YouTube is a platform that connects content creators, advertisers, and end-users. It does so through constructed infrastructures like search and recommendation algorithms, as well as interfaces and terms of service. These elements can be studied empirically to understand how they shape practices and outcomes. While algorithms are often blamed, platforms are actually complex systems influenced by technical and non-technical factors. Understanding requires examining how platform grammars intersect with subject-specific contexts.
Engines of Order. Social Media and the Rise of Algorithmic Knowing.Bernhard Rieder
Talk given at the Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space Conference on June 19 at the University of Amsterdam. References and comments are in the notes section.
Engines of Order. Social Media and the Rise of Algorithmic Knowing.Bernhard Rieder
Talk given at the Social Media and the Transformation of Public Space Conference on June 19 at the University of Amsterdam. References and comments are in the notes section.
Interactive visualization and exploration of network data with gephiBernhard Rieder
Presentation for a workshop given at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at Warwick University on May 9 2013. Focuses on conceptual and historical questions. Comments, references, and explanations are in the notes.
OSi Geographic Information Research & Development Initiatives Launch
Ordnance Survey Ireland GI R&D Initiatives
Tuesday, 22 March 2016, 13:00 to 20:30 (GMT) , Maynooth University
Defining privacy and related notions such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is a central notion in computer science and other fields. The theoretical, technological, and application aspects of PII require a framework that provides an overview and systematic structure for the discipline’s topics. This paper develops a foundation for representing information privacy. It introduces a coherent conceptualization of the privacy senses built upon diagrammatic representation. A new framework is presented based on a flow-based model that includes generic operations performed on PII.
Conversational interfaces; Speaking with Irresponsible black-boxesRaúl Tabarés Gutiérrez
Conference paper presented at #4s2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Introduction;
During the last years we have witnessed how conversational interfaces have popped up in the digital landscape due to the great advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Speech Recognition (SR). That has made possible that chatbots and virtual assistants became common in different platforms and devices. This emergence has been also coined as “conversation-as-a-platform” stressing the radical change that means to communicate with machines throughout the human voice in terms of user experience (UX). This emphasis in outlining a new version of the Web is not new as it was also something previously stressed in past techno-market paradigms like “Web 2.0” but it also reflects the need of political reflection about the introduction of emergent and pervasive technologies in our society. The development of these chatting agents mirrors the concentration of AI resources around a bunch of companies that lead the so-called “platform economy”.
Interactive visualization and exploration of network data with gephiBernhard Rieder
Presentation for a workshop given at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at Warwick University on May 9 2013. Focuses on conceptual and historical questions. Comments, references, and explanations are in the notes.
OSi Geographic Information Research & Development Initiatives Launch
Ordnance Survey Ireland GI R&D Initiatives
Tuesday, 22 March 2016, 13:00 to 20:30 (GMT) , Maynooth University
Defining privacy and related notions such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is a central notion in computer science and other fields. The theoretical, technological, and application aspects of PII require a framework that provides an overview and systematic structure for the discipline’s topics. This paper develops a foundation for representing information privacy. It introduces a coherent conceptualization of the privacy senses built upon diagrammatic representation. A new framework is presented based on a flow-based model that includes generic operations performed on PII.
Conversational interfaces; Speaking with Irresponsible black-boxesRaúl Tabarés Gutiérrez
Conference paper presented at #4s2017 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Introduction;
During the last years we have witnessed how conversational interfaces have popped up in the digital landscape due to the great advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Speech Recognition (SR). That has made possible that chatbots and virtual assistants became common in different platforms and devices. This emergence has been also coined as “conversation-as-a-platform” stressing the radical change that means to communicate with machines throughout the human voice in terms of user experience (UX). This emphasis in outlining a new version of the Web is not new as it was also something previously stressed in past techno-market paradigms like “Web 2.0” but it also reflects the need of political reflection about the introduction of emergent and pervasive technologies in our society. The development of these chatting agents mirrors the concentration of AI resources around a bunch of companies that lead the so-called “platform economy”.
