A guest lecture given to IBCoM honor's program students at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, 9.05.2014

1. Lela Mosemghvdlishvili
IBCoM Honor’s Program
Shaping of ‘persuasive’ technologies:
gate-keeping and gender
Guest Lecture
9 May 2014

2. Agenda
• Defining persuasive technologies
• Shaping of mobile Technologies
– (break)
• Gender and mobile technologies

3. persuasive technologies
‘persuasion’ refers to an act of communication […]
as holding the middle between ‘manipulation’ and
‘convincing’.
Spahn (2011)
persuasive technologies are: “designed to change
what people think and do”
BJ Fogg (2002)

4. persuasive technologies (2)
BJ Fogg (2002)

5. persuasive apps
Most present to change:
• Consumption patterns
• Health & Fitness behavior
• Education
• Political Communication

6. persuasive apps (2)
When persuasion moves from
rhetoric into technology, how does
it change role of technologies?
What is the relationship to user’s
autonomy?

7. 1. Persuasion should be based on prior (real or
counterfactual) consent.
2. Ideally the aim of persuasion should be to
end the persuasion.
3. Persuasion should grant as much autonomy
as possible to the user
(influenced by J. Habermas ideas)
3 ethical guidelines to distinguish persuasion
from manipulation (Spahn, 2011)

8. “Our lab’s director, BJ Fogg, predicts that in 10-15 years
mobile phones will be the primary platform for
changing people’s attitudes and behaviors, surpassing
the persuasive power of TV, radio, and the web —
combined.” (quote from the website)
mobile persuasion

9. • how is current ‘mobile’ (smartphones)
shaped?
• who has decision-making power?

10. What makes a phone smart?

11. distinct features
1. Programmability
(Operating System,
Apps)
2. Sensing abilities
(GPS, Accelerometer)
3. Continuous internet
connectivity (3,4G,
Wi-Fi)
• Implications for the
market ?

12. Why code/software/apps mater?
• defines (novel) functionality of a device

13. App ‘revolution’: looking back at short history of
smartphones
Apple released iPhone with preinstalled apps only
Critiques call it iBrick (Zittrain, 2008)
• Jail-breaking of iPhones
• Apple releases SDK (Software Development Kit)
• Google enters mobile ecosystem with Android
(selectively open source)

14. A study: Negotiability of Technology and its limitations:
Politics of App development (Mosemghvdlishvili & Jansz)

15. Theoretical framework
emphasizing social contingency of technology
negotiability
central concept
• a range of ‘choices’
• relevant groups
• closure
however
• asymmetries in power
• irreversibility &
foreclosed choices

16. Methodology and data
 20 semi-structured online interviews (average:
50 minutes)
Participants:
 developers from 12 countries (Asia, Europe,
Americas)
 average age: 29
 absolute majority: male (19)
 highly educated

17. Developers
(expert
users?)
manufacturers carriers
OS providers
Relevant groups involved
Respondents views on role and power of developers and
other groups

18. OS Company Software
Licensing Type
Programmin
g Language
Distribution
platform
(App markets)
Review
process
Developers’
costs
to distribute
through App
markets
Share of
sales price
kept by the
distributor
iOS Apple Proprietary (with
some open source
components)
Objective-C Exclusively App
Store
Yes Annual fee
$99/year
30%
Android Google Free and open
source (Apache
License)
Java Android
Marketplace
(and alternative
markets)
No Onetime
payment $25
0
Windows
Phone
Microsoft Proprietary .NET,
Silverlight/XN
A
Windows
Phone
Marketplace
Yes Annual fee $99 30%
BlackBerry
OS
RIM Proprietary Java BlackBerry App
World
Yes free 20%
Symbian Accenture
(Nokia)
Open source
(Eclipse Public
License)
C++ Ovi Store Yes Onetime
payment $1
30%

19. OS Company Software
Licensing Type
Programmin
g Language
Distribution
platform
(App markets)
Review
process
Developers’
costs
to distribute
through App
markets
Share of
sales price
kept by the
distributor
iOS Apple Proprietary (with
some open source
components)
Objective-C Exclusively App
Store
Yes Annual fee
$99/year
30%
Android Google Free and open
source (Apache
License)
Java Android
Marketplace
(and alternative
markets)
No Onetime
payment $25
0
Windows
Phone
Microsoft Proprietary .NET,
Silverlight/XN
A
Windows
Phone
Marketplace
Yes Annual fee $99 30%
BlackBerry
OS
RIM Proprietary Java BlackBerry App
World
Yes free 20%
Symbian Accenture
(Nokia)
Open source
(Eclipse Public
License)
C++ Ovi Store Yes Onetime
payment $1
30%

20. Google’s Android
• amounts to up to 70% of OS market
share
•‘most permissive’ / no review process
unless…
• selective open source business strategy
and unique business model
• change of license from Public General
license into Apache

21. OS Company Software
Licensing Type
Programmin
g Language
Distribution
platform
(App markets)
Review
process
Developers’
costs
to distribute
through App
markets
Share of
sales price
kept by the
distributor
iOS Apple Proprietary (with
some open source
components)
Objective-C Exclusively App
Store
Yes Annual fee
$99/year
30%
Android Google Free and open
source (Apache
License)
Java Android
Marketplace
(and alternative
markets)
No Onetime
payment $25
0
Windows
Phone
Microsoft Proprietary .NET,
Silverlight/XN
A
Windows
Phone
Marketplace
Yes Annual fee $99 30%
BlackBerry
OS
RIM Proprietary Java BlackBerry App
World
Yes free 20%
Symbian Accenture
(Nokia)
Open source
(Eclipse Public
License)
C++ Ovi Store Yes Onetime
payment $1
30%

22. Discussion
In comparison with previous mobile phones - a positive development
BUT
In comparison with Internet and PCs a more controlled and restrictive
environment
• Shift of power from carriers to OS providers
(technology companies)
• Gate-keeping role of technology companies

23. Ada Lovelace

24. •gender and production of
technologies
•gendered relationship to
technologies
•gendered technologies

25. Source: “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science
and Engineering,” National Science Foundation. (US)

26. Gender gap
• gender gap in ICT industry occupations

27. Example of keyboards from Linotype to QWERTY
Does underrepresentation of
women in
design/development translate
into male bias?

28. Gendered relationship to technology
A study Tools and Toys: Communicating gendered
positions towards technology
• toys vs. tools
•performativity of gender (Butler)
• gender is done in a more traditional way,
but there are few instances when it is
“done differently”
“Over time, gender may matter less in
relation to technology and could be
blurred”

29. Gendered Tecnologies?

30. mosemghvdlishvili@eshcc.eur.nl