POTs: Protective Optimization Technologies

Algorithmic fairness aims to address the economic, moral, social, and political impact that digital systems have on populations through solutions that can be applied by service providers. Fairness frameworks do so, in part, by mapping these problems to a narrow definition and assuming the service providers can be trusted to deploy countermeasures. Not surprisingly, these decisions limit fairness frameworks' ability to capture a variety of harms caused by systems. We characterize fairness limitations using concepts from requirements engineering and from social sciences. We show that the focus on algorithms' inputs and outputs misses harms that arise from systems interacting with the world; that the focus on bias and discrimination omits broader harms on populations and their environments; and that relying on service providers excludes scenarios where they are not cooperative or intentionally adversarial. We propose Protective Optimization Technologies (POTs). POTs provide means for affected parties to address the negative impacts of systems in the environment, expanding avenues for political contestation. POTs intervene from outside the system, do not require service providers to cooperate, and can serve to correct, shift, or expose harms that systems impose on populations and their environments. We illustrate the potential and limitations of POTs in two case studies: countering road congestion caused by traffic-beating applications, and recalibrating credit scoring for loan applicants.Comment: Appears in Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* 2020). Bogdan Kulynych and Rebekah Overdorf contributed equally to this work. Version v1/v2 by Seda G\"urses, Rebekah Overdorf, and Ero Balsa was presented at HotPETS 2018 and at PiMLAI 201

Reimagining Disruptive Technologies: The User Experience of Netflix and Pokémon GO in Australia

The user experience of disruptive technologies is insufficiently understood by industry and academia as discourse is typically centered around the impact of new technologies on existing services, business models, and their respective industries. This thesis seeks to address this gap in knowledge and develops an original framework, the Disruption-Experience Model (D-E Model), for identifying and describing user experiences of technologies that have been perceived as disruptive. The D-E model involves three interlinking concepts: stabilisation, which is a sustaining experience whereby thoughts, feelings and practices are reinforced; destabilisation, which is a dysfunctional experience whereby thoughts, feelings and practices are undermined; and transformation, which is a novel experience whereby thoughts, feelings and practices are dramatically shifting. The methodology for the thesis draws on principles from ethnography, and 28 participants were recruited from the city of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia for the investigation of two case studies: the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Netflix and the augmented reality (AR) mobile gaming application Pokémon GO (PoGO). By observing online discussions, talking to Netflix and PoGO users directly through interviews and participating in walk-alongs, I found that the user experience diverges from some of the established perceptions identified from the literature and public discourse. Netflix has been perceived as a dramatic disruption for the Australian television industry, but in terms of the user experience it was mostly a continuation of existing viewing practices, with internet piracy as the middle-man. PoGO was perceived as disruptive in different ways by different people, with game changing implications for the AR, marketing and mobile gaming industries. However, users were less interested in the innovative aspects of the game and more excited about experiencing Pokémon in a new way and being part of a historical, cultural moment. This thesis provides nuance to conversations of disruptive technologies by including the point of view of the user, and the D-E Model can be useful for understanding experiences of other technologies—or potential disruptions—in the future

Post-industrial Virtue Epistemology on Globalized Games and Robotics

With the development of personalized and globalized technologies, a discussion regarding how and why virtue epistemology should be an essential part of post-industrial ethical analysis on augmented technologies and use of robotics in the global age becomes crucial. These globalized technologies in the form of either game apps (i.e., Pokémon Go) or robotics like drones become through the Internet multimedia a structural part of planetary digitalization. While this development takes place, traditional virtue epistemology responds insufficiently to the devitalization of knowledge regarding manners (savoir vivre) and ways (savoir faire) of practicing and the need to respond to the sudden expansion of augmented games and drone use with personal and social intellect, responsibility, and consequently safety. The chapter intends to discuss this analysis in order to argue that a postindustrial epistemic reconfiguration of digital ethics is necessary, since augmented reality games and robotics are taking the form of massive trends for adults and nonadults, while for the first time, digital gaming and robot entertainment exceed the limits of the personal space and the virtual mode of the screen, moving out into the public realm, where reality is mixed with virtuality and human environment with unmanned robots

When Worlds Collide: Protecting Physical World Interests Against Virtual World Malfeasance