Ontology engineering, along with semantic Web technologies, allow the semantic development and modeling of the operational flow required for blockchain design. The semantic Web, in accordance with W3C, "provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries" and can be seen as an integrator for various content, applications and information systems. The most widely used blockchain modelling system, by abstract representation, description and definition of structure, processes, information and resources, is the enterprises modelling. Enterprise modelling uses domain ontologies by model representation languages.
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19062.24642
‘From the lab into the real world’ [A User-Centered Approach]@cristobalcobo
This presentation aims to understand and promote benefits of user-centricity and user-cantered innovation in industries. This approach is transforming the value chain and business models traditional with an offer that is towards “instant custom” for the consumer on the one hand, and an allocation of value between institutional and private.
This is not just a living lab approach (although some lessons can be learnt) but a complex endeavour requiring deeper technology integration, business models with broader range of stakeholders and user populations with socio-economic diversity representing communities across Europe and beyond.
Future Internet Assembly Dublin 2013
http://www.fi-dublin.eu/bringing-users-in
Usability First - Introduction to User-Centered Design@cristobalcobo
he User-centered design (UCD) process outlines the phases throughout a design and development life-cycle all while focusing on gaining a deep understanding of who will be using the product.
Platform Capitalism and the New Value Economy in the Academy Mark Carrigan
The arrival of what is being called the ‘big data’ revolution in societies around the globe has presented social scientists with new challenges as to how best to understand it as a phenomenon, on the one hand, and what conceptual and methodological approaches we might use to research it, on the other (e.g. Burrows and Savage, 2017; Venturini et al., 2017). The focus of this World Yearbook on big data and comparative methodology is thus a timely opportunity to engage with, and begin to theorize, these developments.
This is not to suggest the matter of data, the academy and comparison is an under researched area. Far from it! There is a growing body of published work on big data-driven global rankings of universities. However much of this commentary is either a critique of quantification, with the argument that numbers are political, or to show how such comparisons generate anxiety about overall placements in ranking thus stimulating efforts to improve.
A Framework for Policy Crowdsourcing - Oxford IPP 2014Araz Taeihagh
Can Crowdsourcing be used for policy? Previous work posits that the three types of Crowdsourcing have different levels of potential usefulness when applied to the various stages of the policy cycle. In this paper, we build upon this exploratory work by categorizing the extant research with respect to Crowdsourcing for the policy cycle. Premised upon our analysis, we thereafter discuss the trends, highlight the gaps, and suggest some approaches to empirically validate the application of Crowdsourcing to the policy cycle.
When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Comm...eraser Juan José Calderón
When Ostrom Meets Blockchain: Exploring the Potentials of Blockchain for Commons Governance by David Rozas (drozas@ucm.es), Antonio Tenorio-Fornés (antoniotenorio@ucm.es), Silvia
1 2
Díaz-Molina (smdmolina@ucm.es), and Samer Hassan (shassan@cyber.harvard.edu)
Experiments on Crowdsourcing Policy Assessment - Oxford IPP 2014Araz Taeihagh
Can non-experts Crowds perform as well as experts in the assessment of policy measures? To what degree does geographical location relevant to the policy context alter the performance of non-experts in the assessment of policy measures? This research in progress seeks to answer these questions by outlining experiments designed to replicate expert policy assessments with non-expert Crowds. We use a set of ninety-eight policy measures previously evaluated by experts, as our control condition, and conduct the experiments using two discrete sets of non-expert Crowds recruited from a Virtual Labor Market (VLM). We vary the composition of our non-expert Crowds along two conditions; participants recruited from a geographical location relevant to the policy context, and participants recruited at-large. In each case we recruit a sample of 100 participants for each Crowd. Each experiment is then repeated at the VLM with completely new participants in each group to assess the reliability of our results. We will present results on the performance of all four groups of non-experts jointly and severally in comparison to the expert assessments, and discuss the ramifications of our findings for the use of non-expert Crowds and VLM’s for policy design. Our experimental design applies climate change adaptation policy measures.
Algorithmic Culture & Maker Culture; Breaches and Bridges in the Platform Eco...Raúl Tabarés Gutiérrez
During last year’s different platforms have emerged on the Internet and have become common in our everyday living. These new digital companies have succeed in positioning themselves as cultural intermediaries in a growing trend towards the digitization of society favoured by the irruption of different technologies, new forms of value-creating human activities and the decentralization effect that Internet culture helps to create.
