CPSC Week 1
Postman's Five Ideas: #1
Every technological change is a trade-off, with advantages and disadvantages. What are the trade-offs of this new technology?
Challenges: - Greater inequality in the labor market - Net displacement of workers by machines - Increase in social tensions: more than 30% of global population uses social media platforms to connect, learn, and share information
Four main effects that the Fourth Revolution has on business: - On consumer expectation: improving how consumers are served is increasingly at the epicenter of the economy - On product enhancement: digital enhancements can increase value of the physical products and services - On collaborative innovation: between a world of consumer experiences, data=based services, and asset performance through analytics - On organizational forms: that need to be rethought due to emergence of global platforms and new business models
Researcher Ethics
Issue: what types of experiments are so intrusive that they need prior consent and/or disclosure after the fact? Facebook datas strikes a careful balance between innovative research and user privacy. Who decides how companies ensure that customers have a clear understanding of how their personal info is being used.
Postman's Five Ideas: #5
Once regular in use, each new technology is taken for granted and cannot be removed. How is the diffusion of this new technology changing norms in our world?
Netiquette Rule 5: Make yourself look good online
Take advantage of your anonymity I don't want to give the impression that the net is a cold, cruel place full of people who just can't wait to insult each other. As in the world at large, most people who communicate online just want to be liked. Networks -- particularly discussion groups -- let you reach out to people you'd otherwise never meet. And none of them can see you. You won't be judged by the color of your skin, eyes, or hair, your weight, your age, or your clothing. You will, however, be judged by the quality of your writing. For most people who choose to communicate online, this is an advantage; if they didn't enjoy using the written word, they wouldn't be there. So spelling and grammar do count. If you're spending a lot of time on the net and you're shaky in these areas, it's worth brushing up on them. There are plenty of books available, but you'll learn more -- and possibly have more fun -- if you take a course. If you're an older adult , you don't have to take a "bonehead grammar" course with a bunch of bored teenagers. Instead, look for courses on proofreading and copyediting; they usually cover the basic rules of grammar pretty thoroughly, and they'll be filled with motivated students who are there because they want to be. Check your local community college and university extension catalogs -- you'll be amazed at what they offer. A side benefit is that taking courses involves meeting people you can actually see. Know what you're talking about and make sense Pay attention to the content of your writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about -- when you see yourself writing "it's my understanding that" or "I believe it's the case," ask yourself whether you really want to post this note before checking your facts. Bad information propagates like wildfire on the net. And once it's been through two or three iterations, you get the same distortion effect as in the party game "Operator": Whatever you originally said may be unrecognizable. (Of course, you could take this as a reason not to worry about the accuracy of your postings. But you're only responsible for what you post yourself, not for what anyone else does with it.) In addition, make sure your notes are clear and logical. It's perfectly possible to write a paragraph that contains no errors in grammar or spelling, but still makes no sense whatsoever. This is most likely to happen when you're trying to impress someone by using a lot of long words that you don't really understand yourself. Trust me -- no one worth impressing will be impressed. It's better to keep it simple. Don't post flame-bait Finally, be pleasant and polite. Don't use offensive language, and don't be confrontational for the sake of confrontation. Q. Is swearing acceptable on the net? Only in those areas where sewage is considered an art form, e.g., the USENET newsgroup alt.tasteless. Usually, if you feel that cursing in some form is required, it's preferable to use amusing euphemisms like "effing" and "sugar." You may also use the classic asterisk filler -- for example, s***. The archness is somehow appropriate to the net, and you avoid offending anyone needlessly. And everyone will know exactly what you mean.
What are 3 reasons we see a new Industrial Revolution?
