'Datafication': Making sense of (big) data in a complex world

This is a pre-print of an article published in European Journal of Information Systems. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available at the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Operational Research Society Ltd.No abstract available (Editorial

Predictive policing management: a brief history of patrol automation

Predictive policing has attracted considerably scholarly attention. Extending the promise of being able to interdict crime prior to its commission, it seemingly promised forms of anticipatory policing that had previously existed only in the realms of science fiction. The aesthetic futurism that attended predictive policing did, however, obscure the important historical vectors from which it emerged. The adulation of technology as a tool for achieving efficiencies in policing was evident from the 1920s in the United States, reaching sustained momentum in the 1960s as the methods of Systems Analysis were applied to policing. Underpinning these efforts resided an imaginary of automated patrol facilitated by computerised command and control systems. The desire to automate police work has extended into the present, and is evident in an emergent platform policing – cloud-based technological architectures that increasingly enfold police work. Policing is consequently datafied, commodified and integrated into the circuits of contemporary digital capitalism

The Digital Architectures of Social Media: Comparing Political Campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. Election

The present study argues that political communication on social media is mediated by a platform's digital architecture, defined as the technical protocols that enable, constrain, and shape user behavior in a virtual space. A framework for understanding digital architectures is introduced, and four platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat) are compared along the typology. Using the 2016 US election as a case, interviews with three Republican digital strategists are combined with social media data to qualify the studyies theoretical claim that a platform's network structure, functionality, algorithmic filtering, and datafication model affect political campaign strategy on social media

Big data and humanitarian supply networks: Can Big Data give voice to the voiceless?

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright © 2013 IEEE.Billions of US dollars are spent each year in emergency aid to save lives and alleviate the suffering of those affected by disaster. This aid flows through a humanitarian system that consists of governments, different United Nations agencies, the Red Cross movement and myriad non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As scarcer resources, financial crisis and economic inter-dependencies continue to constrain humanitarian relief there is an increasing focus from donors and governments to assess the impact of humanitarian supply networks. Using commercial (`for-profit') supply networks as a benchmark; this paper exposes the counter-intuitive competition dynamic of humanitarian supply networks, which results in an open-loop system unable to calibrate supply with actual need and impact. In that light, the phenomenon of Big Data in the humanitarian field is discussed and an agenda for the `datafication' of the supply network set out as a means of closing the loop between supply, need and impact

The Datafication of Public Service Media Dreams, Dilemmas and Practical Problems:A Case Study of the Implementation of Personalized Recommendations at the Danish Public Service Media ‘DR’

Historically, public service broadcasting had no quantifiable knowledge about audiences, nor a great interest in knowing them. Today, the competitive logic of the media markets encourage public service media (PSM) organizations to increase datafication. In this paper we examine how a PSM organization interprets the classic public service obligations of creating societal cohesion and diversity in the new world of key performance indicators, business rules and algorithmic parameters.The paper presents a case study of the implementation of a personalization system for the video on demand service of the Danish PSM ‘DR’. Our empirical findings, based on longitudinal in-depth interviewing, indicate a long and difficult process of datafication of PSM, shaped by both the organizational path dependencies of broadcasting production and the expectations of public service broadcasting

Control responsibility : the discursive construction of privacy, teens, and Facebook in Flemish newspapers

This study explores the discursive construction of online privacy through a critical discourse analysis of Flemish newspapers' coverage of privacy, teens, and Facebook between 2007 and 2018 to determine what representation of (young) users the papers articulate. A privacy-as-control discourse is dominant and complemented by two other discourses: that of the unconcerned and reckless teenager and that of the promise of media literacy. Combined, these discourses form an authoritative language on privacy that we call "control responsibility." Control responsibility presents privacy as an individual responsibility that can be controlled and needs to be learned by young users. We argue that the discourses contribute to a neoliberal rationality and have a disciplinary effect that strengthens various forms of responsibilization

Datafication, Surveillance and Inclusion: A critical analysis of digital platforms and their role in India.