In this sense, the growing importance of digital ecosystems in human processes & decisions has nurtured an algorithmic culture that symbolizes our current declining of autonomy in the social sphere. This disruption in the cultural landscape has been supported by the introduction of different “black-boxes” that impede to ascertain what the inner workings of these new socio-technological brokers are.
On the contrary, we can observe how different grassroots initiatives that promote technological appropriation and digital empowerment like the Maker Movement are also becoming globally recognized and institutionally supported. These movements rely on Free Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) and Hardware for opening black-boxes and promoting critical thinking about technology in citizenship.
In this contribution we would like to explore the several convergences and divergences that are present in these two different cultures to shed some light in the complicated new techno-realities that have risen. Finally, we conclude with a set of several key guidelines that can help to policy-makers to promote new updated legislations.
The Fundamentals of Policy CrowdsourcingAraz Taeihagh
What is the state of the research on crowdsourcing for policymaking? This article begins to answer this question by collecting, categorizing, and situating an extensive body of the extant research investigating policy crowdsourcing, within a new framework built on fundamental typologies from each field. We first define seven universal characteristics of the three general crowdsourcing techniques (virtual labor markets, tournament crowdsourcing, open collaboration), to examine the relative trade-offs of each modality. We then compare these three types of crowdsourcing to the different stages of the policy cycle, in order to situate the literature spanning both domains. We finally discuss research trends in crowdsourcing for public policy and highlight the research gaps and overlaps in the literature.
Philosophy of Blockchain Technology - OntologiesNicolae Sfetcu
About the necessity and usefulness of developing a philosophy specific to the blockchain technology, emphasizing on the ontological aspects. After an Introduction that highlights the main philosophical directions for this emerging technology, in Blockchain Technology I explain the way the blockchain works, discussing ontological development directions of this technology in Designing and Modeling. The next section is dedicated to the main application of blockchain technology, Bitcoin, with the social implications of this cryptocurrency. There follows a section of Philosophy in which I identify the blockchain technology with the concept of heterotopia developed by Michel Foucault and I interpret it in the light of the notational technology developed by Nelson Goodman as a notational system. In the Ontology section, I present two developmental paths that I consider important: Narrative Ontology, based on the idea of order and structure of history transmitted through Paul Ricoeur's narrative history, and the Enterprise Ontology system based on concepts and models of an enterprise, specific to the semantic web, and which I consider to be the most well developed and which will probably become the formal ontological system, at least in terms of the economic and legal aspects of blockchain technology. In Conclusions I am talking about the future directions of developing the blockchain technology philosophy in general as an explanatory and robust theory from a phenomenologically consistent point of view, which allows testability and ontologies in particular, arguing for the need of a global adoption of an ontological system for develop cross-cutting solutions and to make this technology profitable.
How metaphors matter an ethnography of blockchain based re descriptions of th...eraser Juan José Calderón
How metaphors matter an ethnography of blockchain based re descriptions of the world.
Sandra Faustino
Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão, SOCIUS/CSG, Lisboa, Portugal
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the role of metaphors in the production of redescriptions of the world within the framework of technological design
processes. Drawing on a collaborative ethnography with the Economic
Space Agency (ECSA), a start-up developing post-blockchain technology,
this paper illustrates how metaphors mimic the toponymy of
decentralized material infrastructures, while simultaneously pushing
forward ‘posthuman’ values that are expected to become fixated
through software. Through an analysis of a ‘collection’ of metaphors
produced by ECSA, this paper sheds light on the work performed by
specific vocabularies, within technological communities, in shaping a symbiotic relationship between futuristic politics and material culture.
Here is the full reference:
Calzada, I. & Cobo, C. (2015), Unplugging: Deconstructing the Smart City, Journal of Urban Technology. DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2014.971535. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.971535
This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the JOURNAL OF URBAN TECHNOLOGY on March 16, 2015, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10630732.2014.971535#abstract
DOI: 10.1080/10630732.2014.971535
This version will be shared on author’s personal website ONLY.
This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in this journal.
It is not the copy of record.