Velocity, Scope, and Systems impact
First Amendment to U.S. Constitution
the right to practice any religion, exercise free speech, peaceably assemble, petition the goverment
Gina Lednyak 5 predicitons for social media:
1. Instant gratification: attention span of the individual shrinks while value placed on digital things (w/minimal substance) grows 2. Desire to be 15-second celebrity 3. New set of social patterns in dating: face-to-face relationships can't be replaced, instead using internet to find out about others, what they think of us, instantaneously 4. Facebook transitions from world's largest social network to a huge tech giant 5. Virtual reality: helmets, wearable
How to read a scientific research article:
1. Begin by reading the introduction, not the abstract. The abstract is that dense first paragraph at the very beginning of a paper. In fact, that's often the only part of a paper that many non-scientists read when they're trying to build a scientific argument. (This is a terrible practice—don't do it.). When I'm choosing papers to read, I decide what's relevant to my interests based on a combination of the title and abstract. But when I've got a collection of papers assembled for deep reading, I always read the abstract last. I do this because abstracts contain a succinct summary of the entire paper, and I'm concerned about inadvertently becoming biased by the authors' interpretation of the results. 2. Identify the BIG QUESTION. Not "What is this paper about", but "What problem is this entire field trying to solve?" This helps you focus on why this research is being done. Look closely for evidence of agenda-motivated research. 3. Summarize the background in five sentences or less. What work has been done before in this field to answer the BIG QUESTION? What are the limitations of that work? What, according to the authors, needs to be done next? 4. Identify the SPECIFIC QUESTION(S) What exactly are the authors trying to answer with their research? There may be multiple questions, or just one. Write them down. If it's the kind of research that tests one or more null hypotheses, identify it/them. 5. Identify the approach What are the authors going to do to answer the SPECIFIC QUESTION(S)? 6. Now read the methods section. Draw a diagram for each experiment, showing exactly what the authors did. 7. Read the results section. Write one or more paragraphs to summarize the results for each experiment, each figure, and each table. Don't yet try to decide what the results mean, just write down what they are. •You'll find that, particularly in good papers, the majority of the results are summarized in the figures and tables. Pay careful attention to them! You may also need to go to the Supplementary Online Information file to find some of the results. •Things to pay attention to in the results section: Any time the words "significant" or "non-significant" are used. These have precise statistical meanings. Read more about this here. If there are graphs, do they have error bars on them? For certain types of studies, a lack of confidence intervals is a major red flag. The sample size. Has the study been conducted on 10, or 10,000 people? (For some research purposes, a sample size of 10 is sufficient, but for most studies larger is better). 8. Do the results answer the SPECIFIC QUESTION(S)? What do you think they mean? Don't move on until you have thought about this. It's okay to change your mind in light of the authors' interpretation—in fact you probably will if you're still a beginner at this kind of analysis—but it's a really good habit to start forming your own interpretations before you read those of others. 9. Read the conclusion/discussion/Interpretation section. What do the authors think the results mean? Do you agree with them? Can you come up with any alternative way of interpreting them? Do the authors identify any weaknesses in their own study? Do you see any that the authors missed? (Don't assume they're infallible!) What do they propose to do as a next step? Do you agree with that? 10. Now, go back to the beginning and read the abstract. Does it match what the authors said in the paper? Does it fit with your interpretation of the paper? 11. FINAL STEP: (Don't neglect doing this) What do other researchers say about this paper? Who are the (acknowledged or self-proclaimed) experts in this particular field? Do they have criticisms of the study that you haven't thought of, or do they generally support it? (12. This step may be optional for you, depending on why you're reading a particular paper. But for me, it's critical! I go through the "Literature cited" section to see what other papers the authors cited. This allows me to better identify the important papers in a particular field, see if the authors cited my own papers (KIDDING!....mostly), and find sources of useful ideas or techniques.)
Postman's Five Ideas: #2
Advantages and disadvantages are non-event world wide. Who are the winners and losers as this technology becomes regular?
Netiquette Rule 6: Share expert knowledge
Finally, after all that negativity, some positive advice. The strength of cyberspace is in its numbers. The reason asking questions online works is that a lot of knowledgeable people are reading the questions. And if even a few of them offer intelligent answers, the sum total of world knowledge increases. The Internet itself was founded and grew because scientists wanted to share information. Gradually, the rest of us got in on the act. So do your part. Despite the long lists of no-no's in this book, you do have something to offer. Don't be afraid to share what you know. It's especially polite to share the results of your questions with others. When you anticipate that you'll get a lot of answers to a question, or when you post a question to a discussion group that you don't visit often, it's customary to request replies by email instead of to the group. When you get all those responses, write up a summary and post it to the discussion group. That way, everyone benefits from the experts who took the time to write to you. If you're an expert yourself, there's even more you can do. Many people freely post all kinds of resource lists and bibliographies, from lists of online legal resources to lists of popular UNIX books. If you're a leading participant in a discussion group that lacks a FAQ, consider writing one. If you've researched a topic that you think would be of interest to others, write it up and post it. See "Copyright in Cyberspace" on page 133 for a few words on the copyright implications of posting research. Sharing your knowledge is fun. It's a long-time net tradition. And it makes the world a better place.
