos computacionales requeridos para la monitorización e interpretación e_cientes en tiempo real y con clara base formal. En concreto: 1. Una ontología de eventos para modelar adecuadamente las entradas del mundo exterior y convertirlas en hechos básicos o en eventos institucionales; 2. Un lenguaje de normas ligero y sencillo, adecuado para su uso en arquitecturas orientadas a servicios; 3. Un formalismo especialmente adaptado para la detección de la realidad social, basado en y reducible a lógica deóntica con soporte para normas constitutivas; 4. Una reducción de ese formalismo a sistemas de reglas de producción; y 5. Una o más implementaciones de esta reducción, de las que se ha probado que funcionan eficientemente en distintos escenarios. Este documento presenta el estado del arte relacionado, la justificación y el diseño/implementación para cada uno de esos elementos. Al combinarlos, somos capaces de presentar trabajo novedoso y relevante que permite la aplicación de mecanismos de razonamiento normativo en sistemas del mundo real bajo la forma de un razonador práctico. De especial relevancia es el hecho de que el trabajo presentado en este documento simplifica formas complejas y teóricas de razonamiento preservando la correctitud formal. El uso de sistemas de reglas de producción como la materialización a nivel de implementación del monitoreo normativo permite que nuestro trabajo se pueda aplicar a cualquier lenguaje o plataforma disponible, ya sea en la forma de motores de reglas, reglas ECA o incluso patrones si-entonces. El trabajo presentado ha sido probado y usado con éxito en un amplio rango de dominios y aplicaciones prácticas. La tesis describe como nuestros mecanismos se han aplicado a casos prácticos de uso basados en su integración en la gestión distribuida de pacientes de edad avanzada o en el sector de los videojuegos comerciales.Postprint (published version

Hajusraamatutehnoloogia kasutuselevõtu õiguslikud takistused: tehnoloogia neutraalsuse ja funktsionaalse samaväärsuse põhimõtetele tuginev analüüs

Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsiooneKäesolev väitekiri käsitleb hajusraamatutehnoloogia (HT) kohtlemist Eesti ja EL õiguse alusel konkreetsete kasutusjuhtude näitel. HT on “mitmeotstarbeline tehnoloogia”, millel on rida erinevaid kasutusvõimalusi, sh. selle kõige tuntumad näited nagu plokiahelatehnoloogia ning bitimünt. Kuivõrd olemasolev õigusraamistik on loodud tsentraliseeritud infrastruktuuride ning mitte hajutatud andmestruktuuride jaoks nagu seda on HT, siis tihtipeale takistab olemasolev õigusraamistik HT kasutamist selles sisalduvate nii otseste kui ka kaudsete kallutatud nõuete tõttu. Nimetatud dissonants on sarnane analoogmaailma jaoks loodud õigusnormide takistava mõjuga digitaalsete lahenduste kasutuselevõtmisel. Seega ei ole väitekirjas käsitletavad takistused vaid HT-le omased vaid seotud iga uue tehnoloogia kasutuselevõtuga. Toodud probleemi uuritakseväitekirjas kolme konkreetse HT kasutusjuhu pinnal: (i) bitimündi vahetusteenuse osutamine; (ii) HT-põhise osanike nimekirja pidamine ; (iii) HT-põhise hübriid-targa lepingu ning elektroonilise allkirja kasutamine. Uurimise mõõdupuuna kasutatakse tehnoloogia neutraalsuse põhimõtet ning funktsionaalse samaväärsuse alampõhimõtet, et tuvastada kallutatud nõudeid ning piirata riigivõimu voli eelistada konkreetseid tehnoloogiaid samas teisi tehnoloogiaid diskrimineerides. HT kasutusjuhtude pinnal saab järeldada, et olemasolev õigsraamistik ei ole tehnoloogia-neutraalne ning eelistab tsentraliseeritud lahendusi ning ei taga HT-põhistele funktsionaalselt samaväärsetele lahendustele samaväärset kohtlemist. Arvestades toodud järeldusi uuritakse väitekirjas ka kallutatud nõuete põhjuseid ning strateegiaid kuidas jätkusuutlikult lahendada kallutatusest tekkinud takistused HT kasutusele. Väitekirja teema on oluline arvestades ka 2020. aasta lõpus avaldatud EL-i digitaalse finantspaketi määruste eesmärki, milleks on toetada HT kasutuselevõttu EL-is.This dissertation focuses on the treatment of distributed ledger technology (DLT) applications under the existing regulation in Estonia and the EU based on the analysis of specific use cases. The existing regulatory frameworks in most jurisdictions were built for centralized infrastructures and not for distributed ones, such as built on DLT. Consequently, current legal frameworks may inhibit the use of DLT due to either apparent or non-apparent biases written into the regulation. DLT on the other hand represents a “general-purpose technology” that, therefore, has abundance of applications including its most well known examples of blockchain and Bitcoin. The discrepancy between old rules and new tools is nothing new as the development of the digital world in comparison to the physical world led to the same problem. Therefore, the research problem addressed in the dissertation is not specific to DLT, but linked to the uptake of any new technology. With the aim to explore the potentially inhibiting effect of existing regulation, specific DLT use cases are investigated: (i) bitcoin exchange-service provision; (ii) DLT-based shareholder ledger maintenance and (iii) use of DLT-based electronic signature and hybrid smart contract agreements. In this exploration, the principle of technology neutrality and its sub-principle of functional equivalence are utilized as benchmarks for the identification of biases. The aim of these principles is to prohibit regulators from favouring some technologies and discriminating against others. The use case analyses show that some of the existing regulation is not technology-neutral due to inbound bias for centralized solutions. Furthermore, effects equivalence is not granted by existing regulation to functionally equivalent DLT-based solutions. Against this background, the dissertation discusses the reasons for these biases and regulative strategies to resolve these in a sustainable manner. The dissertation is especially relevant considering the goal of the proposed EU regulations of the Digital Finance Package introduced in late 2020 to promote the use of DLT in the EU.https://www.ester.ee/record=b542731