Introduction to Society Chapter Thirteen Weekly Assignments TMargaritoWhitt221
Introduction to Society
Chapter Thirteen Weekly Assignments
The Functions of Government
1. List five primary functions of government
2. Identify three contrasting views of government
3. Explain the liberal, conservative, radical, reactionary, and anarchist philosophies of government
4. Distinguish a democracy from an autocracy
5. List some distinguishing characteristics of a democracy
6. Explain the democratic concept of the individual
7. List the common justifications for an autocracy
8. List four characteristics of autocracy
9. Summarize the three views of the nature of government
10. List the seven exaggerated characterizations on how the role of government is viewed
11. Draw a diagram illustrating the continuum of autocracies
The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem
Fiona Sussan & Zoltan J. Acs
Accepted: 21 March 2017 /Published online: 11 May 2017
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
Abstract A significant gap exists in the conceptualiza-
tion of entrepreneurship in the digital age. This paper
introduces a conceptual framework for studying entre-
preneurship in the digital age by integrating two well-
established concepts: the digital ecosystem and the
entrepreneurial ecosystem. The integration of these
two ecosystems helps us better understand the interac-
tions of agents and users that incorporate insights of
consumers’ individual and social behavior. The Digital
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem framework consists of four
concepts: digital infrastructure governance, digital user
citizenship, digital entrepreneurship, and digital market-
place. The paper develops propositions for each of the
four concepts and provides a theoretical framework of
multisided platforms to better understand the digital
entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, it outlines a new
research agenda to fill the gap in our understanding of
entrepreneurship in the digital age.
Keywords Entrepreneurship . Ecosystem .
Matchmakers . Digital infrastructure . Digital
governance . Digital citizenship . Multisided platforms .
Information technologies
JEL classification L26 . 011 . P40 . P00
1 Introduction
As the Economist magazine went to press the lead story
was about reinventing the company.1 This new compa-
ny type is at the heart of a growing debate on how to
understand the digital economy. Ever since the launch of
Uber, Snapchat, and AirBnB and the earlier success of
Google, Amazon, and Facebook, a new breed of
company has emerged that uses digital technology,
entrepreneurship, and innovation to upend industries
on a global scale (Stone 2017).2 Most of these compa-
nies are matchmakers (Evans and Schmalensee 2016,
p.1).3 What these companies have in common is that
they all connect members of one group with another
group. The core competencies of these companies are
their ability to match one group of customers with
another group of customers by reducing the transaction
cost of a match (Coase 1937). These multisided plat-
forms would not exis ...
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Overview on Edible Vaccine: Pros & Cons with Mechanism
From Algorithms to Diagrams: How to Study Platforms?
1. From Algorithms to Diagrams
Bernhard Rieder
Mediastudies Department
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Lisbon, February 28, 2019
How to Study Platforms?
2. Introduction
Over the last twenty years, online "platforms" have been discussed
intensely – under different names and from different angles.
From search engines as "metamedia" (Winkler 1997) to the "web as
platform" (O’Reilly 2005), to "walled gardens" (Zittrain 2008), "two-
sided markets" (Rochet & Tirole 2003) or "custodians of the Internet"
(Gillespie 2018), different functions of intermediation and their
implications have been highlighted.
Today, debates focus often on a limited number of large companies
(GAFA, FANG, …), specialized in connecting (different groups of
actors).
The notion of "platformization" addresses the emergence of a
"dominant economic and infrastructural model" (Helmond 2015).
3. Introduction
The algorithms implicated in making
connections are the last subject/aspect
under scrutiny, particularly in the
context of "infomediation"
(Rebillard et Smyrnaios 2010).
Words like distortion, opacity,
fragmentation or polarization mark
critiques and plurality, transparence, or
accountability are proposed as
solutions.
Some even talk about domination and
antitrust measures.
4.
5. "New operators such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Apple, as well as
the new, rising social media firms, such as Facebook or Twitter, should by
now be included in the list of the most powerful media organisations
worldwide." (Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom 2013)
6. Introduction
Different disciplines approach the question of the power of platforms in
different ways and their conceptual and methodological differences mix
with normative disagreement.
In my own work, the technical dimension is central: how to think and
study technical objects as "technologies of power" (Foucault 1994)?
