data & society
– – – –
danah boyd‘s new research institute:
The Data & Society Research Institute is a new think/do tank in New York City dedicated to addressing social, technical, ethical, legal, and policy issues that are emerging because of data-centric technological development. Data & Society will launch in 2014.
________
l
In under six weeks, our amazing team produced six guiding documents and crafted a phenomenal event called The Social, Cultural & Ethical Dimensions of “Big Data.” On our conference page, you can find an event summary, videos of the sessions, copies of the workshop primers and discussion notes, a zip file of important references, and documents that list participants, the schedule, and production team.
________
d&s reporting on data and civil rights conference.. oct 2013:
Today, we’re releasing all of the pre-conference primers, write-ups from the workshops and breakouts we held, the videos from the level-setting opening, and an executive summary of what we learned: http://www.datacivilrights.org.
from executive summary:
The event had three main narratives: (1) the roots and contemporary state of civil rights issues, which centered primarily on discrimination on the basis of protected classes, and issues of privacy; (2) the inner workings of the technology and how and when it can create discriminatory outcomes and impacts, particularly through algorithmic decision-making; and (3) the next steps for these discussions, especially in the areas of policymaking, government actions, technology development, generating social change, industry innovation, and new research.
[..]
These gaps in knowledge raised an opportunity to address key questions: How can civil rights values be embedded into the designs of emerging technologies? Is it possible to develop a new civil rights science that aids the cause of equal opportunity and social justice?
[..]
Discussions also focused on what it takes to achieve, and how to measure, equality and equity. For example, all schools might receive equal funding, but if one school is teaching students who require more resources, ..
what if the answer (to equity et al) lies beyond the idea/practice of school..
To the surprise of many, some of the most insidious examples of “big data” applications or outcomes represent unintentional discrimination—
byproducts of technical designs and practices that were never intended to cause harm and are hard to prevent from happening again.
perhaps we’re in the era of (well into the era of) too much ness. and it’s time to start over. from scratch. trust people.
A recurrent theme centered on the need for new or expanded uses of existing laws and regulations, particularly the Fair Credit and Reporting Act, to protect civil rights across sectors in response to, and in anticipation of, the flood of data.
or perhaps… we let go – and focus on tech that offers something else to do .. for everyone. can’t bridle a starfish.. rather .. let’s set it/us-all free.
In this sense, the convening emphasized the possibility for technology to optimize for civil rights goals, above and beyond what the law provides. Many questioned whether legislation and policy work can keep apace with new technologies, and whether technology can offer a more efficient avenue than laws for designing and implementing systems that perpetuate civil rights values.
yes. this. as long as it’s not added onto existing laws. refresh.
In conversations about positive uses of technology, speculation trumped evidence, prompting critics to be wary of the claims made by those seeking to use technology for good.
what if it’s our obsession with – and/or dependence on – evidence that is keeping us from a doable vision of good. ie: that we’ve not yet experienced because it’s not yet been evidenced.. because it’s not yet been experienced… etc.
[end of executive summary]
– – – –
videos from conference:
Technology Primer
intro – danah – all social system are guided by 4 forces: market, law, social norms, tech/architecture – focus on market and tech – so when having convo in dc – don’t jump to what companies can/should do
mc – Solon Barocas
Harlan Yu – spam tracker – training data – patterns/learning based on past examples – machine learning
Ulysses Andrews – error rate – predictions show disparity – ie: google naming
Solon – the big of big data is exciting because it might be able to detect the often invisible
Latonia Sweeney – reproducing prejudice – audience exclusivity – mechanism producing these results… could be advertiser intent – then to max income – more clicks. or opposite, if advertiser equity in intent.. clicks took over all. etc
Ashkan Soltani – price discrimination on law – 2012 research on wall st
so much seems based on consumerism.. what if money were no object. what if that is our pathway
Cynthia Dwork – fairness through awareness – hiding sensitive info can erode both fairness & utility – ie: carnegie melon grad criteria.. dropped # of yrs ness.. the metric to figuring how similar two people are for a task.. results of own learning algorithms
curiosity app trail ness – art ist vs bot ist ness
Jenna Burrell – interpretability – internet in ghana not same as in us – esp dating web sites – spam filtering purely because you’re in ghana – machine learning – 3 levels of opacity: proprietary, complexity (require expert knowledge to understand), interpretability – end user facing component
interesting – how to understand complex w/o being an expert in it
Solon – often get greater performance at the expense of interpretability
Ed Felten – accountability while allowing people to withhold info
David Robison – new tools needed to protect civil rights – turn it into a science of civil rights.. now – the returns to having precise rules are going up – census as original big data
? –
– – – –
as i start reading through the report on the education focus – http://www.datacivilrights.org/pubs/2014-1030/Education-Writeup.pdf i’m thinking – surely this idea that perhaps we are gathering – focusing – on the wrong data pertains to other sectors as well. then i get to this.. and think – yeah.. but perhaps not as visibly (because it’s so invisible to many) or as dangerously (because we are spending hours of our days on it, ie: school that kills curiosity et al):
Marginalized student populations may be distrustful of the organizations and platforms that mediate their education because of the ways they have been historically excluded from highquality educational opportunities, and EduTech systems may not be designed in ways that are cognizant of student needs and situations across the board. For instance, being tardy to class may be different for a student who has major caretaking responsibilities at home than for a more privileged student, but the system might log it in the same way for both parties, and impose consequences accordingly.