Testing a scale to measure food business legitimacy

A well-developed body of knowledge exists about how small businesses can achieve legitimacy, but the canon of literature is profoundly lacking tangible information about the criteria for legitimacy in the food sector. The purpose of this study was to test, extend, and validate the Johnson and Dibrell legitimacy scale (Johnson, Dibrell, Holcomb, & Craig, 2007), which seeks to operationalize a scale to measure legitimacy forms and legitimating strategies of food businesses. This study employed a quantitative research design to address the three research objectives for this study. Data for this study were collected with a questionnaire instrument administered on the Internet to a sample of food processors and manufacturers who have worked with the Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center in Oklahoma. Statistical analyses, including descriptive statistics, principal components analysis, and tests of validity and reliability were applied to: a) use the Johnson and Dibrell legitimacy scale to measure the extent to which participating firms engage in behaviors related to legitimacy forms and legitimating strategies, b) evaluate to what extent factors of the Johnson and Dibrell legitimacy scale instrument explain the variance in the pattern of relationships among items, and c) evaluate reliability and validity of the Johnson and Dibrell legitimacy scale instrument. Findings indicated respondents' firms were more likely to engage conformance strategies and behaviors related to regulatory legitimacy and less likely to engage in manipulation and selection strategies than other legitimating strategies and legitimacy forms. Data from this study reveal nine components contributed to 79.95% of the explained variance in the pattern of relationships among the items, and coefficient values for five of the components exceeded the widely-accepted alpha threshold of .70

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Institutions in strategic niche management : The case of low temperature two-way district heating innovation of Skanssi

