51 research outputs found
Big Data:A Revolution That Transforms How We Live, Work, and Think
How can we spot a disease 24 hours before symptoms appear? How can we predict which manholes in New York City may explode next year? Can we really identify criminals before they have committed a crime? Welcome to âbig dataâ â the idea that we can do with a vast amount of data things that we simply couldnât when we had less. The change in scale leads to a change in state. It upends the nature of business, how government works and the way we live, from healthcare to education. Big data will even change how we think about the world and our place in it. As we collect and crunch more data, the good news is that we can do extraordinary things: fight disease, reduce climate change, and unlock mysteries of science. The bad news is that it raises a host of worries for which society is unprepared. What does it mean if big data denies us a bank loan or considers us unfit for a surgical operation, but we canât learn the explicit reasons because the variables that went in were so myriad and complex? How do you regulate an algorithm? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute / Oxford University. In addition to his recent international bestseller Big Data (co-authored with Kenn Cukier), Mayer-Schönberger has published eight books (including the awards-winning Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age with Princeton University Press) and is the author of over a hundred articles and book chapters on the information economy. After successes in the International Physics Olympics and the Austrian Young Programmers Contest, Mayer-Schönberger studied in Salzburg, at Harvard and at the London School of Economics. In 1986 he founded Ikarus Software, a company focusing on data security and developed the Virus Utilities, which became the best-selling Austrian software product. He was voted Top-5 Software Entrepreneur in Austria in 1991 and Person of the Year for the State of Salzburg in 2000.Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Big Data: A Revolution That Transforms How We Live, Work, and Think, lecture, ICI Berlin, 28 April 2014 <https://doi.org/10.25620/e140428
AprÚs le Moment Constitutionnel : la régulation des mondes virtuels 2.0
Les mondes virtuels offrent une perspective fascinante sur les dynamiques de rĂ©gulation entre juridiction en compĂ©tition. Dâune maniĂšre plus gĂ©nĂ©rale se pose la question des effets de ces jeux sur les rĂ©gulateurs du monde rĂ©el et les dizaines de millions dâutilisateurs. Cet article postule que les fournisseurs de mondes virtuels (en particuliers les dominants), devrait cĂ©der une part du contrĂŽle (dans une certaine mesure). Ainsi les dĂ©cideurs publics du monde rĂ©el se retrouveront en partie dans le choix performatifs des plates-formes monopolistiques, et ce Ă un niveau supĂ©rieur de rĂ©gulation, mais aussi dans une certaine complexitĂ© conceptuelle.Virtual worlds offer a fascinating perspective on regulatory dynamics between competing jurisdictions. More importantly, how these dynamics play out has vast consequences for real world regulators and tens of millions of users. I suggest that virtual world providers (especially dominant ones) may want to cede control (at least to an extent), while real world policy makers will ïŹnd themselves in a replay of injecting choice into platform monopolies at higher levels of not just regulatory, but also conceptual complexity
Notice and Consent in a World of Big Data
Nowadays individuals are often presented with long and complex privacy notices routinely written by lawyers for lawyers, and are then requested to either âconsentâ or abandon the use of the desired service. The over-use of notice and consent presents increasing challenges in an age of âBig Dataâ. These phenomena are receiving attention particularly in the context of the current review of the OECD Privacy Guidelines. In 2012 Microsoft sponsored an initiative designed to engage leading regulators, industry executives, public interest advocates, and academic experts in frank discussions about the role of individual control and notice and consent in data protection today, and alternative models for providing better protection for both information privacy and valuable data flows in the emerging world of Big Data and cloud computing
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Regime Change? Enabling Big Data through Europeâs New Data Protection Regulation
The European Union has just passed the most comprehensive overhaul of its privacy laws in two decades. The so-called General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) brings numerous changes. In this Article we look at how the GDPR will impact, enable or restrict the use of Big Data in Europe. We look at three distinct privacy aspects of Big Data: while collection sees a tightening of regulation through the GDPR, the principles of purpose limitation and retention minimization offer a mixed view, including a rather surprising avenue that could permit Big Data applications at a much larger scale than today. We conclude in evaluating whether this exception, that provides some room for manoeuver for member states, will be sufficient for Big Data to flourish, and what issues remain to be addresse
Reflections on deploying distributed consultation technologies with community organisations