The FCC's (Federal Communications Commission) plan to undermine Net Neutrality regulations by stripping internet service providers of their current Title II classification.
Net Neutrality: all data has to be treated equally no matter who created it the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites
Netiquette Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace
Netiquette varies from domain to domain What's perfectly acceptable in one area may be dreadfully rude in another. For example, in most TV discussion groups, passing on idle gossip is perfectly permissible. But throwing around unsubstantiated rumors in a journalists' mailing list will make you very unpopular there. And because Netiquette is different in different places, it's important to know where you are. Thus the next corollary: Lurk before you leap When you enter a domain of cyberspace that's new to you, take a look around. Spend a while listening to the chat or reading the archives. Get a sense of how the people who are already there act. Then go ahead and participate.
Netiquette Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy
Of course, you'd never dream of going through your colleagues' desk drawers. So naturally you wouldn't read their email either. Unfortunately, a lot of people would. This topic actually rates a separate section. For now, here's a cautionary tale. I call it The case of the snoopy foreign correspondent In 1993, a highly regarded foreign correspondent in the Moscow bureau of the Los Angeles Times was caught reading his coworkers' email. His colleagues became suspicious when system records showed that someone had logged in to check their email at times when they knew they hadn't been near the computer. So they set up a sting operation. They planted false information in messages from another one of the paper's foreign bureaus. The reporter read the notes and later asked colleagues about the false information. Bingo! As a disciplinary measure, he was immediately reassigned to another position at the paper's Los Angeles bureau. The moral: Failing to respect other people's privacy is not just bad Netiquette. It could also cost you your job.
Three reason why we see a new Industrial revolution: velocity, scope and systems impact: - Evolving at exponential rather than linear pace - Disrupting almost every industry in every country - The breadth and the depth of the changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance
Opportunities: - Raise global income levels - Improve the quality of life - Able to afford and access the digital world - Cost of trade will diminish
Netiquette
Simply stated, it's network etiquette -- that is, the etiquette of cyberspace. And "etiquette" means "the forms required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be required in social or official life." In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online
What types of experiments are so intrusive that they need prior consent or prompt disclosure after the fact? Companies ensuring that customers have a clear understanding of how their personal information might be used Who decides what the rules should be? Federal rules governing research on human subjects intended for medical research, generally require consent from subjects unless the potential for harm is minimal Internet projects conducted by academics are overview by institutional review boards Corporate researchers do not have such formal reviews
Solutions: Dr. Gray: a simple litmus test for researchers: if you are afraid to ask your subjects for permission to conduct the research, then there's probably a deeper ethical issues that must be considered Prof. Hancock: opt in process for projects that involve big changes in an Internet user experience A debriefing system to inform users about smaller tests after the fact Any process has to be effective, lightweight, quick, and accountable
Netiquette Rule 9: Don't abuse your power
Some people in cyberspace have more power than others. There are wizards in MUDs (multiuser dungeons), experts in every office, and system administrators in every system. Knowing more than others, or having more power than they do, does not give you the right to take advantage of them. For example, sysadmins should never read private email
Netiquette Rule 1: Remember the Human
The golden rule your parents and your kindergarten teacher taught you was pretty simple: Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings. In cyberspace, we state this in an even more basic manner: Remember the human. When you communicate electronically, all you see is a computer screen. You don't have the opportunity to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning; words -- lonely written words -- are all you've got. And that goes for your correspondent as well. When you're holding a conversation online -- whether it's an email exchange or a response to a discussion group posting -- it's easy to misinterpret your correspondent's meaning. And it's frighteningly easy to forget that your correspondent is a person with feelings more or less like your own. It's ironic, really. Computer networks bring people together who'd otherwise never meet. But the impersonality of the medium changes that meeting to something less -- well, less personal. Humans exchanging email often behave the way some people behind the wheel of a car do: They curse at other drivers, make obscene gestures, and generally behave like savages. Most of them would never act that way at work or at home. But the interposition of the machine seems to make it acceptable. The message of Netiquette is that it's not acceptable. Yes, use your network connections to express yourself freely, explore strange new worlds, and boldly go where you've never gone before. But remember the Prime Directive of Netiquette: Those are real people out there. Would you say it to the person's face? Writer and Macintosh evangelist Guy Kawasaki tells a story about getting email from some fellow he's never met. Online, this fellow tells Guy that he's a bad writer with nothing interesting to say. Unbelievably rude? Yes, but unfortunately, it happens all the time in cyberspace. Maybe