How Data-Driven Research Fuelled the Cambridge Analytica Controversy

For Symposium abstract is not require

Can't Fix This? Innovation, Social Change, and Solutionism in Design Thinking

Design thinking is commonly presented as a solution-oriented approach to innovation. It aims to solve so-called "wicked problems," with various textbooks and toolkits promising to equip their readers with the skills needed to do so. By rendering design thinking as a magic bullet for problem-solving towards innovation and social change, some of its proponents fall back on a solutionist position. This is despite a growing body of research highlighting critical approaches to design thinking. Drawing on, and adding to, such literature, this article examines how innovation and social change are concretely conceptualised in design thinking guides. Using a cultural media studies approach, the article first contrasts design thinking literature with critical design research, emphasizing the notion of (technological) solutionism. It then zooms in on a purposively selected case: a design thinking textbook aimed at tertiary students. Based on an interpretative analysis of this example, it discusses what understandings of innovation and social change are encouraged in the envisioned design thinking. In linking the reviewed literature and observations from the case study, the analysis highlights two main arguments: First, complex interrelations between innovation and social change are causally simplified in outlining design thinking, thereby fostering techno-fix approaches and mindsets: Readers are encouraged to not merely select but in fact construct solvable "problems," in turn avoiding confrontations with substantive issues that cannot be fixed through the envisioned design thinking. Second, innovation is conflated with corporate activities and normative questions of innovation, (in-)equality, privilege, and social change are neglected, in turn suggesting a misleading symbiosis between economic and societal interests

When open source design is vital: critical making of DIY healthcare equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices needed during the COVID-19 pandemic were widely reported in early 2020. In response, civic DIY volunteers explored how they could produce the required equipment. Members of communities such as hacker- and makerspaces employed their skills and tools to manufacture, for example, face shields and masks. The article discusses these civic innovation practices and their broader social implications by relating them to critical making theory. Methodologically, it is based on a digital ethnography approach, focusing on hacker and maker communities in the UK. Communities’ DIY initiatives display characteristics of critical making and ‘craftivism’, as they assessed and counteracted politicised healthcare supply shortages. It is argued that their manufacturing activities during the COVID pandemic relate to UK austerity politics’ effects on healthcare and government failure to ensure medical crisis supplies. Facilitated by open source design, communities’ innovation enabled healthcare emergency equipment. At the same time, their DIY manufacturing raises practical as well as ethical issues concerning, among other things, efficacy and safety of use

The Big Data Agenda

"This book highlights that the capacity for gathering, analysing, and utilising vast amounts of digital (user) data raises significant ethical issues. Annika Richterich provides a systematic contemporary overview of the field of critical data studies that reflects on practices of digital data collection and analysis. The book assesses in detail one big data research area: biomedical studies, focused on epidemiological surveillance. Specific case studies explore how big data have been used in academic work. The Big Data Agenda concludes that the use of big data in research urgently needs to be considered from the vantage point of ethics and social justice. Drawing upon discourse ethics and critical data studies, Richterich argues that entanglements between big data research and technology/ internet corporations have emerged. In consequence, more opportunities for discussing and negotiating emerging research practices and their implications for societal values are needed. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and details about KU's Open Access programme can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org.