dang.
e. 3. – Groups with the most at stake have the deepest distress because data has been used against them in the past.
et al – addressed by Gershenfeld‘s take on personal fabrication in developing countries.. allows for people to not be micromanaged in taking care of their own problems.. David big on this as well..
ie: For Kay, the DynaBook was meant to help build capacity so that children (and adults too) would create their own interactive learning tools. The DynaBook was not simply about a new piece of hardware or new software, but about a new literacy, a new way of teaching and learning. And that remains largely unrealized. ness… http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QEDGMMW/ref=r_soa_w_d
– – – –
report on new research http://www.datacivilrights.org/pubs/2014-1030/NewResearch-Writeup.pdf –
In each of the spheres of concern discussed in other sessions, the group summarized the most pressing concerns:
Education — what is meaningful consent and data ownership; what is useful educational data?
self talk…?
Housing — housing data has a deep capacity for positive and negative impacts in a system that is remarkably hard to reverse engineer. In particular, this is exacerbated by the prevalence of very large housing companies, who are responsible for a range of decisions distinct from those even 20 years ago.
Employment — how are algorithmic processes and different types of data brought to bear on hiring decisions?
Criminal Justice — much of the useful data currently exists in limited forms.
Health — public health authorities might have an obligation to collect even more data, but there might be significant barriers to how they use and distribute that data, particularly sensitive data surrounding stigmatizing medical conditions like H.I.V. However, this is one area where privacy
is a diminishing value compared to the overall goals of improving
public health.
what if self-talk gets us here – taking care of (in many cases by making irrelevant) the other spheres of concerns…
In every case, however, good and bad had to be contextualized by for whom it was good or bad. This is why an analytical language of power (one beyond “good” and “bad”) is required to advance the discourse on data. There is a need to better describe the structural character of commercial, scientific, governmental, and private individual uses of data, and data analytic capabilities.
the importance of (and today the capability of) scaling the individual (7 billion+ of them) rather than scaling some idea/core/standard…. who decides can now be.. you. every you. everyday.
– – – –
from write-up of employment – http://www.datacivilrights.org/pubs/2014-1030/Employment-Writeup.pdf –
This session approached the question of Big Data’s growing influence on employment, with a specific focus on hiring practices.
a mechanism that gives the most human/honest look at a person..but perhaps more important.. frees us all from days filled with proving.. to days filled with doing the thing(s) we can’t not do.. (whether or not hiring becomes irrelevant)
– – – –
write up from finance – http://www.datacivilrights.org/pubs/2014-1030/Finance-Writeup.pdf –
Another line of questioning revolved around new fair and just alternatives to traditional banking. First came the question of what it means to be “alternative” within this context. Does it mean non-regulated or outside? Or does alternative mean innovative?
perhaps innovative – as in money becomes irrelevant
– – – –
from write-up of tech development – http://www.datacivilrights.org/pubs/2014-1030/TechnologyDevelopment-Writeup.pdf –
Despite some discussion during the panel, the group acknowledged that a more detailed definition of fairness still needed to be developed. Without a concrete description of what constitutes fairness, consistent regulation cannot be created.
how can we? – is fairness really algorithmable..? like Yaacov‘s definition of democratic ed (asking yourself everyday what it is) and Michael‘s definition of revolution (instigating utopia everyday) ..perhaps instead we use tech to allow everyone to do whatever they want. everyone getting a go everyday.
perhaps that we can’t define fairness… is a blessing… meaning we can’t then regulate it..