it's the awesome power of being able to send mail directly to a well-known writer like Guy. Maybe it's the fact that you can't see his face crumple in misery as he reads your cruel words. Whatever the reason, it's incredibly common. Guy proposes a useful test for anything you're about to post or mail: Ask yourself, "Would I say this to the person's face?" If the answer is no, rewrite and reread. Repeat the process till you feel sure that you'd feel as comfortable saying these words to the live person as you do sending them through cyberspace. Of course, it's possible that you'd feel great about saying something extremely rude to the person's face. In that case, Netiquette can't help you. Go get a copy of Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior. When you communicate through cyberspace -- via email or on discussion groups -- your words are written. And chances are they're stored somewhere where you have no control over them. In other words, there's a good chance they can come back to haunt you. Never forget the story of famous email user Oliver North. Ollie, you'll remember, was a great devotee of the White House email system, PROFS. He diligently deleted all incriminating notes he sent or received. What he didn't realize was that, somewhere else in the White House, computer room staff were equally diligently backing up the mainframe where his messages were stored. When he went on trial, all those handy backup tapes were readily available as evidence against him. You don't have to be engaged in criminal activity to want to be careful. Any message you send could be saved or forwarded by its recipient. You have no control over where it goes.
Ending Net Neutrality would mean big companies who can afford it are in the fast lane while smaller companies are in the slow lane.
Title II: undermines broadband competition, making companies pay to provide quick service to customers
A World without Work
•Regional depression: Youngstown, Ohio •Capabilities of machines continue to grow while our own remain stagnant •What will happen if work goes away? •Consumption: the paradox of leisure •Communal creativity: The Artisan's Revenge •Contingency: "You are your own" •Government: The visible hand
How does modern technology/forms of communication change the way we associate with each other?
•Traditional, community-based associations are slowly being abandoned and replaced by online interactions (fb, tumblr, linkedin, etc) •the influence of social media on political discourse increased worldwide •sense of community lost due to mobile population retreating each evening to the seclusion of individual homes •today anyone can be a publisher
Netiquette Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control
"Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. It's the kind of message that makes people respond, "Oh come on, tell us how you really feel." Tact is not its objective. Does Netiquette forbid flaming? Not at all. Flaming is a long-standing network tradition (and Netiquette never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read. And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve the heat. But Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars -- series of angry letters, most of them from two or three people directed toward each other, that can dominate the tone and destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group. It's unfair to the other members of the group. And while flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring very quickly to people who aren't involved in them. They're an unfair monopolization of bandwidth.
Most primary research papers will be divided into the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions/Interpretations/Discussion. The order will depend on which journal it's published in. Some journals have additional files (called Supplementary Online Information) which contain important details of the research, but are published online instead of in the article itself (make sure you don't skip these files).
Before you begin reading, take note of the authors and their institutional affiliations. Some institutions (e.g. University of Texas) are well-respected; others (e.g. the Discovery Institute) may appear to be legitimate research institutions but are actually agenda-driven. Tip: google "Discovery Institute" to see why you don't want to use it as a scientific authority on evolutionary theory. Also take note of the journal in which it's published. Reputable (biomedical) journals will be indexed by Pubmed. [EDIT: Several people have reminded me that non-biomedical journals won't be on Pubmed, and they're absolutely correct! (thanks for catching that, I apologize for being sloppy here). Check out Web of Science for a more complete index of science journals. And please feel free to share other resources in the comments!] Beware of questionable journals. As you read, write down every single word that you don't understand. You're going to have to look them all up (yes, every one. I know it's a total pain. But you won't understand the paper if you don't understand the vocabulary. Scientific words have extremely precise meanings).
Consumption: The Paradox of Leisure A 2014 Gallup report of worker satisfaction found that as many as 70% of Americans don't feel engaged by their current job. "Post-workists": - They believe in the end of labor. - Are right about: Paid labor does not always map to social good. Raising children and caring for sick is essential, mostly uncompensated or poorly compensated, work. - Acknowledge that pride and jealousy will persevere because reputation will always be scarce. - They believe that colleges could emerge as cultural centers rather than job-prep institutions The unemployed theoretically have the most time to socialize and yet studies have shown that they feel the most social isolation. Most people want to work and are miserable when they cannot. People that lost their jobs are more likely to suffer from mental and physical ailments. Research has shown that it is harder to recover from a long bout of joblessness than from losing a loved one or suffering a life-altering injury.
