645 research outputs found

    The Politics of Platformization: Amsterdam Dialogues on Platform Theory

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    What is platformization and why is it a relevant category in the contemporary political landscape? How is it related to cybernetics and the history of computation? This book tries to answer such questions by engaging in multidisciplinary dialogues about the first ten years of the emerging fields of platform studies and platform theory. It deploys a narrative and playful approach that makes use of anecdotes, personal histories, etymologies, and futurable speculations to investigate both the fragmented genealogy that led to platformization and the organizational and economic trends that guide nowadays platform sociotechnical imaginaries

    Copyright as a constraint on creating technological value

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    Defence date: 8 January 2019Examining Board: Giovanni Sartor, EUI; Peter Drahos, EUI; Jane C. Ginsburg, Columbia Law School; Raquel Xalabarder, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.How do we legislate for the unknown? This work tackles the question from the perspective of copyright, analysing the judicial practice emerging from case law on new uses of intellectual property resulting from technological change. Starting off by comparing results of actual innovation-related cases decided in jurisdictions with and without the fair use defence available, it delves deeper into the pathways of judicial reasoning and doctrinal debate arising in the two copyright realities, describing the dark sides of legal flexibility, the attempts to ‘bring order into chaos’ on one side and, on the other, the effort of judges actively looking for ways not to close the door on valuable innovation where inflexible legislation was about to become an impassable choke point. The analysis then moves away from the high-budget, large-scale innovation projects financed by the giants of the Internet era. Instead, building upon the findings of Yochai Benkler on the subject of networked creativity, it brings forth a type of innovation that brings together networked individuals, sharing and building upon each other’s results instead of competing, while often working for non-economic motivations. It is seemingly the same type of innovation, deeply rooted in the so-called ‘nerd culture’, that powered the early years of the 20th century digital revolution. As this culture was put on trial when Oracle famously sued Google for reuse of Java in the Android mobile operating system, the commentary emerging from the surrounding debate allowed to draw more general conclusions about what powers the digital evolution in a networked environment. Lastly, analysing the current trends in European cases, the analysis concludes by offering a rationale as to why a transformative use exception would allow courts to openly engage in the types of reasoning that seem to have become a necessity in cases on the fringes of copyright

    Regulating digitalization in TĂŒrkiye

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    The Law No. 6563 on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce (the “E-commerce Law”) of TĂŒrkiye has been considered inefficient to address the problems created in the face of rapidly changing technology and digitalization. It was amended with the Law on the Regulation of Electronic Commerce Amendment Law (the “Amending Law”) adopted by the Turkish Parliament on 1 July 2022. Influenced by the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act, the Amending Law was published in the Official Gazette on 7 July 2022 and was entered into force on 1 January 2023. The new Law aims to protect the competitive environment, prohibit unfair commercial practices and monopolization, and ensure a healthy growth of the e-commerce sector in TĂŒrkiye. Yet, it brings radical changes to the previous legislation. The operations of sector players will be significantly affected by the new definitions and by the new obligations and restrictions that were introduced and imposed in the Amending Law. Separately, the Draft Digital Markets Bill to amend the Law on Protection of Competition (the “Competition Law”) was published in October 2022. Amendments that come with the Draft Bill aim to regulate and protect the fair and competitive environment in the digital markets while ensuring further compliance with the EU legislation. This special issue of the Network Industries Quarterly features five short articles which mainly explore the potential effects of the changes in the E-commerce Law and the Competition Law. This issue also presents an analysis on the recent developments and challenges in the regulation of data privacy in TĂŒrkiye.1. The Legal Treatment of Online Multi-Sided Platforms in Turkey: New Obligations for E-Commerce Marketplaces Laid Down in Amendments to the Law on the Regulation of E-Commerce, Erman Ekingen; 2. The Proposed Amendment to the Turkish Competition Act: Will the Emperor Have New Clothes?, Att. Bora İkiler and Att. Barış Yüksel; 3. Regulating E-Commerce in Turkey: A Step Taken Too Early, Ramiz Arslan and Aysu Tanoğlu; 4. How Will Turkey’s E-Commerce Law and Draft Bill on Competition Law Affect E-Commerce Platforms?, Bulut Girgin, Orçun Horozoğlu and Efe Utku Çal; 5. Regulating Data Privacy in Turkey: Recent Developments, Challenges and Reflections for the Future, Çiçek Erso