This includes historical and conceptual investigation of algorithmic
techniques, the creation of digital tools for researchers, empirical
research, questions concerning (software) design, et the study at the
interstice of technology, politics, and economics.
This presentation draws on these different lines of investigation.
7. The articulation focuses on a particular platform: YouTube.
Introduction
YouTube is at the center of a "hybrid media system" (Chadwick 2013) or
a "new screen ecology" (Cunningham et al. 2016).
8.
9. From algorithms to diagrams
The goal is not to do a "platform biography" (Burgess 2016), but
rather to retrace a "platform diagram".
The term can be read in a technical sense:
"At a more mechanical level, a platform is also a standardized diagram or
technology." (Bratton 2015, 44)
In Foucault's work, we find the concept of the diagram as a tool to
think the connection between heterogeneous elements – between
"discourses and architectures" (Foucault 1975, 276), between
"programs and mechanisms" (Deleuze 1984, 46).
These elements are not the emanation of a same logic, but rather an
arrangement of "parts" that function as a whole.
10. platform
(e.g. Facebook, Uber, App
Stores, etc.)
side 1
(e.g. users)
side 2
(e.g. advertisers,
sellers, etc.)
platform-enabled transaction
facilitates transaction by supporting offer, search,
security, contracting, payment, etc.
end-users
YouTube
(owned by Alphabet Inc.)
advertisers
content
creators
interfaces, ToS, etc.interfaces, ToS, etc.
11. The different aspects of "computerization" produce infrastructures that
"capture" (Agre 1994) an always larger number of practices, mediatizes
and "constitutes" (Burrows 2009, 451) them.
The "deep mediatization" (Couldry and Hepp 2016) that results is driven
by forms and function that flatten the differences between actors and
between types of content through standardized technical forms that are
exchanged in a very large market.
"In other words, by imposing a mathematically precise form upon previously unformalized
activities, capture standardizes those activities and their component elements and
thereby prepares them […] for an eventual transition to market-based relationships."
(Agre 1994, 120)
Computerization
12. Building on the theory of Coase (1937) on the "nature of the firm",
Ciborra develops an argument concerning transaction cost:
"The costs of organizing, i.e. costs of coordination and control, are decreased by
information technology which can streamline all or part of the information processing
required in carrying out an exchange: information to search for partners, to develop a
contract, to control the behavior of the parties during contract execution and so on."
(Ciborra 1985, 63)
The forms and functions that perform this "organizing" are constructed
and imply many instances of decision-making and design.
The mass of objects and context on offer in these very large markets
seems both to demand and to valorize the delegation of sorting to
algorithmic techniques that receive considerable power.
Computerization
13. Institutional forms and governance
Platforms operate as techno-institutional forms that combine
decentralization (market) and centralization (state):
"Platforms can be based on the global distribution of Interfaces and Users, and in
this, platforms resemble markets. At the same time, the programmed coordination of
that distribution reinforces their governance of the interactions that are exchanged
and capitalized through them, and for this, platforms resemble states." (Bratton
2015, 41)
How do distribution and governance operate, how to identify and
describe the factors or "causes" behind actually observable
phenomena or "outcomes"?
14. A platform diagram should allow for discussing together and
juxtaposing elements that are often treated separately:
The elements of this tentative diagram:
1) "Algorithms"
2) Constructed infrastructures
3) Participants, practices, and contents
4) Business models
5) Policies and "values"
6) The company and its environment
Each element points toward many possibilities to study platforms: it
highlights particular questions, specific approaches and methods, as
well as specific historical trajectories.
The YouTube diagram
16. The question of the power of algorithms is not new, but is now appears
with urgency, in particular since machine learning has started to spread.
The power often attributed to algorithms fuels demands for
transparency and accountability: but the problem is complicated.
Scholars in the social and human sciences are proposing empirical
(Sandvig et al. 2014; Diakopoulos 2014) as well as conceptual
approaches (Burrell 2016; Mackenzie 2015, 2017) to capture how
algorithms operate or "think".
1) "Algorithms"
17. Experiments (here: Kosinski et al. 2013)
show how e.g. Facebook "likes" can
predict intimate or sensitive variables
rather well.
