Dead Angles of Personalization, Integrating Curation Algorithms in the Fabric of Design

International audienceThe amount of information available on the web is too vast for individuals to be able to process it all. To cope with this issue, digital platforms started relying on algorithms to curate, filter and recommend content to their users. This problem has generally been envisioned from a technical perspective, as an optimization issue and has been mostly untouched by design considerations. Through 16 interviews with daily users of platforms, we analyze how curation algorithms influence their daily experience and the strategies they use to try to adapt them to their own needs. Based on these empirical findings, we propose a set of four speculative design alternatives to explore how we can integrate curation algorithms as part of the larger fabric of design on the web. By exploring interactions to counter the binary nature of curation algorithms, their uniqueness, their anti-historicity and their implicit data collection, we provide tools to bridge the current divide between curation algorithms and people

Genetic variability and structure of jaguar (Panthera onca) in Mexican zoos

ArtículoGenealogical records of animals (studbook) are created to avoid reproduction between closely related individuals, which could cause inbreeding, particularly for such endangered species as the Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758). Jaguar is the largest felid in the Americas and is considered an important ecological key species. In Mexico, wild jaguar populations have been significantly reduced in recent decades, and population decline typically accompany decreases in genetic variation. There is no current census of captive jaguars in Mexico, and zoos do not follow a standardized protocol in breeding programs based on genetic studies. Here, we emphasise the importance of maintaining an adequate level of genetic variation and propose the implementation of standardised studbooks for jaguars in Mexico, mainly to avoid inbreeding. In addition, achieving the aims of studbook registration would provide a population genetic characterisation that could serve as a basis for ex situ conservation programmes

The Hyperdodge: How Users Resist Algorithmic Objects in Everyday Life

This paper asks what we can learn if we research algorithms via a bottom-up methodology from a users’ perspective to see how everyday users can resist algorithmic objectives. In doing this, this paper theorizes the framework of agency in which users can shape and reshape algorithmic outcomes. The argument draws on theoretical knowledge grounded in empirical data produced in 10 in-depth interviews, Heidegger’s phenomenology of experience, and De Certeau’s notion of practices in everyday life. It explains how the phenomenology of experience can render algorithms visible for users by asking not what algorithms are, but by reflecting upon their meaning and how these reflections can transform into practices of everyday resistance. Finally, this article speculates about the potential implications of (meta-)data on machine learning that is purposely being manipulated by users, creating the possibility of what I am labeling a “hyperdodge”

Why EdTech is always right: students, data and machines in pre-emptive configurations

Pre-emption describes a system of automated knowledge creation and intervention that steers the present towards a desirable future, by building on knowledge derived from the past. Folding together temporalities makes it impossible to disprove pre-emption. It is increasingly featured within EdTech, introducing new forms of automated governance into education. This paper examines how students and EdTech come together to make pre-emption possible, not as a single event but as a normalised governance instrument. For this, we introduce Lucy Suchman’s idea of configuration to examine pre-emptive EdTech. The paper presents three openings into the configuration of students and pre-emptive EdTech. These include observations from an EdTech trade show; interviews with insiders of technology companies; and analysis of accepted papers to a learning analytics conference. We conclude the data used at the heart of pre-emptive EdTech seeks to exclude students and configures them as absent. Yet, its interventions have material consequences

Responding to sociotechnical controversies in education : a modest proposal toward technical democracy

The use of automated decision-making systems is increasing in education. While the potential impacts of ADM are becoming widely known amongst experts, the perspectives of those impacted by ADM remain peripheral. To broaden expertise and participation, this paper proposes that ADM needs to be considered as a sociotechnical controversy, as part of a technical democracy approach that utilises hybrid forums. Following Callon and colleagues, in this paper, technical democracy refers to the process of learning through uncertainty about sociotechnical controversies, and hybrid forums refer to the specific sites of democratisation. This paper first identifies key uses and concerns with ADM in education. Second, it proposes that restricted capacity for participation can be addressed through technical democracy. Last, it proposes that hybrid forums can create moments of democratisation through shared uncertainty, material politics, and collective experimentation

Influence of development stage of spring oilseed rape and spring wheat on interception of wet-deposited radiocaesium and radiostrontium

The dry and wet deposition of radionuclides released into the atmosphere can be intercepted by vegetation in terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of this study was to quantify the interception of wet deposited 134Cs and 85Sr by spring oilseed rape (Brassíca napus L.) and spring wheat (Tríticum aestívum L.). The dependency of the intercepted fraction (f) on total above ground plant biomass, growing stage and the Leaf Area Index (LAI) was quantified. A trial was established in Uppsala (east central Sweden), with land management in accordance to common agricultural practices. The field trial was a randomised block design of 1 × 1 m2 parcels with three replicates. During the growing season of 2010, a rainfall simulator deposited 134Cs and 85Sr during six different growth stages. Two to 3 h after deposition, the biomass of the centre 25 × 25 cm2 area of each parcel was sampled and above ground biomass and LAI were measured. The radioactivity concentration and radioactivity of samples were measured by High Purity Germanium (HPGe)-detectors. For 134Cs, there was a correlation between f and LAI (r2 = 0.55, p 0.05). For 85Sr, there was a correlation between f and LAI for both crops (r2 = 0.41, p 0.05) or for 85Sr (r2 = 0.11, p > 0.05). For spring wheat, there was a correlation for both 134Cs (r2 = 0.36, p < 0.05) and 85Sr (r2 = 0.32, p < 0.05). For spring oilseed rape, f was highest at growth stage ‘stem elongation’ for 134Cs (0.32 ± 0.22) and 85Sr (0.41 ± 0.29). For spring wheat, f was highest at growth stage ‘ripening’ for both radionuclides (134Cs was 0.36 ± 0.14 and 85Sr was 0.48 ± 0.18). Thus, LAI can be used to quantify interception of both radionuclides for both crops, whereas, above ground plant biomass is a weak measure of interception of wet deposited radiocaesium and radiostrontium