In recent years there has been an increased focus upon developing platforms for community decision-making, and an awareness of the importance of handing over civic platforms to community organisations to oversee the process of decision-making at a local level. In this paper, we detail fieldwork from working with two community organisations who used our distributed situated devices as part of consultation processes. We focus on some of the mundane and often-untold aspects of this type of work: how questions for consultations were formed, how locations for devices were determined, and the ways in which the data collected fed into decision-making processes. We highlight a number of challenges for HCI and civic technology research going forward, related to the role of the researcher, the messiness of decision making in communities, and the ability of community organisations to influence how citizens participate in democratic processes
Memory palaces within the space of architectural production
A model of the space of architectural production is proposed here where the building is imagined as a Memory Palace. In this model, building work is understood to be foreshadowed by an imaginary architecture which both predicts the future physical construction to come and is also made superfluous by this construction work as it is comes to be. It is argued here that these Memory Palaces of production remain lodged in the minds of the constructors and designers who planned and executed the detail of a construction. After construction, a buildingâs details act as a physical route through which individual actors might access their personal Memory Palaces in the space of production
Iâm deleting as fast as I can: Negotiating learning practices in cyberspace
Learning in and through work is one of the many spaces in which pedagogy may unfold. Web technologies amplify this fluidity and online learning now encompasses a plethora of practices. In this paper I focus on the delete button and deleting practices of self-employed workers engaged in informal work-related learning in online communities. How the relational and material aspects of online pedagogical practices are being negotiated is explored. While deleting appears to be an everyday practice, understanding the delete button as a fluid object in fluid space begins to illuminate its complexity and multiple enactments. Deleting practices which work to stem the tide of information pushing itself onto screens, as well as those practices that attempt to delete traces left behind on screens and ‘in the cloud’, are examined. Actor Network Theory provides the theoretical and conceptual tools for this exploration. I conclude with observations on the politics of the delete button and implications for more sophisticated digital fluency in everyday pedagogy
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When Reporters get Hands-on with Robo-writing: Professionals Consider Automated Journalismâs Capabilities and Consequences
The availability of data feeds, the demand for news on digital devices, and advances in algorithms are helping to make automated journalism more prevalent. This article extends the literature on the subject by analysing professional journalistsâ experiences with, and opinions about, the technology. Uniquely, the participants were drawn from a range of news organizationsâincluding the BBC, CNN, and Thomson Reutersâand had first-hand experience working with robo-writing software provided by one of the leading technology suppliers. The results reveal journalistsâ judgements on the limitations of automation, including the nature of its sources and the sensitivity of its ânose for newsâ. Nonetheless, journalists believe that automated journalism will become more common, increasing the depth, breadth, specificity, and immediacy of information available. While some news organizations and consumers may benefit, such changes raise ethical and societal issues and, counter-intuitively perhaps, may increase the need for skillsânews judgement, curiosity, and scepticismâthat human journalists embody
Erich Fromm and the Critical Theory of Communication
Erich Fromm (1900-1980) was a Marxist psychoanalyst, philosopher and socialist humanist. This paper asks: How can Frommâs critical theory of communication be used and updated to provide a critical perspective in the age of digital and communicative capitalism?
In order to provide an answer, the article discusses elements from Frommâs work that allow us to better understand the human communication process. The focus is on communication (section 2), ideology (section 3), and technology (section 4). Frommâs approach can inform a critical theory of communication in multiple respects: His notion of the social character allows to underpin such a theory with foundations from critical psychology. Frommâs distinction between the authoritarian and the humanistic character can be used for discerning among authoritarian and humanistic communication. Frommâs work can also inform ideology critique: The ideology of having shapes life, thought, language and social action in capitalism. In capitalism, technology (including computing) is fetishized and the logic of quantification shapes social relations. Frommâs quest for humanist technology and participatory computing can inform contemporary debates about digital capitalism and its alternatives
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