Digital threads: Towards personalised craft production in Malay cottage industries

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The Digital Threads project addresses the challenge of poverty for rural Malay women and its risk for the cultural heritage of traditional weaving practices. Cottage industries across the entire region of South Asia are considered beneficial both for economic growth and as accessible means to alleviate rural poverty. The Malay Government has invested significantly over recent decades to revitalise weaving practices such as songket textiles. However, there has been limited success since these initiatives have adopted a traditional product-centric business model and made limited use of digital technologies.In this project we will engage in ground-breaking interdisciplinary research to promote sustainable economic development and welfare in Malaysia by radically changing the business models of cottage industries. The project will explore more sustainable and innovative business models flexible to integrate cutting-edge technologies that place customers at the centre of personalised production. We propose the design of digital applications which could be built upon distributed ledger technology for the management of the demand chain. These in turn will be able to support the hand-making of unique individual artefacts rather than mass-production commodities.The Digital Threads project has the potential for significant economic and social contributions. We draw expertise from HCI, computer science, and information management to deliver: (i) new knowledge about the cottage industries and their decentralised handmade modes of production;(ii) innovative customer-centric business models for the management of the demand chain; and (iii) novel designs of digital technologies for shaping these business models through fresh approaches to designing for provenance. Such approaches will enable the transparency of the hand-making process, the maker's experience, and the value of cultural heritage embedded in it. These outcomes have the potential to bring the Malay cottage industries into the 21st century and its worldwide Digital Economy whilst honouring and leveraging their cultural heritage. They will also leverage the less explored potential of blockchain technologies for social impact and for addressing the global challenge of poverty.