    Doing Things with Words: The New Consequences of Writing in the Age of AI

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    Exploring the entanglement between artificial intelligence (AI) and writing, this thesis asks, what does writing with AI do? And, how can this doing be made visible, since the consequences of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are so often opaque? To propose one set of answers to the questions above, I begin by working with Google Smart Compose, the word-prediction AI Google launched to more than a billion global users in 2018, by way of a novel method I call AI interaction experiments. In these experiments, I transcribe texts into Gmail and Google Docs, carefully documenting Smart Compose’s interventions and output. Wedding these experiments to existing scholarship, I argue that writing with AI does three things: it engages writers in asymmetrical economic relations with Big Tech; it entangles unwitting writers in climate crisis by virtue of the vast resources, as Bender et al. (2021), Crawford (2021), and Strubell et al. (2019) have pointed out, required to train and sustain AI models; and it perpetuates linguistic racism, further embedding harmful politics of race and representation in everyday life. In making these arguments, my purpose is to intervene in normative discourses surrounding technology, exposing hard-to-see consequences so that we—people in the academy, critical media scholars, educators, and especially those of us in dominant groups— may envision better futures. Toward both exposure and reimagining, my dissertation’s primary contributions are research-creational work. Research-creational interventions accompany each of the three major chapters of this work, drawing attention to the economic, climate, and race relations that word-prediction AI conceals and to the otherwise opaque premises on which it rests. The broader wager of my dissertation is that what technologies do and what they are is inseparable: the relations a technology enacts must be exposed, and they must necessarily figure into how we understand the technology itself. Because writing with AI enacts particular economic, climate, and race relations, these relations must figure into our understanding of what it means to write with AI and, because of AI’s increasing entanglement with acts of writing, into our very understanding of what it means to write

    LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volum

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Advertising

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    Nowadays, information technology is not only widely used in all walks of life but also fully applied in the marketing and advertisement sector. In particular, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has received growing attention worldwide because of its impact on advertising. However, it remains unclear how social media users react to AI advertisements. The purpose of this study is to examine the behavior of social media users towards AI-based advertisements. This study used a qualitative method, including a semi-structured interview. A total of 23 semi-structured interviews were conducted with social media users aged 18 and over, using a purposive sampling method. The interviews lasted between 27.05–50.39 minutes on average (Mean: 37.48 SD: 6.25) between August and October 2021. We categorized the findings of the current qualitative research into three main process themes: I) reception; II) diving; and III) break-point. While 'reception' covers positive and negative sub-themes, 'diving' includes three themes: comparison, timesaving, and leaping. The final theme, 'break-point', represents the decision-making stage and includes negative or positive opinions. This study provides content producers, social media practitioners, marketing managers, advertising industry, AI researchers, and academics with many insights into AI advertising

    State sovereignty and capitalism's relationship in the digital age. A critical analysis of platform capitalism, collaborative governance, and big data.

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    openThe aim of the research is to analyse the relationship between state sovereignty and market capitalism starting from the ‘80s in the western countries, after the advent of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In order to do so, the thesis will display a schematic critique of the new forms of platform capitalism, platform urbanism, and big data analysis. The chapters will follow the three power relations between state, market, and citizens, assessing the various problems concerning the use of big data, such as security issues, exploitation, extraction of value, and democratic accountability. Apart from an organic critique, the following research’s main thesis is that the collaborative governance is a new conjunction ring between capitalism and state power, that brought into existence a new market of public service delivery and a sell-out of state political legitimacy. In the first chapter I will outline the historical framework that brought the diffusion of the ICTs, marking out the economical and political changes following the ‘80s. The second chapter will analyse the power relation between State and citizens. Following the two cases of Cambridge Analytica and Edward Snowden, I will discuss the evolution of state security and the riskiness related to big data for the democratic accountability. The third chapter will discuss the platform urbanism and the critiques concerning the Smart cities. With a critical perspective about collaborative governance, I will assert that in the last decades a new market based on the public service delivery has expanded, creating accountability and legitimacy issues for the western democracies. In the fourth and last chapter I will examine the power relation between citizens and the market, discussing the platform capitalism, the gig economy and the new forms of extraction of value related to the use of big data.The aim of the research is to analyse the relationship between state sovereignty and market capitalism starting from the ‘80s in the western countries, after the advent of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In order to do so, the thesis will display a schematic critique of the new forms of platform capitalism, platform urbanism, and big data analysis. The chapters will follow the three power relations between state, market, and citizens, assessing the various problems concerning the use of big data, such as security issues, exploitation, extraction of value, and democratic accountability. Apart from an organic critique, the following research’s main thesis is that the collaborative governance is a new conjunction ring between capitalism and state power, that brought into existence a new market of public service delivery and a sell-out of state political legitimacy. In the first chapter I will outline the historical framework that brought the diffusion of the ICTs, marking out the economical and political changes following the ‘80s. The second chapter will analyse the power relation between State and citizens. Following the two cases of Cambridge Analytica and Edward Snowden, I will discuss the evolution of state security and the riskiness related to big data for the democratic accountability. The third chapter will discuss the platform urbanism and the critiques concerning the Smart cities. With a critical perspective about collaborative governance, I will assert that in the last decades a new market based on the public service delivery has expanded, creating accountability and legitimacy issues for the western democracies. In the fourth and last chapter I will examine the power relation between citizens and the market, discussing the platform capitalism, the gig economy and the new forms of extraction of value related to the use of big data