Inclusion within information systems and ICT4D research is primarily invoked as a positive benefit on the human actors involved. Set in this context, this thesis conceptualises inclusion under the growing presence of digital platforms as complex newfound participation afforded to socioeconomically marginalised individuals. The thesis employs two overlapping theoretical lenses of ‘liquid surveillance’ (Bauman & Lyon 2013) and ‘abnormal justice’ (Fraser 2008). Firstly, the metaphor of liquidity in this thesis deconstructs surveillance as a mesh of multiple visibilities within digital platforms. Secondly, a social justice framing positions the impact of the surveillant visibilities on marginalised individuals as an intersectional outcome of inclusion performed across cultural, economic and political dimensions.The empirical context involves studying India's governmentally mandated digital identity platform (Aadhaar), situated within the constellation of digital ‘gig-work’ platforms that are becoming prevalent sites of employment. The data presented forms a qualitative case study of the experience of three groups of gig-workers, namely domestic workers, cab-drivers and food-delivery workers, forming a total of 60 interviews. This is supported by ethnographic field observations and auto-ethnographic research, working as gig-worker in south India. The thesis is in an ‘alternative format’ with three constituent papers presenting interrelated perspectives of digital platforms and their wider ecosystem. The first paper studies the use of Aadhaar by domestic workers and cab-drivers (Krishna 2021) and operationalises ‘abnormal justice’ as a framework to theorise cultural, economic and political dimensions of justice as being synergistic with elements of surveillance and datafication inherent to digital identification. The second paper details the practices of datafication and surveillance within the food-delivery platform (Krishna 2020). It finds that in the performance of gig-work, (in)justice is experienced spatiotemporally by workers within their daily work practices. The third paper (Krishna n.d.) uses a lens of ‘liquid surveillance’ to conceptualise the concomitant roles of platforms in enacting surveillance and enabling inclusion. Within platform ecosystems, a ‘liquid inclusion’ is exposed to be dictated by episodic tasks of self-surveillance rather than being an absolute positive benefit of participating in the digital economy. The thesis bridges a gap in literature within information systems and ICT4D by juxtaposing surveillance and inclusion. It adds to the emerging literature on ‘data justice‘ in operationalising justice under platform ecosystems and specific practices of gig-work environments.Research PapersThere are two published papers within this thesis, with the third paper being finalised for submission. Krishna, S. (2020). Spatiotemporal (In) justice in Digital Platforms: An Analysis of Food-Delivery Platforms in South India. Proceedings of IFIP Joint Working Conference on the Future of Digital Work: The Challenge of Inequality (pp. 132-147). Springer, Cham. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-64697-4_11 Krishna, S. (2021). Digital identity, datafication and social justice: understanding Aadhaar use among informal workers in south India. Information Technology for Development, 27(1), 67-90. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2020.1818544 Krishna, S. (n.d.). Liquid Inclusion: The dynamics of inclusion under datafication and surveillance. In Preparation

Smart Tech is all Around us – Bridging Employee Vulnerability with Organizational Active Trust-Building

Public and academic opinion remains divided regarding the benefits and pitfalls of datafication technology in organizations, particularly regarding their impact on employees. Taking a dual-process perspective on trust, we propose that datafication technology can create small, erratic surprises in the workplace that highlight employee vulnerability and increase employees’ reliance on the systematic processing of trust. We argue that these surprises precipitate a phase in the employment relationship in which employees more actively weigh trust-related cues, and the employer should therefore engage in active trust management to protect and strengthen the relationship. Our paper develops a framework of symbolic and substantive strategies to guide organizations’ active trust management efforts to (re-)create situational normality, root goodwill intentions, and enable a more balanced interdependence between the organization and its employees. We discuss the implications of our paper for reconciling competing narratives about the future of work and for developing an understanding of trust processes.</p

The datafication of Public Service Media: Dreams, Dilemmas and Practical Problems A Case Study of the Implementation of Personalized Recommendations at the Danish Public Service Media ‘DR’

Historically, public service broadcasting had no quantifiable knowledge about audiences, nor a great interest in knowing them. Today, the competitive logic of the media markets encourage public service media (PSM) organizations to increase datafication. In this paper we examine how a PSM organization interprets the classic public service obligations of creating societal cohesion and diversity in the new world of key performance indicators, business rules and algorithmic parameters.The paper presents a case study of the implementation of a personalization system for the video on demand service of the Danish PSM ‘DR’. Our empirical findings, based on longitudinal in-depth interviewing, indicate a long and difficult process of datafication of PSM, shaped by both the organizational path dependencies of broadcasting production and the expectations of public service broadcasting