Datenverarbeitung im klinischen Laboratorium

Peer Reviewe

Mansikkalajikkeiden aikaisuuden testaaminen lyhytpäiväkäsittelyn avulla

Puutarhamansikka on tärkein marja Suomen puutarhatuotannossa. Suomessa viljellään lyhyenpäivän mansikkalajikkeita ja valtalajike on keskikautinen lajike Polka. Suomessa tehdään mansikan jalostusta vähän ja muualla jalostettujen lajikkeiden ominaisuudet eivät vastaa suomalaisia viljelyolosuhteita. Näin ollen Suomessa ammattiviljelyssä menestyvän mansikkalajikkeen valinta on vaikeaa. Harkitun ja monipuolisen lajikevalikoiman käyttö viljelmillä voisi pidentää satokautta sekä lisätä viljelyvarmuutta ja luoda kasvua alalle. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoitus on etsiä nopea keino tunnistaa kukintaominaisuuksiltaan Suomen viljelyolosuhteisiin sopivia puutarhamansikkalajikkeita. Tutkimuksessa pyrittiin kehittämään lajiketestiä kukinnan aikaisuuden selvittämiseksi lyhytpäiväkäsittelyn avulla. Lyhyen päivän vaikutusta kukinnan aikaisuuteen ja vegetatiiviseen kasvuun tutkittiin seitsemällä lyhyenpäivänlajikkeella kasvihuonekokeessa. Kukinnan alkamisajankohdan lisäksi tutkittiin kuinka vegetatiivisessa kasvussa muutokset korreloivat kukinnan aikaisuuden kanssa. Kokeessa oli kaksi käsittelyä ja kontrolli. Lyhytpäiväkäsittely kesti kuusi viikkoa ja sen päivänpituus oli 12 tuntia. Ramppikäsittely kesti yhdeksän viikkoa, jonka aikana päivänpituutta lyhennettiin kolmen viikon välein päivänpituuksien ollessa 16, 14 ja 12 tuntia. Pitkänpäivänkontrollissa päivänpituus oli 18 tuntia. Lämpötila oli kaikissa käsittelyissä 18 ºC ympäri vuorokauden. Kokeessa käytettiin aikaisia lajikkeita Honeoye, Elianny, Flair ja Wendy, keskikautista lajiketta Polka sekä myöhäisiä lajikkeita Bounty ja Florence. Kokeessa lajikkeet eivät kehittyneet odotetusti. Aikainen lajike Wendy kukki ensimmäisten ja myöhäinen lajike Florence viimeisten joukossa molemmissa käsittelyissä. Muiden lajikkeiden kukkimisjärjestys ei kuitenkaan vastannut avomaalta tunnettuja ominaisuuksia. Vegetatiivisen kasvun tulokset eivät kytkeytyneet kukinta-aikaan. Rönsyjen kasvu loppui aikaisilla lajikkeilla Wendy, Honeoye ja Flair ensimmäisten joukossa sekä lyhytpäivä- että ramppikäsittelyissä. Muissa lajikkeissa rönsyjen kasvun kesto ei ollut verrattavissa oletettuun kukinnan aikaisuuteen. Lehtiruodin pituuskasvu oli tässä kokeessa herkkä lyhytpäiväkäsittelylle. Rönsyjen kasvun päättyminen ja lehtiruotien pituuskasvu eivät korreloineet kukinnan aikaisuuden kanssa. Florence lajikkeen hidas vegetatiivinen kasvu viittaa kuitenkin siihen, että kasvunopeudella voi olla yhteys kukinnan aikaisuuteen. Tässä tutkimuksessa Polka muodosti eniten sivujuurakkoja. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella lajikkeiden aikaisuutta ei voi selvittää keinotekoisilla lyhytpäiväkäsittelyillä. Kasvihuonetestiä varten pitää hakea olosuhteita, joissa lajikkeet olisivat tasavertaisessa asemassa keskenään. Tulevissa testeissä on huomioitava lajikkeiden päivänpituuden vasteen lisäksi myös vaste lämpötilalle sekä vaste niiden kahden tekijöiden yhteisvaikutukselle. Kasvihuonetestissä voisi olla mukana rinnakkain päivänpituus- ja lämpötilakäsittely tai käsittelyjen yhdistelmiä. Kukintaan virittäminen voidaan vaihtoehtoisesti toteuttaa avomaalla ja sen jälkeen tehdä hyötö kasvihuoneessa.The strawberry is the most widely cultivated berry in Finland. Producers in Finland grow short-day varieties of strawberry with the mid-season variety Polka being the most popular. Very little breeding is done in Finland and the characteristics of foreign varieties are not tailored to the local growing con-ditions here. Given these circumstances, it is a challenge to choose varieties for production that will flourish in Finland. The calculated and polyvalent use of different strawberry varieties could prolong the growing season and help stimulate productivity and growth in this area of horticulture. The aim of this research is to develop a rapid test for identifying strawberry varieties whose flowering phenology will suit production in Finland. In this research we aimed to develop a test based on short-day treatment to compare the earliness of different varieties. The influence of short-day treatment on flowering and growth was studied in seven short-day strawberry varieties in a greenhouse experiment. Beside the influence of the treatment on the timing of flowering we tested the relationship between earliness and changes in the vegetative growth of our varieties. The experimental conditions comprised two day-length treatments and one control. The first short-day-treatment lasted six weeks with a photoperiod of 12 h. The second short-day treatment, a so called “step” treatment, lasted nine weeks. The day-length in the step treatment was shortened every three weeks, starting at 16 h, and then dropping to 14 h and 12 h. In the long-day control the day-length was 18 h. The greenhouse temperature was a constant 18 ºC in all treatments. We tested early varieties Honeoye, Elianny, Flair and Wendy, the mid-season variety Polka and late varieties Bounty and Florence. The plants in our experiment didn’t develop as we expected. The early variety Wendy was amongst the first to flower, and the late variety Florence amongst the last in both treatments. The earliness of the other varieties we tested was not consistent with how these varieties flower in the open field. Furthermore, the relative vegetative growth couldn’t be associated with the flowering time. In both short-day treatments the growth of the runners stopped first in the early varieties Wendy, Honeoye and Flair. In the remaining varieties, the growth of the runners was unrelated to the expected earliness of the flowering. The length of the petiole was responsive to the first short-day treatment, but growth of the runners and the petioles did not correlate with early flowering. However slow growth of the late variety, Florence, suggests that the growth rate may be connected with the flower phenology in the variety. Finally, Polka was the variety to exhibit most crown branching in this experiment. According to the results of this experiment the earliness of short-day strawberry varieties cannot be determined with just an experimental short-day treatment. The other growing conditions in the green-house are also likely to affect the response of the tested varieties, potentially masking or interacting with the day-length effect. In addition to day-length, the response of the varieties to the temperature, and to the combined effect of day-length and temperature, should be taken into account. A suitable greenhouse test could comprise day-length and temperature treatments or the combination of both of them. Alternatively flower induction could be performed in the field and subsequently plants could be forced in the greenhouse

