Beyond opening up the black box: Investigating the role of algorithmic systems in Wikipedian organizational culture

Scholars and practitioners across domains are increasingly concerned with algorithmic transparency and opacity, interrogating the values and assumptions embedded in automated, black-boxed systems, particularly in user-generated content platforms. I report from an ethnography of infrastructure in Wikipedia to discuss an often understudied aspect of this topic: the local, contextual, learned expertise involved in participating in a highly automated social-technical environment. Today, the organizational culture of Wikipedia is deeply intertwined with various data-driven algorithmic systems, which Wikipedians rely on to help manage and govern the "anyone can edit" encyclopedia at a massive scale. These bots, scripts, tools, plugins, and dashboards make Wikipedia more efficient for those who know how to work with them, but like all organizational culture, newcomers must learn them if they want to fully participate. I illustrate how cultural and organizational expertise is enacted around algorithmic agents by discussing two autoethnographic vignettes, which relate my personal experience as a veteran in Wikipedia. I present thick descriptions of how governance and gatekeeping practices are articulated through and in alignment with these automated infrastructures. Over the past 15 years, Wikipedian veterans and administrators have made specific decisions to support administrative and editorial workflows with automation in particular ways and not others. I use these cases of Wikipedia's bot-supported bureaucracy to discuss several issues in the fields of critical algorithms studies, critical data studies, and fairness, accountability, and transparency in machine learning -- most principally arguing that scholarship and practice must go beyond trying to "open up the black box" of such systems and also examine sociocultural processes like newcomer socialization.Comment: 14 pages, typo fixed in v

German and Israeli Innovation: The Best of Two Worlds

This study reviews – through desk research and expert interviews with Mittelstand companies, startups and ecosystem experts – the current status of the Israeli startup ecosystem and the Mittelstand region of North Rhine- Westphalia (NRW), Germany. As a case study, it highlights potential opportunities for collaboration and analyzes different engagement modes that might serve to connect the two regions. The potential synergies between the two economies are based on a high degree of complementarity. A comparison of NRW’s key verticals and Israel’s primary areas of innovation indicates that there is significant overlap in verticals, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), sensors and cybersecurity. Israeli startups can offer speed, agility and new ideas, while German Mittelstand companies can contribute expertise in production and scaling, access to markets, capital and support. The differences between Mittelstand companies and startups are less pronounced than those between startups and big corporations. However, three current barriers to fruitful collaboration have been identified: 1) a lack of access, 2) a lack of transparency regarding relevant players in the market, and 3) a lack of the internal resources needed to select the right partners, often due to time constraints or a lack of internal expertise on this issue. To ensure that positive business opportunities ensue, Mittelstand companies and startups alike have to be proactive in their search for cooperation partners and draw on a range of existing engagement modes (e.g., events, communities, accelerators). The interviews and the research conducted for this study made clear that no single mode of engagement can address all the needs and challenges associated with German-Israeli collaboration

Identification of Marine Biotechnology Value Chains with High Potential in the Northern Mediterranean Region

© 2023. The authors. This document is made available under the CC-BY 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by /4.0/ This document is the Accepted version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Marine Drugs. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.3390/md21070416Marine (blue) biotechnology is an emerging field enabling the valorization of new products and processes with massive potential for innovation and economic growth. In the Mediterranean region, this innovation potential is not exploited as well as in other European regions due to a lack of a clear identification of the different value chains and the high fragmentation of business innovation initiatives. As a result, several opportunities to create an innovative society are being missed. To address this problem, eight Northern Mediterranean countries (Croatia, France, Greece, Mar. Drugs 2023, 21, 416. https://doi.org/10.3390/md21070416 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs Mar. Drugs 2023, 21, 416 2 of 26 Italy, Montenegro, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain) established five national blue biotechnology hubs to identify and address the bottlenecks that prevent the development of marine biotechnology in the region. Following a three-step approach (1. Analysis: setting the scene; 2. Transfer: identification of promising value chains; 3. Capitalization: community creation), we identified the three value chains that are most promising for the Northern Mediterranean region: algae production for added-value compounds, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) and valorization aquaculture/fisheries/processing by-products, unavoidable/unwanted catches and discards. The potential for the development and the technical and non-technical skills that are necessary to advance in this exciting field were identified through several stakeholder events which provided valuable insight and feedback that should be addressed for marine biotechnology in the Northern Mediterranean region to reach its full potential

Information Outlook, September/October 2014

Volume 18, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_io_2014/1004/thumbnail.jp

Succeeding with Smart People Initiatives: Difficulties and Preconditions for Smart City Initiatives that Target Citizens

Smart City is a paradigm for the development of urban spaces through the implementation of state-of-the-art ICT. There are two main approaches when developing Smart Cities: top-down and bottom-up. Based on the bottom-up approach, the concepts of Smart People and Smart Communities have emerged as dimensions of the Smart City, advocating for the engagement of citizens in Smart People initiatives. The aim of this research is both to find the types of Smart People initiatives and to identify their difficulties and preconditions for success. However, such initiatives that aim to (1) leverage the citizens intellectually and (2) use citizens as a source of input for ideas and innovation, are understudied. Therefore, this research proposes a concentrated framework of Smart People initiatives from an extensive literature review. On one hand, this framework contributes with a common ground and vocabulary that facilitates the dialogue within and between practitioners and academia. On the other hand, the identification of difficulties and preconditions guides the academia and practitioners in how to successfully account for citizens in the Smart City. From the literature review and the conduct of case studies of five European cities, participation came out as the key difficulty across both types of Smart People initiatives and cases, closely followed by awareness, motivation and complexity

Fostering cooperation in the European Union on skills, training and knowledge transfer in cultural heritage professions

Coordinadora junto a K. Gunthorpe, A. Limburg, N. Roche, E. SciacchitanoFor the first time, the Council of the European Union has invited a group of national experts to investigate skills, training and knowledge transfer in the heritage professions in Europe. The group was operational in 2017 and 2018 under the Work Plan for Culture 2015-2018, with the support of the European Commission. This report is intended to be a resource for the European Union (EU) to ensure the long-term sustainability of Europe’s cultural heritage. It aims to do this by contributing to the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 objective ‘to support the development of specialised skills and improve knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the cultural heritage sector, taking into account the implications of the digital shift’. It will also contribute to the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage, launched by the European Commission with the aim of leaving a policy imprint beyond 2018.Depto. de Pintura y Conservación-RestauraciónFac. de Bellas ArtesTRUEComisión Europeapu

Quo vadis entrepreneurship education? Danube Cup Conference 2022

The Danube Cup conference is committed to a participatory style with a wide range of university educator-led interactive sessions, presentations and keynote lectures delivered by inspirational startup professionals from the Danube region. A total of 31 abstracts from Austria, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Moldova, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were submitted, and 27 academic presentations have been accepted. These will take place in fifive sections, all led by recognised academics from Danube Cup partner universities or experts