By specifying a target variable such as
"time on site" or "click probability",
these techniques represent an
"interested" reading of reality (Rieder
2017).
In this context, "the goal is not truth,
but performativity, that is, the best
input/output relation" (Lyotard 1997).
1) Thinking machine learning
18. Instead of specifying a model as a set formula, machine learning allows for deriving a model from
specific "orchestrations" of feedback. Every signal receives a significance in relation to a target
variable that defines a desired outcome. The model is, at the same time, complex (many variables
and relationships between them) and dynamic (it changes in response to captured feedback).
19. Different initiatives for empirical observation have been
appearing, here AlgoTransparency by Guillaume Chaslot.
25. We identified three types of "morphology":
⦿ stable over long periods of time (low avRBD);
⦿ stable with "newsy" interruptions (average avRBD);
⦿ "newsy" queries that change constantly (high avRDB);
Stable periods are often organized around "explainer"-videos published by
channels that present themselves as neutral or around well-known US
actors (e.g. Stephen Colbert); during more agitated periods, "native"
actors intervene more often.
YouTube's "platform vernacular" (Gibbs et al. 2015) is clearly important,
but intersects with the subjects sitting behind the queries, making each
case different from the others.
1) YouTube, studied empirically
26. We can detect correlation between video production, search volume (via
Google Trends), and the level of change; but a clear picture of causality
remains elusive.
1) YouTube, studied empirically
27. Our approach is interested in the technical operation of search on
YouTube, but situates this operation in a large system that is heavily
affected by use practices.
We move from ranking algorithms to ranking "cultures" and combine
different qualitative and quantitative methods in a gesture of "descriptive
assemblage" (Savage 2009). Technical factors, platform vernaculars and
the particularities of individual subject are taken into account.
Technical and non-technical factors, the "platform" and the "practices"
become impossible to distinguish.
1) Beyond "algorithms"
28. "Concepts like ‘algorithm’ have become sloppy shorthands, slang terms for the act of
mistaking multipart complex systems for simple, singular ones." (Bogost 2015, n.p.)
"Programmed coordination" (Bratton 2015) is not limited to ordering
algorithms, but includes a large set of forms and functions that operate
on the level of interfaces or in the bowels of backends.
Empirical approaches like the "walkthrough method" (Light et al. 2017)
can take stock of affordances that link up to form "grammars of action"
(Agre 1994), in order to understand, e.g. on Facebook, "the specific
ways in which sociality is programmed (i.e., encoded, assembled, and
organized)" (Bucher 2013, 480).
The study of data flows, their "compression" into metrics and their
operational uses constitute a second level of analysis.
2) Constructed infrastructures
34. Platforms are inhabited by participants, practices, contents and various
relations between these elements; algorithms and infrastructures enter
into dynamics with appropriations.
Ethnographic studies provide interesting, but partial perspectives; the
first attempts to describe YouTube on the whole (p.ex. Bärtl 2018)
remain sketches – that confirm, however, familiar elements such as the
strong presence of a "Matthew effect".
Previously often described using the term "participatory culture"
(Jenkins et al. 2015), we can now observe a broad variety of actors and
vernaculars as well as important scale variation.
The proliferation of "multi-channel networks" (MCN) introduces
another layer of complexity. (cf. Lobato 2016)
3) Participants, practices, and contents
35. The techno-institutional format of the
channel (and its subscription logic) is
potentially the central "natively digital
object" (Rogers 2013) that facilitates
stabilization, professionalization, branding
and audience accumulation.
Channels render what is on offer readable
and navigable.
Who is on YouTube and why? Which themes
or issues dominate? What "works"? What is
the role of algorithms and of audience
selection dynamics?
Who will reign the new screen ecology?
3) Participants, practices, and contents
36.
37.
38. Network of "related channels" (YouTube Data Tools +
Gephi) starting from Rubin Report and The Young Turks.
39.
40. The already mentioned elements
connect directly and deeply with the
business models in use.
YouTube's model still reposes in large
part on advertisement, distributed
through "keyword bidding" and shared
(55%/45%) with more than a million
"partners" (2016).
The now classic mechanisms of "free"
apply.
4) Business models
41. Certain actors (e.g. channels with more than 100k
subscribers) have a right to "human contact".