Introduction: inequalities and divides in digital cultures

No description supplie

Die Eliminierung von Trübungen bei der Bestimmung von Plasma-Proteinen mit dem Biuret-Reagenz

Peer Reviewe

Hacking events: project development practices and technology use at hackathons

Hackathons are techno-creative events during which participants get together in a physical location. They may be hosted by civic communities, corporations or public institutions. Working individually or in teams, usually for several days, participants develop projects such as hardware or software prototypes. Based on a digital ethnography of two events in the Netherlands and Denmark, this article investigates project development practices at hackathons. In particular, it analyses how participants organized their project work and which technologies were used in support of their creative endeavours. Hackathons are increasingly competitive rather than collaborative events, involving time pressure, inducements such as prizes, and requiring efficient skills utilization. I argue that this facilitates the following tendencies: Firstly, strategic effort is put into final presentations. Projects need to be convincingly presented, and persuasively pitching an idea becomes crucial. Secondly, there is only limited time for personal learning, since participants’ existing skills need to be efficiently applied if a team wants to stay competitive. This encourages division of labour within groups: a tendency which seems especially problematic given that IT skills biases are often expressed in terms of gender. Thirdly, participants are more inclined to use technologies that are proprietary but appear ‘open enough’. In light of this observation and by drawing on the concept of technology as resource and opportunity, I discuss the techno-political implications of utilized technologies. With this analysis, I aim at contributing to the critical debate on hackathons as productive but likewise ideologically significant fields of ‘hacking cultures’