In addition, once criteria of fairness are defined, there need to be appropriate techniques for testing for that fairness. This will be a process that needs careful design, as gathering the data necessary for such tests could (of course) produce new opportunities for inequality. Therefore test cases must be thoroughly assessed for their representation of all involved parties for users to companies to vendors and beyond.
or we trust the individual.. and end up with more Jack‘s et al..
Technical researchers started questioning whether it was possible for those working with data to make assertions about their practices and for those assertions to be validated technically without revealing the data itself. This, alongside the broader question of technical auditing, is a fruitful area for further technical research.
perhaps our greatest potential to be afforded a hiding yet in public ness – is when everyone is busy with something else (they can’t not do.) ie: now any/all data is fully transparent/accessible – but everyone is too usefully preoccupied to dig into any data for ill purposes – security becomes irrelevant
– – – –
We need to work across sectors to imagine how we can create a more robust society, free of the cancerous nature of inequity. We need to imagine how technology can be used to empower all of us as a society, not just the most privileged individuals.
The material we are releasing today is a baby step, an attempt to scope out the landscape as best we know it so that we can all work together to go further and deeper. Please help us imagine how we should move forward. If you have any ideas or feedback, don’t hesitate to contact us at: nextsteps at datacivilrights dot org
________
2014-1015 report – link is a pdf download:
We’ve distilled Data & Society’s first year into a report that we hope you’ll check out.
________
find/follow:
_________
data ness
_________
databites:
http://www.datasociety.net/events/series/databites/
33:
on captivation (& algorithms)
traps as artwork and artwork as traps
traps of conjunction of 2 diff players
designed to be hidden.. but amazing intensity you can read out of them. traps as constructed environment
17 min – when i gamble i feel like a rat in a trap
34:
i of t very much about our bodies
15 min – on not able to get to privacy.. but able to get to equal access…(?)
a version of neil’s something else ness?
29 min – on not being able to pull nsa out of i of t. but rather create spaces to play
sounds like tim berner-lee – in weaving the web – on – to be a totality – can’t exclude anything..
33 min – not that people use phones to govern.. but to provide governance goods..
37 min – to me the epistemological problem.. the material world might get filled with drm (digital rights management).. with objects that decide if used by right person, then report deviance… … engineers i talk to – i of t as a loss leader for the data. chip prices are falling.. several power issues need to be solved before reach level.. value proposition is in data flow.. not in selling of devices.
43 min – audience – on not market or not market – but it seems you’re saying the market is around the data.. and the data is value.. .. so then we’d have – not a market for data but a market for chips.. all you’d be regulating is batter life..
45 min – i would like to see a possible path for what that idea would be..
48 min – audience – on the i of t – perhaps becoming unintended consequences… with real material impact, ie: sudan
49 min – most of what we write about the i of t – is about imagination.. so convo not yet evolved enough to be about waste.. and the aspiration is that batteries would last for decades..
54 min – i’m sort of a fan of the right to forget initiative.. might help us feel better about our right to privacy
37:
Databite No. 37: Aaron Straup Cope
on cultural heritage
7 min – what does it mean to operate a museum in a world with the internet
9 min – what if you could go to the museum and remember your visit.. without having to mess around with device.. we want to encourage people to have a heads up visit.. we built the world’s most complicated bookmarking system…
13 min – everything has a permanent url.. idea – in 100 yrs.. url still works..
16 min – what if there were a way to take in this data.. (at smithsonian).. and say – we will keep this stuff safe from the present and for the future..
output ness
19 min – on when data will quit being poison to players and become rich trove of heritage..
always a revisiting.. always an interpretation
21 min – what if there was a way to actively preserve more voices than we do now…
everyday convo ness.
24 min – w/our collections website – most of metadata is garbage – but what we did – say – this thing exists… and you have nothing or you have something you can share with somebody else – and we need to get out of the way. trying to create a system where things achieve weight mass in the universe.. that they become communal proof.. we let people find their own meaning in them… opens up for all of us to have opinions
26 min – danah – what’s interesting is how we think of intellectual property now and how will think of it in the future… ie: artifacts i donate – that is my history …
value ness
28 min – i have the luxury of my position because you (user) think this is important… the opportunity we have now is for a kind of voluntary participation
30 min – about longevity… and people wanting to participate – ie: my life is a part of this larger story. then institute saying.. what buffer do we need around this
32 min – audience – for me.. the visit was a lot more than the things i saw….