    Principles of ecosystem strategy

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    Strategy scholars and business practitioners alike are increasingly using the ecosystem concept to describe networks of interdependent firms that collaborate and align to offer complementary products and services and collectively contribute to an overarching value proposition. Companies that operate in ecosystems are playing by a different set of strategy rules to navigate these complex, interconnected and dynamic business environments. Accordingly, a whole new stream of literature is emerging, specifically looking at strategic management in the context of ecosystems. Early research in that field has generally taken a static view and examined firm strategy form the perspective of ecosystem leaders, who often exert a disproportionate influence over the ecosystem structure and capture the lion’s share of profits. Less is known about firm strategy from the perspective of ecosystem complementors, who are responsible for a significant share of the co-created value but are often dismissed as passive actors, subject to the whims of the more powerful ecosystem leader. This dissertation addresses this gap through three tightly linked studies. The first study reviews over 250 academic articles from the ecosystem literature and discusses the status quo of research on ecosystem strategy, identifying several blind spots and avenues for future research, among which the almost exclusive attention given to the ecosystem leader perspective at the cost of better understanding complementors’ strategic options. The second study builds upon the first one by taking aim at the burgeoning research on complementor strategy. It analyses this subset of the literature in depth, synthesises our current understanding of complementor strategy, and identifies several theoretical gaps and avenues for further research in that stream. This includes, for example, the question of how complementors can navigate ecosystem change. Finally, the third study specifically addresses this gap by empirically studying how complementors respond to and navigate ecosystem change. To do so, over 40 mobile app developers were interviewed in the context of Apple’s introduction of a new mobile operating system (iOS 14.5) for its iPhone. Together, these studies offer several theoretical and managerial contributions. The central theoretical contribution of this dissertation is to examine the multiple facets of strategic management in ecosystems, both from an ecosystem leader and from a complementor perspective. Specifically, the dissertation highlights how ecosystem members can gain a competitive edge and capture value in hypercompetitive and interconnected value creation systems, thus contributing both to the ecosystem and strategic management literature. Furthermore, my dissertation also uncovers how changes initiated by the ecosystem leader can ripple through an ecosystem and affect complementor performance, thus expanding our current understanding of platform dynamics and highlighting the importance of the dynamic capabilities concept for ecosystem research. Also, by elucidating how complementors adapt to ecosystem change, my dissertation contributes to the literature on business models and business model innovation in the context of ecosystems and platforms. Finally, by comparing and discussing the differences between ecosystem strategy and more established views in the strategic management literature, my dissertation also draws a bridge between seminal strategy work and the new field of ecosystem strategy. The central managerial contribution of this dissertation is to offer strategic insights into how firms (both ecosystem leaders and complementors) can successfully navigate ecosystem change, based on the case study of Apple’s introduction of the ATT framework. Concretely, my study suggests several ways in which ecosystem leaders could minimize disruption and successfully execute platform change, while also highlighting a wide range of strategies complementors have at their disposal to avoid the negative effects of ecosystem dynamics and seize potential opportunities arising in the context of ecosystem disruption

    Automated editorial control:Responsibility for news personalisation under European media law

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    News personalisation allows social and traditional media media to show each individual different information that is ‘relevant’ to them. The technology plays an important role in the digital media environment, as it navigates individuals through the vast amounts of content available online. However, determining what news an individual should see involves nuanced editorial judgment. The public and legal debate have highlighted the dangers, ranging filter bubbles to polarisation, that could result from ignoring the need for such editorial judgment.This dissertation analyses how editorial responsibility should be safeguarded in the context of news personalisation. It argues that a key challenge to the responsible implementation of news personalisation lies in the way it changes the exercise of editorial control. Rather than an editor deciding what news is on the frontpage, personalisation algorithms’ recommendations are influenced by software engineers, news recipients, business departments, product managers, and/or editors and journalists. The dissertation uses legal and empirical research to analyse the roles and responsibilities of three central actors: traditional media, platforms, and news users. It concludes law can play an important role by enabling stakeholders to control personalisation in line with editorial values. It can do so by for example ensuring the availability of metrics that allow editors to evaluate personalisation algorithms, or by enabling individuals to understand and influence how personalisation shapes their news diet. At the same time, law must ensure an appropriate allocation of responsibility in the face of fragmenting editorial control, including by moving towards cooperative responsibility for platforms and ensuring editors can control the design of personalisation algorithms
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