Murroskirjallisuus tutkii yhteiskunnan kestävyyteen liittyviä haasteita ja tarjoaa niihin ratkaisuja luomalla kestävyysvisioita. Energiajärjestelmän murros on välttämätöntä ilmastonmuutoksen vaikutuksien lieventämisessä ja kestävän elämäntavan saavuttamisessa. Kaukolämpö on keskeinen osa suomalaista energiajärjestelmää ja suurin osa lämmöstä tuotetaan fossiilisilla polttoaineilla. Tapaustutkimus käsittelee Turun Skanssin alueelle toteutettavaa matalalämpöistä ja kaksisuuntaista kaukolämpökokeilua. Paikalliset kokeilut, ns. niche innovaatiot, ovat yhteiskunnallisten murrosten lähtökohtia, jotka luovat visioita kestävistä vaihtoehdoista. Vaihtoehtoisten ja kestävien järjestelmien leviämisen ja käyttöönoton haasteena ovat erilaiset hidasteet, kuten institutionalisoituneet käytännöt. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkastella Skanssin kaukolämpökokeilua murroskirjallisuutta hyödyntäen, sekä tarkastella sen toimeenpanoon vaikuttaneita instituutioita. Tutkimusmateriaali kerättiin haastattelemalla paikallisen kaukolämpökokeilun suunnittelun ja toimeenpanon keskeisimpiä toimijoita. Haastatteluaineisto analysoitiin teoriaohjaavaa sisällönanalyysiä hyödyntämällä. Haastatteluaineiston lisäksi sekundaariaineistona hyödynnettiin internetistä löytyvää materiaalia. Kaukolämpökokeilu aloitettiin energiayhtiön ja kaupungin toimesta. Kokeilua kohtaan oli useita odotuksia, kuten energiajärjestelmän päästöjen vähentäminen ja hajautetun lämmöntuotannon järjestäminen Skanssin alueelle. Kokeilun toimeenpano oli pysähtynyt vuonna 2018 ja kaksisuuntaista järjestelmää ei oltu saatu aikaan. Skanssin hidas rakentuminen hidasti myös kaukolämpökokeilun toimeenpanoa. Lisäksi useat regulatiiviset, normatiiviset ja kulttuuris-kognitiiviset instituutiot vaikuttivat kaukolämpökokeilun suunnitteluun ja toimeenpanoon. Kaksisuuntaista järjestelmää käsittelevää sääntelyä ei ollut olemassa, mikä lisäsi epävarmuutta kokeiluun. Lisäksi kokeilu ei vastannut asukkaiden tai rakennuttajien toimintatapoja, rooleja tai kiinnostuksen kohteita. Tulokset osoittavat, että kaksisuuntainen kaukolämpö on vielä vakiintumaton osa energiajärjestelmää ja täten sen toimeenpano on hidasta ja epävarmaa. Aineiston keräämisen jälkeen kaukolämpöalalla on tapahtunut muutoksia ja näillä muutoksilla voi olla vaikutusta myös Skanssin paikallisen kokeilun kehittymiseen. Paikalliset kokeilut ovat keskeisiä energiamurroksen edistämiselle, joten olisi tärkeää, että kaukolämpökokeilua jatketaan alueella.Sustainability transitions literature addresses societal challenges relating to sustainability and offers alternative visions as solutions. Transition of the energy system is central in mitigating climate change and attaining sustainability. District heating is a fundamental part of the Finnish energy system, and the majority of heat is produced with fossil fuels. This case study investigates the low temperature and two-way district heating experiment of Skanssi in Turku. Transitions evolve from local experiments i.e. niche innovations, which propose visions of sustainable alternatives. The implementation and diffusion of these alternatives is challenged by various hindrances, such as institutionalized practices. The aim of the study is to investigate the district heating experiment of Skanssi by utilizing sustainability transition literature. In addition, the study examines the institutions that hampered the implementation of the local niche innovation. The research data was collected by interviewing the central actors related to the development and implementation of the local district heating experiment. The interview data was analyzed using theory-guided content analysis. Internet based material of the case was utilized as secondary data. The local district heating experiment was initiated by the regional energy company in cooperation with the city of Turku. The experiment was expected to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and to provide decentralized heat production in the Skanssi area. The implementation of the experiment had halted in 2018, and a two-way heating system had not been realized. Slow construction of the houses in the area hindered the implementation of the experiment. In addition various regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions effected the planning and implementation of the experiment. The lack of regulation concerning two-way heating systems increased uncertainty around the experiment. Furthermore, the experiment did not suit the practices, roles and interests of both the inhabitants and housing developers. The findings show that two-way district heating systems are still highly uncommon, and thus their implementation is inert and uncertain. After the data collection of this study there have been changes in the district heat sector, which may have influenced the development of the experiment in Skanssi. Since local experiments are essential in advancing the energy transition, it would be important to continue implementation of the local district heating experiment