34 mi – our goal is not to be your memory.. but to help you make those larger constructions (we spend a ton of time on referencing.. needing to know where everything is.. to make what the pen affords possible)
36 min – on smithsonian being a reliable institution/source you can build on.. add to larger narrative around the object
45 min – what becomes important is the stories we tell (on design vs art museums)
47 min – on weird pants from the past – and what is the ancillary material around it.. when you watch how people have used the internet… you start to see that same motivation of – what is there a way to start to preserve some of that.. w/o being creepy..
again – output ness.. document everything ness
48 min – on recall being a power dynamic.. ie: tv, the thing that forces us all to get together… when web happened.. we could discover/arrive at an argument (something of substance) on their own terms..
53 min – danah – on relationality you can do in digital that you can’t do in physical… answer – shape analysis.. how objects are framed.. bridging across institutions.. data visualization.. ie: timeline
556 mi – the more you dig through relationality… not replacing curatory insight.. but different ways you’re invited to see… great opportunity of having data at these multiple levels..
____________
38:
Databite No. 38: Adam Berenzweig
deep learning, machine perception, and the future of memory
clarifai
6 min – deep learning is basically neural networks.. way to match inputs to outputs
9 min – convolutional network
11 min – on (template?) for images: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabor_wavelet
all ways of solving problem of how to represent images have converged on same thing – gabor wavelet ness
14 min – deep learning starting 2012
20 min – documenting everything outside of you –
steve mann – wear able ness
23 min – the ambient stuff that you go about your day – what if that becomes searchable..
output – doc everything ness
25 min – at the cafe – visual search – using image similarity object.. cluster by particular images
like what we did with connecting ie: noticings, connections, … et al to help people find their tribe ness – from data: self-talk
27 min – why i want it – the past is one blob.. and i’m deeply nostalgic
29 min – it’s my past – i should be able to use it if i want.. not depending on how good my memory is.. and the experience of watching yourself in an experience you had before
stephen wolfram doing it
31 min – can’t talk about this w/o talking surveillance. you’re already being recorded… and you don’t have control. it’s almost like a right to bear arms.. ie: who’s evidence can be admissible.. who gets to know.. in some cases advertisers know more about you than you do now….
snapchat designed in the vein of live now… throw it away.. there’s more later
34 min – on cell phones – and before they came to be – people saying – i don’t want to be reachable all the time. google glass – recording everything so you don’t have to be looking at it now.
35 min – if we know we’re on record.. do we become more honest… nicer.. or more fake.. honing this image all the time
36 min – design challenge – so that you are free to be in the moment
adam at clarifai
https://twitter.com/clarifaiinc
43 min – i’m not sure this would kill serendipity
47 min – q: why keep data around.. adam – keeping everything can be helpful.. you don’t know what you might want or can better understand later
49 min – q: how the role of interaction will change.. adam: the tools this can give you… you don’t have to remember it the same way.. an image is not a memory
52 min – on people who want to hold a grudge…
57 min – a major battlefront is if your employee will let you wear this at work
unless this changes all that.. no?
59 min – q: on the narrative clip documenting biases…. adam: you’ll be able to tailer it.. it’s machine learning.. if built that enables people to teach it well.. it will.
so there’s the need for synchronicity – everyone having something else to do – to keep us away from grudge ness et al
problematic if not everyone has it..
53 min – q: since constantly reshaping our narrative, how did you experience this.. how did it change you? … adam: i felt free to not to be forced to take my phone out to take pics.. esp with my daughter.. that was really great..
55 min – i do like the feeling of – when something awesome happens.. that i probably have a photo of it
1:06 – my interest.. in building things that help people ask/answer the right questions
deep learning ness
— –
39:
mission of debt collective: 1\ education empowerment 2\ cultural intervention 3\ collective action
erased 33 mill of ed and medical debt
current campaign – corinthian collective – now corinthian150 and growing.. hit a capacity issue
14 min – it’s a data driven society… for who..