Communal Creativity: The Artisan's Revenge It could be a future of creativity, as technology returns the tools of the assembly lines to individuals, democratizing the means of mass production. "Makerspaces": industrial shops in which you pay a fee to use industrial-age machines to make gifts and jewelry; weld, finish, and paint; play with plasma cutters and work an angle grinder; operate a lathe with a machinist. The demise of formal economy could free many would-be artists, writers, craftspeople to dedicate their time to creative interests
How technology disrupted the truth:
Daily Mail has posted an online article about a scandalous supposed action of the UK former Prime Minister David Cameron involving a dead pig head The story reverberated in dozens newspapers and repeated in millions of tweets and Facebook updates Isable Oakeshott, the Daily Mail journalist, admitted she did not know whether her huge, scandalous scoop was true and absolved herself of any journalistic responsibility Journalists were no longer required to believe their own stories or provide evidence Does truth matter anymore? On June 24, 2016 UK voted to leave EU and Prime Minister David Cameron resigns Politicians failed to deliver what they have promised and they admitted on the morning after the victory that the promises have been false all along When a fact sounds almost true, it is difficult to tell the difference between facts that are true and they resemble the truth What counts as a fact is merely a view that someone feels that is true and technology made it easy for these "facts" to circulate with an unimaginable speed and reach People distrust facts that are uncomfortable or out of sync with their own views Facebook algorithm to select the news feed and Google's search algorithm are geared towards a personalized web: We are less likely to be exposed to information that challenges us or broadens our worldview and less likely to encounter facts that disprove false information shared by others Eli Pariser, co-founder of Upworthy, coined the term "filter bubble" Social media companies have become overwhelmingly powerful in determining what we read and enormously profitable from the monetization of other people's work Powerful influence of Facebook's influence on journalism is visible when the news feed algorithm changes the page views sent to publishers Fake news farms that attract traffic with false reports designed to look like real news The business model of most digital news organization is based around clicks In 2016, 85 cents of every new dollar spent in the US on online advertising went to Google and Facebook; that used to go to news publishers Many journalists lost their job in the past decade US and UK newsrooms declined by almost 1/3 between 2001 and 2010 Chasing own clicks at the expense of accuracy and veracity, news organizations undermine the very reason they exist: to find things out and tell readers the truth
Eric Horvitz from Microsoft Research can predict with startling accuracy when someone will be hospitalized based on what they search for. What to do with that data? Some options are offered, none is perfect We are moving into a world of prediction: most people will make judgments about others based on data Data analysis can make the value of people, is increasingly salient in decision-making across numerous sectors, and not understood by most people Limited diversity of people that are building and using these tools We need to build assessment into any system that we roll out to assess the implications
Each Industrial Revolution altered the way we lived, worked, and relate to each other The Fourth Industrial revolution is building on the Third Industrial revolution, characterized by a convergence of the physical, digital and biological worlds
Postman's Five Ideas: #4
Each new technology changes our world. How will this new technology impact our institutions?
Postman's Five Ideas: #3
Each new technology has at least one new idea, not necessarily apparent. What grand idea(s) underly this new technology?
Netiquette Rule 10: Be forgiving of others' mistakes
Everyone was a network newbie once. And not everyone has had the benefit of reading this book. So when someone makes a mistake -- whether it's a spelling error or a spelling flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer -- be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before reacting. Having good manners yourself doesn't give you license to correct everyone else. If you do decide to inform someone of a mistake, point it out politely, and preferably by private email rather than in public. Give people the benefit of the doubt; assume they just don't know any better. And never be arrogant or self-righteous about it. Just as it's a law of nature that spelling flames always contain spelling errors, notes pointing out Netiquette violations are often examples of poor Netiquette.