If a virtual-world-game character is cast upon real-world property without the consent of the landowner, inducing or encouraging players to trespass, is the virtual-world creator liable for damages? The United States Supreme Court has recognized that digital technology presents novel issues, the resolution of which must anticipate its further rapid development. It is beyond dispute that protective legislation will be unable to keep up with rapidly evolving technology. The burden of anticipating and addressing issues presented by emerging technologies will ultimately fall upon the businesses responsible for generating them. This duty was most notably adopted by the creators of Pokémon Go in settlement of nuisance and trespass claims brought by a nationwide class seeking injunctive relief from the placement of virtual Pokéstops and Pokémon Gyms (“Gyms”) on real property. This article is the first to address this landmark settlement and proposes that future developers and creators seeking to avoid similar liability exposure implement selfregulatory practices, such as Value Sensitive Design, to create human values-based frameworks within which they can create and advance technologies. The societal need and social impact of such self-regulation is clearly illustrated by emerging litigation seeking to hold virtual-world actors responsible for real-world consequences utilizing common law tort theories. In the absence of legislation, as case law develops, self-regulatory frameworks like Value Sensitive Design are essential to create constructs within which creators can develop technologies that consider human values, address civic concerns, and avoid lawsuits, while still achieving commercial and technological objectives

PokéStops and Other Spaces of Our Lives: Co-Creation of Social Spatiality Through Consumption of Pokémon GO

The tremendous Pokémon GO craze got the world by surprise in July 2016. Within a couple of days this location-based mobile game gathered a record-breaking number of downloads and transformed the urban environment into a game board by driving people outside their homes to catch imaginary creatures. Combining the physical reality and imagination, this ‘pervasive’ game can be thought of as a new instance of digital virtual consumption (DVC) that could have an enhanced potential to simulate consumer fantasies. While there is a decade of research on how the urban environment can be experienced differently through location-aware technologies, most of it is outdated. Furthermore, little attention has been paid to the full spectrum of social spaces following Lefebvre’s (1991) triad that extends beyond behavior in the observable environment. The aim of this research is to help fill those gaps in understanding how consumers participate in the co-creation of social spaces through the next-generation location-based mobile games as a part of their daily lives. Moreover, the goal is to examine how the interface between the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary’ is being experienced, and what kind of a role gamification plays in the equation. The research problem is approached through qualitative research methods leaning on the philosophical assumptions of interpretivism and phenomenology, that view the world as socially constructed and only understood through one’s ‘being’ in it. The research lies within the field of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) that explores the dynamic interplay of consumer behavior, environment and culture through contextual, symbolic and experiential aspects of consumption. Consequently, the aim is to describe the phenomenon rather than to find an explanation for it. The research identifies three main themes that together describe the experience of co-creating social spaces through game play. These are labelled as I) trusting the community to fill in the blanks, II) negotiation between spaces of play and duty, and III) making the most of both worlds. Together they draw a picture of a constant struggle between the player community and the game over agency in creating the experience; transformation of spaces and places through the practice of ‘mapping’; un-controlled switches between spaces of nostalgia and responsibility due to loss of anonymity in the physical reality; and developing alternative game interfaces to optimally integrate the game into players’ everyday spaces. Furthermore, the findings imply an emergence of a new form of gamification, where the core ‘service’ being gamified is, in fact, an individual life as a whole

Gotta Catch . . . a Lawsuit? A Legal Insight into the Intellectual, Civil, and Criminal Battlefield Pokémon Go has Downloaded onto Smartphones and Properties Around the World, 16 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 329 (2017)

Our society, and its millennials, have entered the digital age, whereby almost everything is conducted and perpetuated through electronic devices. Smartphones have dominated the mobile device market and have allowed its users to download mobile applications and games to the device. Pokémon Go, is the latest trend in mobile gaming and the start to a bright future of augmented reality. But what happens when augmented reality meets the physical world? Do our modern-day statutes and laws extend into the cyberspace that it is augmented reality? What happens when a user of an augmented reality game enters onto the property of another and interferes with that individual\u27s fundamental property right of quiet enjoyment and use of the property? Should the mobile game user be held liable under trespassing or nuisance laws? Should the Developers of such a game be held liable under theories of negligence, trespass, and/or nuisance? This article attempts to explore the concept of augmented reality as it pertains to the creation of Pokémon Go by Niantic, Inc., The Pokémon Company, and Nintendo. Pokémon Go is the latest augmented reality game for iPhone and Android, which allows its user to travel in the physical world, while catching Pokémon in the virtual world, depicted through a Google interface overlay

Locating Mobile Media Audiences: In Plain View With Pokémon Go

Mobile media audiences are a central part of understanding audiences in a digital world. In this chapter, I approach the apparently new development of Pokémon GO via a broader thinking of what mobile means in relation to digital audiences. To provide a context for understanding Pokémon GO, I discuss the emergence of mobile media audiences, and the increasingly prominent role location has played in these formations. I trace the emergence of Pokémon GO, placing into the recent history of mapping, locative media, and augmented reality (AR) technology, and discuss the case of Pokémon GO against the histories of mobile gaming. I conclude with some remarks on the discursive, business, technology, and design strategies evident in Niantic’s effort to configure and sustain the phenomenal success of its Pokémon GO launch.Australian Research Counci