24 min – family doesn’t get what i’m doing at all
debt ness
– – –
42:
Databite No. 42: Maurice Mitchell
blackbird
https://twitter.com/blackbirds
26 min – a lot of our work is around staking claim to black people’s humanity. if black people are in fact human.. then logical things should follow that..
nationality: human ness
38 min – danah asking – on connecting people (rapid response et al) through networks.. without having to do it through institutions (previously constructed)
42 min – how we understand organization needs to be more fluid
45 min – physical space is really important in organizing…
53 min – conference calls, ability to video tape anonymously and upload to cloud instantly, ability to communicate w/o wifi, livestreaming, …
55 min – documenting the enormity of this movement as we’re doing it… how to use data to help tell our story
1:01 – democratizing discomfort… ie: stopping traffic not same as people dying
1:07 – on how open/clear it is that we are being surveilled … social control
_________
in mid read of shock doctrine:
current tweet from data and society:
@datasociety
We’re streaming @vm_wylbur‘s “Understanding Patterns of Mass Violence with Data and Statistics” talk live now buff.ly/1MADCn3
looking through his tweet stream while livestream gets rolling:
Just out, I wrote this about homicides by US police in @Granta http://granta.com/violence-in-blue/ … 1/3 of homicides by strangers are by police.
notes from livestream:
data is always lying to you.. but if we know that we can fix it.. can’t use data in its raw form… ie: not what it seems…last century…. solved this.. ie: big data doesn’t work.. but now have so much more data.. we forgot what we learned then…
if we don’t know what we don’t know and we compare two different counts.. the stakes of ignoring this.. huge
stats rarely about magnitude.. but rather .. pattern…
what you don’t know is systematically diff than what you do know
i’m not talking about models that give us explanations… talking about models that help us figure out what’s not in our sample.. ie: data base of iraq body count
what does it mean to not know about something.. it means we have zero sources… so the notion of a source.. gives us our first insight about what it means to have knowledge in the world.. so ie: count proportion that has certain number of sources…
sources..? – who defines that..? i mean we’ve seen the exponential fly of ie: rumor ness
what kinds of events are covered by zero sources..
i’m not suggesting rise of isis is a result of bad data analysis
bad data analysis much worse than no data analysis..
on stats.. now we know something we didn’t know before..
? do we really…?
problem is.. assumption hidden in there.
indeed.. always.. no?
can figure 1500 deaths per year by police
syria –
rather than pattern
problem.. w data always lying to us – looking at curves of trends over time, ..ie: estimated deaths pretty close.. pattern roughly right. but not in hama… we would miss really huge peak jan 2013 – turns out govt retook hama
data is not a representation of the world.. it’s terrific work done by people.. don’t make it a good stat rep of reality..
ie: 2005-6 – para military demobilization.. putting down weapons.. changed forms.. then killing each other.. so nobody occupied them.. so this crucial piece of colombian history goes completely undocumented… so says.. this was successful process for decreasing violence
until we presented these data.. no one had looked at these 5 data sets together before…
often rather than patterns.. get beautiful graph of how data was collected..
people doing fantastic work.. but not statisticians… people are making policy on this..
sometimes we think if we have really big data.. this problem goes away.. tech gives more info.. but doesn’t address problems that some areas are just dead zones… but we get deluded by bigness
stats generally about comparison.. not magnitude… mag doesn’t tell story… if we don’t have way to tell stories by comparison.. that affects bias
when we talk big data.. we think we have all the data…
or the right data for a reboot…. ie: self talk as data.
we’ve got to get the story right.
counting and estimating.. sometimes turn out..
if reduce uncertainty.. it’s at cost of increased bias..
danah asking about mal practice – pat telling her they approach problems diff.. he goes to one tiny point to see right ness.. she goes to strategic way to fix entire problem.. we need to start talking about bad data analysis as bigger than oops
q: who benefits from this political position of accountability… being counted/not counted/governed/not governed.. messy.. the idea that we need to re enforce good stats.. leaves me uneasy
a: unpack notion of accountability… 1\ of sr military/police officials against gross human rights violations… i’m not talking about accountability of powerless people.. but of powerful for their actions… 2\ for data scientists to assure we’re getting story right.. i don’t have idea how to talk about it as strategic goal.. just able to put up as issue… we have expertise and getting more and more expertise… customers don’t have that expertise.. so don’t know if we’re right/wrong.. so norms in our field as ethical foundation…
now to your q on people who evade being counted… on getting more data… and graphs change… so all our data depends on who we talk to…
again – call for a reboot – global do over – via ie: self talk as data
___________
@MrChase
If you haven’t taken a look at this from @datasociety & @literacyonline, you really should datasociety.net/output/persona… #edtechchat
from reading pdf.. toward end:
The vision Asimov described, of students ‘following their own bent’ – the notion that not only can a learning plan adapt to a students’ pacing, but also enable individualized pursuit of interest – is endlessly reiterated in promises of personalized learning. Positive as this possibility sounds, current infrastructures may not be prepared for the practical realities of students pursuing their own interests.