44. Paid services such as YouTube Premium (previously RED) and YouTube
Music remove ads and allow for additional uses.
The join function integrates the Patreon model into the YouTube
platform and sales function further broaden the set of monetization
possibilities.
4) Business models
45. Can we automatically detect channels' business
elements and intersect them with other metrics?
47. Justification discourses are (were?) often based on the idea of "revealed
preference", which holds that "the individual guinea-pig, by his market
behaviour, reveals his preference pattern" (Samuelson 1948). This fuels
and justifies the use of feedback signals as "votes" and popularity
measures as means of ordering.
Due to commercial (nervous advertisers) and political pressure (public
criticism, regulation menace), the situation has become much more
complicated.
The platform now has to engage in control and censorship beyond
copyright (Content ID); we see a series of experiments that include new
rules, controlled and policed by algorithms, editors and gamified users.
5) Policies and "values"
49. Jack Dorsey and Alex Jones at the exit of the "Twitter-
Facebook Senate hearings" in September 2018.
50. How can the effects of these
interventions be studied empirically?
51.
52. After the phase of "flaunted neutrality", begins
that of "humanist values".
« [W]e're making a major change to how we build Facebook.
I'm changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing
on helping you find relevant content to helping you have
more meaningful social interactions. […] Now, I want to be
clear: by making these changes, I expect the time people
spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will
go down. But I also expect the time you do spend on
Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I
believe that will be good for our community and our business
over the long term too. » (Zuckerberg 2018)
These normative questions are certainly not
simple.
5) Policies and "values"
55. The large platforms follow a strategy of "concentric diversification",
"moving into activities which mesh to some degree with the present
product line, technological expertise, customer base, or distribution
channels." (Thompson & Strickland 1978)
6) The company and its environment
Do the synergies thus liberated favor the appearance and stabilization of
cross-market oligopolies and monopolies?
Core: established business, mastery of
process and product, steady revenues;
Extension layer: mastery of process and
product, but not yet established and
generating significant revenue;
Expansion layer: experimental process and
product, "competence testing";
56. YouTube is part of the Alphabet / Google product family and entertains
various relationships with other products.
How to study these relationships?
What can resist the aspiration power of platforms? Large brands? Public
service? Other platforms? Who are YouTube's competitors? Facebook +
Instagram? Amazon + Twitch? Netflix? Disney? Traditional TV networks?
Google Search
1998 2000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
AdWords
Google News Beta
AdSense
GmailIPO
Picasa
Google Maps
YouTube
Android
Google Chrome
AdMob
Freebase
Google Wallet
Hangouts
Play Store Android Wear
Android Auto
Google Print
DoubleClick
Google X
Chrome OS
Google+
Google Drive
Google Cloud Platform
Google Now
6) The company and its environment
57. Conclusions
Platforms represent a reconfiguration of transaction modalities,
following a "digital" mode, including these elements:
⦿ Normalization and standardization that facilitate the organization of transactions
in market forms; a "flattening" of certain cultural differences through the notion
of "content" and the extension of this principle to many different domains;
⦿ Forms of algorithmic coordination that automate continuous, adaptive and
interested optimization and integrate it into infrastructures;
⦿ (Modulable) interfaces that capture participants, practices, and data, serving as
coordinators and translators between participants and the techno-institutional
modes of platforms;
⦿ Very large number of participants and contents that are constantly producing
value for the platform by appropriating and feeding the forms and functions;
⦿ Business models that stimulate the production of content while broadly keeping
the logic of "free" for users;
⦿ Policies, values, and justification discourses that seek to protect the model;
⦿ Modes of diversification and competition that favors the emergence of
monopolies and cross-market domination;
58. Conclusions
The emergent diagram describes a model that is deeply expansionist
and feeds on the dialectics between decentralization and centralization.
Platforms are "transversal network effect machines" that advance on a
"North California" (Cunningham et al. 2016) model: experimentation,
iteration, risk taking, etc.
We under-estimate the complexity of the "platform problem" and the
enormous energies liberated by the model if we treat it as a product of
capitalism "as usual".
Political responses to the challenges of platforms depends on the clarity
of analyses and our capacity to thing different elements together.