Category: Information History

Decolonial AI: Decolonial Theory as Sociotechnical Foresight in Artificial Intelligence – Annotation & Notes

This paper looks at advances in artificial intelligence through the lens of critical science, post-colonial, and decolonial theory. The authors acknowledge the positive potential for AI technologies, but use this paper to highlight its considerable risks, especially for vulnerable populations. They call for a proactive approach to be adopted by AI communities using decolonial theories that use historical hindsight to identify patterns of power that remain relevant – perhaps more than ever – in the rapid advance of AI technologies. 

Fueling the AdTech Machine: Google Analytics and the Commodification of Personal Data

Digital Marketing technology diagram

This paper concerns the role of online analytics in facilitating the rise of today's ubiquitous programmatic advertising, referred to herein as "AdTech." Most criticism of AdTech has focused on online tracking which captures user data, and digital advertising which exploits it for commercial purposes. Almost entirely lost in the discussion is the role of analytics platforms, which process personal data and make it actionable for targeted advertising. I argue that the role of analytics is key to the rise of AdTech, and has not been given the critical attention it deserves. I wrote this paper while pursuing my research as a PhD student at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. It has not been peer-reviewed or published elsewhere, and I’m posting it here to invite comments, criticism, and suggestions. Please feel free to send me email at jackb at illinois dot edu, or twitter message me @ jackbrighton.

Information and Communication Technology and Society – Annotation & Notes

In this article Fuchs introduces “Critical Internet Theory” as a foundation for analyzing the Internet and society based on a Marxian critique. He illustrates Critical Internet Theory (hereinafter CIT for brevity) using the emergence of the so-called Web 2.0 as an Internet gift commodity strategy, wherein users produce content on free platforms, which commodify the content to increase their advertising revenues. Fuchs introduces the concept of the “Internet prosumer commodity” to describe this “free” exchange of labor and value. This strategy, he writes, “functions as a legitimizing ideology.”

The Panoptic Sort: A Political Economy of Personal Information, by Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. – Book Review

graphic of a human eye surrounded by digital data

The academic field of surveillance studies has (thankfully in my view) become more crowded during the past few years in response to the increasing use of data technologies for social control. In the early 1990s, when some of us (e.g. me) were naively celebrating the liberating potential of the internet, Oscar H. Gandy, Jr. was critically examining earlier incarnations of data systems and practices that contributed to the entrenchment of existing systems of domination and social injustice. First published in 1993, his book The Panoptic Sort was a groundbreaking account of the history and rationalization of surveillance in service of institutional control and corporate profit at the expense of individual privacy and autonomy. In the a second edition, published by Oxford University press in 2021, Gandy updates his original book for the context of today’s increasingly ubiquitous technologies that collect, process, and commodify personal information for instrumental use by corporate interests.

Dealing with Digital Intermediaries: A Case Study of the Relations between Publishers and Platforms – Annotation & Notes

In this article, published in 2017 in the journal New Media & Society, Nielsen and Ganter report on a series of interviews with editors, senior management, and product developers at a large, well-established European news media organization regarding their experiences and perspective on relationships with the main digital platforms that are now central to news distribution, namely Facebook and Google. This paper documents the asymmetrical power relationship between a large, well-known and successful news organization, and the digital platforms on which it now depends for audience reach. And it points to a gap in similar research on smaller, more precarious news organizations. 

Period, Theme Event: Locating Information History in History

When we focus primarily on innovations in information technology, we risk flirting with technological determinism while forgetting about the social context. The question for information historians is not “how did this information technology come about,” but “how can we explore history by examining social practices around information and its infrastructures.” But this question is so general it doesn’t provide much of an entry point for actual research. To address the problem of “where do we start,” Alistair Black and Bonnie Mak (2020) propose three specific lenses as an organizing paradigm: Period, Theme, and Event.

The GDPR and (not) Regulating the Internet of Things

GDPR graphic

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been described as a “gold standard” for protecting personal privacy in the Internet age. Among its core principles is a requirement for the consent of individuals to the collection and processing of their personal data. Consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. Based on the language of the GDPR and an extensive literature review, I argue here that the possibility of such consent is undermined by increasingly ubiquitous Internet of Things (IoT) devices which collect a vast array of personal data, and the use of automated data processing that can produce significant social and legal impacts on individuals and groups. I outline the requirements of consent under the GDPR, and describe the challenges to the GDPR’s privacy protection principles in a world of rapidly evolving IoT technologies.

Platformisation, by Thomas Poell, David Nieborg & José van Dick – Annotation & Notes

In this paper, published in the journal Internet Policy Review, the authors define and contextualize the concept of platformisation from four distinct scholarly perspectives: business studies, software studies research, critical political economy, and cultural studies. They suggest a research agenda making use of these four dimensions, so as to provide insight into “ever-evolving dynamics of platformisation” as sites of both benefits and harms to individuals and society. And they offer ways to operationalize the concept of platformisation in critical research on the emergence and concentration of power among a small number of platform companies, and how they are transforming social relationships and key societal sectors. 

Reshaping the public radio newsroom for the digital future, by Nikki Usher – Annotation

NPR logo on the side of the NPR buiilding

Published in 2012 based on field research conducted by Nikki Usher from 2008 to 2010, this paper presents an account of NPR’s response to a rapidly changing digital media environment. As audiences increasingly looked to the web for news, management at NPR understood a need for fundamental change in its operations and identity, from an organization focused entirely on news production for radio broadcast, to a digital media company producing multimedia for online distribution along with traditional NPR broadcast content. 

When search engines stopped being human: menu interfaces and the rise of the ideological nature of algorithmic search – Annotation & Notes

Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process with Google Search superimposed

In recent years, some have argued that if you can’t find information on Google, it might as well not exist. This assertion is problematic given that according to various estimates, the scope of Google’s search index range from 4 percent to .004 percent of the total Internet. Neils Kerssens examines these questions in the context of “positivist algorithmic ideology,” a normalizing force that frames certain practices as an established standard exempt from further interrogation.