Data Monopolies Readings

Frijol commented 4 years ago

To be facilitated by @jnthnvctr and ~~[? anyone want to co-facilitate?]~~ @titaniumbones . Schedule for 2020 semester here: https://github.com/datatogether/reading_datatogether/issues/71

Most of our data and information is controlled by a handful of companies. How did this come to be, what are examples of responsible and irresponsible holding of this power, and how do we imagine we might slip the trap of data monopolies?

We use these issues to solicit additional reading suggestions from the community. Please add suggestions below! Ultimately, the facilitators will choose the reading selections for their session.

Here are some readings that were suggested for this topic in the Data Together Annual Meeting:

Cory Doctorow’s work: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/09/big-not-tech.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/interoperability-fix-internet-not-tech-companies
Siva Vaidhyanathan: The Googlization of Everything
Links to Snapchat from Instagram being banned
All of facebook’s bad behavior really
Internet.org - is there a version of this that is “not bad?” Is there a way to mitigate https://advox.globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/FreeBasicsinRealLife_FINALJuly27.pdf
Google and Getty https://www.ft.com/content/eda3ea0a-0bc2-11e6-9456-444ab5211a2f
Some history: https://www.newyorker.com/business/adam-davidson/teddy-roosevelt-wouldnt-understand-the-eus-antitrust-fine-against-google
Stratechery on monopolies aligned with consumers but pressuring suppliers https://stratechery.com/2017/defining-aggregators/
Data sovereignty
Big Tech and Politics today
Warren
Yang
Amazon sidewalk?
Optionally: ftp://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/veranstaltungen/rnic/papers/WernhardMoeschel.pdf

-- Maybe goes in here? Closed Source & Its Benefits

Incentive structures and business models
B2C
Subscription
Advertising
Value attribution of data vs. advertising
Brave / BAT
What do business models look like in a Web3 ecosystem coming from web2?

dcwalk commented 4 years ago

Watched a super great interview with this person: Matt Stoller (https://mattstoller.com/) who recently wrote "Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy". Maybe something to connect to the broader history of monopolies in there

lightandluck commented 4 years ago

+1 Matt Stoller - been following him on Twitter and want to read that book as well

greggish commented 4 years ago

I'd really like to join this discussion when it happens! And, to add to the mix, I'm thinking about the frame of Protocols vs Platforms, which threads with Doctorow's recent writing on adversarial interoperability...