What if students wish, for example, to not go to college, or to play games instead of completing assignments? To what extent do parents, school districts, or future employers really want students to pursue their own interests?
Asimov (1988) uses the analogy of baseball to describe the pursuit of interests: “You learn all you want about baseball, because the more you learn about baseball the more you might grow interested in mathematics to try to figure out what they mean by those earned run averages and the batting averages and so on. You might, in the end, become more interested in math than baseball if you follow your own bent, and you’re not told.” There is an assumption that left to pursue their own interests, students will gravitate toward creative, fulfilling, socially valued intellectual pursuits. But what if an interest in baseball doesn’t lead to an interest in math?
What if an interest in baseball leads to a deeply satisfying sports hobby or playing baseball video games? Or what if an interest in baseball comes at the expense of an interest in math, literature, or other topics?
Another possibility is that a student really fulfills this expectation, that a love of baseball does lead to a love of math and that love of math leads to a career exploring complex questions. How long will algorithmic measurement allow between the child’s interest in baseball and her/his demonstrated interest in math before suggesting something else?
[..]Returning to Asimov’s ideal of students following their interests, *when would the algorithm declare the student’s trajectory a success or failure? In the realities of an iterative world, which focuses on small gains, such as test scores, rather than larger ones, such as well-being or job satisfaction, how is the open-ended process of intellectual discovery accounted for? Algorithms can only measure what they are programmed to measure. Given the limitations of technologies in determining the success of an open-ended process with no clear outcomes until the outcomes are clear, how would progress be measured, or allowed, and what data or meta-data are available to be part of the calculation?
______________
databite 109 – Safiya Umoja Noble
At 5:30PM ET this evening, we’ll be livestreaming Databite 109 with @safiyanoble. Watch here: https://t.co/LTj7qdtUPR
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/datasociety/status/996425725971349504
this talk based on her most recent book. In Algorithms of Oppression, requested to library
if the tech story could include a story of these patterns of global exploitation.. we might have a possibility for organizing and thinking in local and global ways for resisting that.. because ultimately that’s what i’m interested in.. t
ie: hlb via 2 convos that io dance.. as the day..[aka: not part\ial.. for (blank)’s sake…].. a nother way
the voice in academia is often not our voice.. t
begs mech to listen to every voice.. as it could be..
the most vulnerable in our society becomes the experimental groups.. the commodities.. this is where indigenous communities have very deep knowledge and also very powerful forms of resistance to that and we need to keep those things in mind .. t
_____________
future perfect conf 2018
“What does world-building look like across geologic time, without borders, in the face of environmental collapse, in the service of new solidarities?” Tune into #FuturePerfect livestream in 5: https://t.co/TwDLIRqzRn
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/datasociety/status/1005185512578191360
@spacendn reading: what does it mean to ask forgiveness for something you had no control over.. bombs dropped as borders.. the work ensures they will need the health insurance.. t.. in the colonist view.. to be indigenous is to either be dead or to be in the way.. t.. this is how the world ends when it is divided up into nations.. t.. we all have a lot to learn from radiation about being uncontainable.. t..
@spacendn reading: one of conditions of living after and because of colonialism is never knowing.. t..
black science of people/whales
@spacendn reading: the invasion of iraq was also a story of uranium saddam hussein looking to buy ..later proved invalid.. but attack had started…. the weapon of mass destruction is a nation.. i will myself to radiate outwards.. to deform what deforms me..t
@spacendn reading: fred moten: what complex disarticulations and rearticutlations of space and subjectivity are possible and create possibility beyond the spacial obsessions of empire..t
@spacendn reading: how to claim land w/o slipping into nationality and borders
why claim it..?
@spacendn reading: how might we take back the world and hold it differently.. t
@spacendn reading: two kinds of science: 1\arrow/discovery.. empire science.. what can be seen.. radiation..invisible until it is not.. observation takes away from space and doesn’t return it.. 2\ inquiry/experimental.. circular wholeness.. presence of dirt.. but diff relationship other than extraction..