Scientists can sit now at a screen and manipulate digital experience of millions of users, without the need of face-to-face personal interviews Facebook study done on nearly 700,000 users on January 2012: - Facebook manipulated the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users to learn how the changes affected their emotions, without informing the users - Facebook under the guideline of a group of researchers changed the number of positive and negative posts in the subjects' news feed over a week in January 2012, then they look at how the changes affected the emotional tone of the subjects' subsequent Facebook posts - The study published created an immediate outrage
Facebook actions done on Election Day in 2010: - Facebook sent voting reminders to 61 million Americans users - Some users saw a list of friends who said that they already voted - Researchers found that the specific social nudge prompted more people to got to the polls - That may had the power to sway election results There were no ethical guidelines for this kind of research. Academics, corporate researchers (such as Microsoft Research), government agencies (such as NSF, Federal Trade Commission), are getting involved Federal Trade Commission regulates companies on issues like privacy and fair treatment of Internet users
Unit 2: Social Media and Community
First Amendment to the Constitution: the right to practice any religion and to exercise free speech, to peaceably assemble and to petition the government Due to technical means to communicate almost instantly and effortlessly across great distance changes the bounds of traditional associations and replaces them with online interactions on Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn, and other social media Social media: - A place for people to express their views, connect with others, learn about the world - Shaming and bullying occurs - The influence of social media on political discourse increased worldwide Today anyone can be a publisher News are reported almost instantly on any number of social media platforms In 2016, 62% of US adults surveyed by Pew Research Center reported obtaining news on social media, 46% responded receiving news from local TV and only 20% from print newspapers Questions to consider in this unit: How does social media impact our sense of community and shared identity? How much does the structure of a social media platform influence discourse? Who decides what is newsworthy?
Contingency: "You are on your own" When an entire area, like Youngstown, suffers from high and prolonged unemployment, problems caused by unemployment move beyond the personal sphere: shattered neighborhoods, loss of civic spirit, a working class that swings from task to task to make ends meet. Internet-enabled companies offer quick jobs: Uber, Seamless, Homejoy, TaskRabbit. Online markets such as Craigslist and eBay made it easier for people to take on small independent projects.
Government: The Visible Hand It is hard to anticipate what happens to the consumer economy when you take away the consumers. The decline of the labor force would made our politics more contentious. Deciding how to tax profits and distribute income could become the most significant economic-policy debate in American history. Two of the most common side effects of employment are loneliness and hollowing-out of community pride. Community centers may remedy the idleness and re-engage people in their neighborhoods in the absence of full employment. Make it easier for people to start their own business Job sharing in Germany: reduce everyone hours by some percent instead of laying off people Mechanical Turk: a popular Amazon sister site in which individuals and companies post projects of varying complexity that cannot be performed by a computer, while so-called Turks browse tasks and collect money of the ones they complete.
Impact on government: - Governments will face increase pressure to adapt to new ways of public engagement and policymaking due to: redistribution and decentralization of power, citizens voicing their opinions, coordinate their efforts, circumvent the supervision of public authorities - National and international security affected due to technological innovations
Impact on people: - Change both what we do and who we are - Changes our sense of privacy, ownership, consumption patterns, time devoted to work and leisure, develop skills, meet people, nurture relationships, moral and ethical boundaries - Diminishes the compassion and cooperation - One of the greatest challenges is privacy: the tracking and sharing of information about us is a crucial part of the new connectivity
Netiquette Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
In real life, most people are fairly law-abiding, either by disposition or because we're afraid of getting caught. In cyberspace, the chances of getting caught sometimes seem slim. And, perhaps because people sometimes forget that there's a human being on the other side of the computer, some people think that a lower standard of ethics or personal behavior is acceptable in cyberspace. The confusion may be understandable, but these people are mistaken. Standards of behavior may be different in some areas of cyberspace, but they are not lower than in real life. Be ethical Don't believe anyone who says, "The only ethics out there are what you can get away with." This is a book about manners, not about ethics. But if you encounter an ethical dilemma in cyberspace, consult the code you follow in real life. Chances are good you'll find the answer. One more point on Netiquette ethics: If you use shareware, pay for it. Paying for shareware encourages more people to write shareware. The few dollars probably won't mean much to you, and they benefit all of cyberspace in the long run. Breaking the law is bad Netiquette If you're tempted to do something that's illegal in cyberspace, chances are it's also bad Netiquette. Some laws are obscure or complicated enough that it's hard to know how to follow them. And in some cases, we're still establishing how the law applies to cyberspace. Two examples are the laws on privacy (see Rule 8 and "Email Privacy -- a Grand Illusion" on page 125) and copyright (see "Copyright in Cyberspace" on page 133). Again, this is a book on manners, not a legal manual. But Netiquette mandates that you do your best to act within the laws of society and cyberspace.
