Data. Together. Let's read about it
Data Together's reading group is a set of conversations on themes relevant to information and ethics. Learn more and consider joining!
See blog posts of previous conversations at datatogether.org's blog. Previous semesters' syllabi are also available.
Logistics
Once a month, we'll host a 1.5 hour discussion of one of our themes. Everyone should try hard to read the core reading (~30 pages), and once or twice sign up to facilitate discussion.
đź“… During session, we meet once a month at 17:30-19:00 ET on a Tuesday (Data Together Calendar)
🎯 Participation link (recorded): https://edgi-video-call-landing-page.herokuapp.com/https://zoom.us/j/847315566
▶️ Data Together Call Playlist
Join the Data Together reading group!
2020 Data Together Reading Group: "Polity: What is my civic role?"
What is the role of an individual in a system where we hold civic roles both in political and in digital contexts? What are the implications of one’s polity not aligning with one’s national or governmental state?
Themes
Sessions
Algorithmic Racism & Environmental Data Justice
March 17
How do choices in technology design and implementation reflect and impact broader social structures? Let's explore, starting with readings from environmental data justice and studies of algorithmic racism.
Readings:
- EDGI EDJ group, 2019: EDJ Syllabus
- Sasha Constanza-Chock, 2018: Design Justice: Towards an Intersectional Feminist Framework for Design Theory and Practice
- EDJ (Lourdes Vera, Dawn Walker, and many more, EDGI), 2018: extractive logic paper
- Mark Wilkinson, Michel Dumontier, and many more authors, 2016: FAIR principles for scientific data management and stewardship
- Research Data Alliance International Indigenous Data Sovereignty Interest Group, 2019, in The Global Indigenous
Data Alliance: CARE principles for Indigenous Data Governance
- Max Liboiron, 2017: Pollution is Colonialism
- Dan Robitzsky, 2019: TikTok Secretly Hid Videos by Fat, LGBTQ, Mentally Disabled Users
- Edward Ongweso Jr, 2019: Racial Bias in AI Isn’t Getting Better and Neither Are Researchers’ Excuses
- Rebecca Heilweil, 2020: Why algorithms can be racist and sexist
Content Moderation and Consent
April 7
This topic covers factors that impact the content that we see. How do platforms balance freedom of expression versus consent to avoid offensive content, navigate algorithmic versus human moderation and curation, or incentivize different types of interaction? What are downstream effects of these choices?
Readings:
- Bijan Stephen for The Verge: "Something Awful's Founder Thinks Youtube Sucks at Moderation" (2019) - strategies for moderation from Something Awful's founder
- Casey Newton for The Verge: "Bodies in Seats" (2019) - around outsourced content moderation & its impacts on the humans who have to view & judge the content. Would recommend:
- From the beginning to "But for the first time, three former moderators for Facebook in North America agreed to break their nondisclosure agreements and discuss working conditions at the site on the record."
- NOT RECOMMENDED: the middle of the article for this group– it's good reporting but needs a content warning for graphic descriptions (and the intro gets the points across)
- Jussi Passanen: "Human centred design considered harmful" – how good design principles applied to business sense can be harmful for humans, especially in the context of a livable planet
- Choose one of the following (their lengths vary):
- Choose one of the following (their lengths vary):
- Clint Pumphrey for HowStuffWorks: "How Do Advertisers Show Me Custom Ads?" (2012) – cookies and retargeting, notice tone
- Cade Metz for the New York Times: "How Facebook's Ad System Works" (2017) – targeting factors that Facebook uses for ads, the inception of ads into a content stream, some treatment of the Russia issue
- Cole Nemeth for Sprout Social: "How the Twitter Algorithm Works in 2020" (2020) before "How to turn off the Twitter algorithm" – a really short one just highlighting the factors involved
- Will Oremus for Slate: "Twitter's New Order" (2017) – much more in depth (not just how but why and future directions) but pretty long
- Josh Constine for TechCrunch: "How Facebook News Feed Works" (2016) before "An Updated List Of News Feed Algorithm Changes"
Optional bonus readings
- Naomi Wu's experience with media manipulation & being "content moderated" off of several funding platforms she had used to make a living: part 1 and part 2 – this is very interesting and topical but too long to include in the required reading
- Flame Warriors, if you'd like a lighter take, is a tongue-in-cheek characterization of the various types of people moderators encounter
- The end of the Casey Newton "Bodies in Seats" article, from "Last week, I visited the Tampa site with a photographer." to the end, interesting additional perspective re trying to figure out how this stuff should be done
Data Monopolies
May 12
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?
Readings:
Anti competitiveness, and how did we get here?
What are the things we worry about with monopolies?
Data Monopolies in a COVID era?
Optional bits to play around with for discussion:
Trust (Cryptographic and Human)
June 9
New technologies attempt to free us from (data) monopolized spaces, but does cryptographic trust truly map onto or enable better human-to-human (or human-to-company or human-to-technology) trust?
Readings:
Private Data & Policies
September 22
How have particular implementations of data privacy policies impacted humans, economics, and legal systems? What are appropriate expectations around data privacy, and who should inform, create, or enforce policies?
Readings:
Grounding
Attempted and proposed solutions
Other optional readings
Polity
November 3
Who are the groups of people to whom we are connected in systems of governance? To whom do we owe allegiance?
Readings:
Other material:
Facilitation
Here are some guidelines about preparation in order to facilitate a session:
- Before the session:
- During the session:
- Arrive on time (call should auto record as the first person enters)
- Ensure the call is recorded (it should auto-record as the first person enters, but always make sure someone presses the record button if not)
- Ask for someone to take notes
- Keep time and gently wrap us up
- After the session:
Potential Readings
We maintain a shared bibliography in the datatogether Zotero group, which includes potential readings.
Anyone can request an invite on a call or by creating a github issue in this repository with their Zotero username.
License
Data Together Reading Group Materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
See the LICENSE file for details.