Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, a highly ranked university, will start a project to measure and analyze the monetary and non-monetary value of music for users and creative entities in the European music ecosystem, funded by Europe Horizon Research and Innovation Action. The project will design, implement and test novel techniques to collect data about the distribution of music and its value for users and present this data to stakeholders in a web-enabled dashboard.
The PhD candidate will execute a thorough requirements elicitation process to find out what data is needed by which stakeholders, what data can be collected using the novel techniques available in the project, and what the confidentiality requirements of the different stakeholders are. This will be done in close cooperation with the second VU PhD in this project (on the economic value of music), music researchers at the Polytechnical University Valencia, and four intellectual property rights societies in Europe.
Second, the candidate will design a proof-of-concept of a distributed system that can carry out the required computations securely, without revealing confidential data. This will be done using multiparty-secure computation techniques supported by a panel of international renowned security researchers.
Third, the system will be tested in the living labs of the four IPR societies participating in the project. In these labs, creative entities and end-users of music will use the dashboard to track the distribution of music and assess its value. This will lead to new requirements that will be used to redesign the distributed system and its dashboard. At the end of the project, there will be a final test of the redesigned system and its dashboard.
Your duties
- To collect and understand the information requirements regarding the distribution and value of music. This includes confidentiality requirements.
- To design and implement a proof-of-concept of a distributed system that can perform the required information to stakeholders, without disclosing confidential data.
- To validate the proof-of-concept in the EU music ecosystem with the help of our partners, specifically creative entities, professional music users, intellectual property societies and policy makers.
- To work as part of a team of researchers and relevant parties in the music industry, share research ideas, results, and effectively communicate progress to produce top quality results.
- To write scientific publications as the main driving force and as co-author, attend international conferences, workshops and venues in the music industry to present your own work and to remain up-to date with the latest research findings.
- To support educational activities related to your research field.