@spacendn reading: highest point of knowledge is poetics.. how do we share knowledge w each other and to what ends.. this is about a science fit to the measure of a world we want.. t..
@spacendn reading: d & g: nomadic science.. the practice of seeking wonders and posing problems outside the science of the state/sovereign-categories.. russert: fugitive science.. lines of flight .. to understand place ..in the world outside the distorted view of empiricism.. t
@spacendn reading: becoming.. insists on internal inquiry.. imagine a solidarity that doesn’t have to be solid.. t..
@ShirazHaderach : how could games contribute.. to .. climate problem.. games tend to diverge from anthropogenic causes.. and point toward other causers (para).. bratton quote
@mitchmcewen : reparations speculation.. dubois.. doing work that is already speculative on the page..t
moten abolition law.. stamped from beginning..
@mitchmcewen : space is already social.. not diff between math/sci/social.. how a line operates is already computational.. actually .. but not that good at working w geom.. which i like..t
@mitchmcewen : a story that hasn’t been told.. ie: highways were a vehicle.. sewer lines also were.. t
@mitchmcewen : people (in detroit) having sewage come up into their basements.. and it’s not theirs..t.. it’s white people’s shit
@mitchmcewen : pittsburgh.. this is what we will build when we get our reparations..
q&a
q: how do we find these things that are exist.. that are ignored.. t
@mitchmcewen : by not foreclosing.. hard to register something if you don’t know how to solve it.. open up ways of what.. before you know how.. architect & lit share that ..
or.. practicing/being a more letting go ness..
@ShirazHaderach: the problem of visualizing complex systems.. what’s limited games from going there is interesting.. how do we visualize this stuff..t
@spacendn: finding a source of amplification.. t
____________
databite 111
Livestream starts in 10: Hear from graduating fellows @bxhghz & @maribst about activism, digital security, and the surveillance-industrial complex https://t.co/OJlkkWL0Xa
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/datasociety/status/1009523784620150784
bex @bxhghz – transforming digital security into collective power
mari @maribst – making algos stumble
b: issues about security not new.. and not just about us.. just ways to org about power.. ie: cointellpro.. so how do we make progress.. how to make activism not about putting out fire after fire..t
m: talking about fear.. relying on our normative collectivity.. it’s only as democratic as it is globally democratic.. how complicated the systems are they’re not very complex.. on making ourselves less useful to the surveillance mechs..t
m: on embracing the ambiguities of complexity.. these complexities make us less algo compliant..t
m: there’s very little tech situated around not making profit.. it may be a great time to come back around thinking about tech in that way..t
m: there is an opp to occupy (tech) spaces.. to think outside of just tools.. making ourselves less predictable/functional .. t
ie: the complexity/chaos of 2 convos as infra
____________
data bite 112
https://datasociety.net/events/databite-no-112-jeanna-matthews-darakhshan-mir-taeyoon-choi/
@jeanna_matthews – Jeanna Matthews
@sciencemeandyou – Darakhshan Mir
@tchoi8 – Taeyoon Choi
___________
from databite 117: Memes to Movements | An Xiao Mina
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=ykowDuWpFHc]
(19 min in) – an saying Alicia said this before the all lives matter hashtag came out:
#blacklivesmatter doesn’t mean that your life isn’t important – it means that black lives which are seen as w/o value w/in white supremacy are important to your liberation
from a history of blm movement by alicia – feminist wire
on hashtags, umbrellas, yellow, peace sign..
30 min – if you can control both bodies and minds.. you have a way to control both physical and digital spaces.. t
36 min – spaces (digital and physical) all have a politics and it’s important to understand how memes are engaging w those politics
37 min – we said – great .. the internet is going to increase more voices.. and that’s been true.. but the challenge now is that in these spaces.. w attention economics w how the digital plazas optimize w certain types of expression.. is that the loudest voices are winning..t
begs a mech to listen to every voice.. everyday – ie: tech as it could be
it’s part of this larger shift penny andrews has written about .. is that we’re moving from a world of consensus (we can debate whether there was consensus) but that consensus piece was enabled by broadcast media .. the sense that.. ok .. we all agree on these common things
public consensus always oppresses someone(s)
penny andrews: we had the post war consensus then the neo lib consensus and now we are somewhere else entirely.. what i call a digital dissensus – quick to jump to outrage and fragmented into echo chambers
and they wrote that digital dissensus.. quick to jump to outrage and fragments.. meme culture is central to this
whitney phillips: too much false misleading info, too much harassment/memes.. spreading too quickly w too little oversight.. isn’t incidental to how contemp info systems function.. it’s a function of how they function.. t
perhaps because we’re not hearing all the voices – from a place of curiosity rather than outrage/reaction
in this context.. those with more power.. inevitably are going to win
38 min – not just fragmentation of people.. but of the internet itself.. becoming its own site of contention
39 min – the meme mass is asking a serious question: how can discussion of internet culture be grounded in the specificity of lived experiences..t
revolution of everyday life.. via 2 convers as infra
41 min – from the book – a contest of memes: in a world where *more people have a vehicle by which to express their views, social movements must navigate a world of dissensus.. how they navigate this contention is one of the vital questions of the 21st cent
rather.. how do move beyond *more people.. to all people.. it has to be everyone.. which begs a mech/tech to listen to every voice.. everyday..
then.. less negotiating of contentions and more facilitating of curiosities/connections
how we communicate together
____________
#118 – Shoshana Zuboff
her book (on hold):
https://www.amazon.com/Age-Surveillance-Capitalism-Future-Frontier/dp/1610395697
@shoshanazuboff
Scholar. Activist. Prof Emerita Harvard Business School. Author, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power.
I’ve dedicated this part of my life to understanding and conceptualizing the transition to an information civilization
https://datasociety.net/events/databite-no-118-shoshana-zuboff/
livestream: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6b9DhGgVJc]
the only name we have is the name they gave us – users.. and that is not ok.. a new era of capital that is no longer confined to the econ domain
i wonder if this is our time to emerge from this .. ‘users’.. as we begin to id our true interests.. and new forms of collective/collab action..
on capitalism ness – from claiming resources ie nature.. to claiming private human experience.. reborn as behavioral data.. to produce predictions of human behavior.. prediction products
predict\able ness
markets in behavior futures – buying predictions of future behavior in order to make money.. depends on social relations of the one way mirror.. hunt/take outside of people’s awareness.. had to be secret .. to keep us users in ignorance.. our ignorance has been their bliss
i spent 7 yrs literally locked away writing this book.. guidance from imagining my children’s future.. seeing into and being afraid of what i saw.. simple step to be worried about everybody’s children..
p 521 – the historically contingent nature of the thing that has us.. before began campaign of psychic numbing.. it is not ok to have to hide your own life.. (redefine) search, friend, recognition).. not ok for every move to be catalogued.. to herd us thru future tense for someone else’s profit.. don’t take them for granted.. they are not ok.. who decides who decides
she also said this was new.. i don’t think so
q&a
same structure of notice and consent.. without the burning part.. human experience was the new virgin wood.. the thing that could be claimed/monetized.. a vision of unilateral dispossession
stages of dispossession in order to institutionalize (it) and to de mobilize (people)..
surveillance capitalism is about predicting future behavior.. best predictions approximate observation.. ie: econ of action.. comes from intervening in the state of play and manipulating so it moves in direction of outcomes that align w commercial objectives.. bypass awareness of individuals in order to herd
in order to move toward best predictions.. emphasis is toward totality – i call it radical indifference..
begs discrimination as equity.. where line of best fit is shown to be a farce at best.. and more to the point – inhumane
this has nothing to do w the digital.. this is about econ.. this is very good news..
democracy is like.. chasing a (hoola) hoop.. you catch it before it falls over.. that’s the game.. always have to be by its side to keep it rolling.. democracy is the hoop.. it’s not like one generation did it and we all sit back and take pics.. we’ve all got to do it
resonating to everyone.. everyday.. but begs as the day.. or it won’t work
livestream died.. i think/hope i just missed the last question – danah’s
____________
19 min read from sareeta’s nov 2019 talk
“A colonial relationship is: hierarchical, extractive, & exploitative; it produces uneven consequences & malevolent paternalisms.” — D&S Director of Research @SareetaAmrute https://t.co/G6ZfG0VjRF
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/datasociety/status/1233036815923318784
‘To undo tech colonialisms, we must reframe stories of tech inevitability & fixedness in our patterns of engagement w/world. ‘
so much to let go of.. iteracy and numeracy as colonialism/control/enclosure..
let’s try ie: cure ios city
go deep enough & it/we could turn on a dime
___________
be you. 