Netiquette Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth
It's a cliché that people today seem to have less time than ever before, even though (or perhaps because) we sleep less and have more labor-saving devices than our grandparents did. When you send email or post to a discussion group, you're taking up other people's time (or hoping to). It's your responsibility to ensure that the time they spend reading your posting isn't wasted. The word "bandwidth" is sometimes used synonymously with time, but it's really a different thing. Bandwidth is the information-carrying capacity of the wires and channels that connect everyone in cyberspace. There's a limit to the amount of data that any piece of wiring can carry at any given moment -- even a state-of-the-art fiber-optic cable. The word "bandwidth" is also sometimes used to refer to the storage capacity of a host system. When you accidentally post the same note to the same newsgroup five times, you are wasting both time (of the people who check all five copies of the posting) and bandwidth (by sending repetitive information over the wires and requiring it to be stored somewhere). You are not the center of cyberspace Presumably, this reminder will be superfluous to most readers. But I include it anyway, because when you're working hard on a project and deeply involved in it, it's easy to forget that other people have concerns other than yours. So don't expect instant responses to all your questions, and don't assume that all readers will agree with -- or care about -- your passionate arguments. Rules for discussion groups Rule 4 has a number of implications for discussion group users. Most discussion group readers are already spending too much time sitting at the computer; their significant others, families, and roommates are drumming their fingers, wondering when to serve dinner, while those network maniacs are catching up on the latest way to housebreak a puppy or cook zucchini. And many news-reading programs are slow, so just opening a posted note or article can take a while. Then the reader has to wade through all the header information to get to the meat of the message. No one is pleased when it turns out not to be worth the trouble. See "Netiquette for Discussion Groups" on page 65 for detailed rules. To whom should messages be directed? (Or why "mailing list" could become a dirty word) In the old days, people made copies with carbon paper. You could only make about five legible copies. So you thought good and hard about who you wanted to send those five copies to. Today, it's as easy to copy practically anyone on your mail as it is not to. And we sometimes find ourselves copying people almost out of habit. In general, this is rude. People have less time than ever today, precisely because they have so much information to absorb. Before you copy people on your messages, ask yourself whether they really need to know. If the answer is no, don't waste their time. If the answer is maybe, think twice before you hit the send key.
Work done by Latanya Sweeney: on Google, searching for black names was more likely to produce ads for criminal justice-related products and services Google search engine: people clicked on those ads and when the search queries has a statistical property similar to previous queries when a click happened Google was trained to be "racist" by its racist users Data collected from disciplinary school records, police encounters (stopped by police, arrested for drug possession or charged with felonies, etc.), is used to fuel personalized learning algorithms to inform risk-assessment tools, marketing, predictive policing. So the system "predicts" that marginalized people are higher risks, thereby constraining their options and making sure they are indeed higher risks.
Predictive policing: taking prior information about police encounters and use that to make a statistical assessment about the likelihood of crime in a particular place or involving a particular person Potential benefits of big data analytics on text messages for youth in crisis: natural language processing on the text messages sent to Crisis Text Line organization, that allows youth to send text messages to counselors, and the big data tools bringing up resources for a counselor or pass the conversation to a better suited counselor Sometimes is not the data that is disturbing, but how it's used and by whom Data is power and is being used to assert power over people
On September 19, 1977, Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced the shuttering of its Campbell Works mill. In five years, the city lost 50,000 jobs and $1.3 billion in manufacturing wages. The effect was so severe that a new term was coined, "regional depression". Youngstown became a national metaphor for the decline of labor. Economic depression was followed by psychological and cultural breakdown; four prisons were built afterwards. Capabilities of machines, already formidable, continue to expand while our own remain the same Is any job truly safe? The widespread disappearance of work will usher an unseen transformation of America, who is based on industriousness What will happen if work goes away? Computer scientists and software engineers invent us out of work, and the total number of jobs declines steadily
Reasons to cry robot: Technology can exert a slow but continual downward pressure on the value and availability of work. The job market requires more preparation for a lower starting wage. - Labors' losses: diminishment of human labor as a driver of economic growth; the share of US economic output that is paid out in wages currently at the lowest level since started keeping track in the mid 20-th century. Almost half the decline is due to businesses replacing workers with computers and software; example of AT&T and Google - Spread of nonworking men and underemployed youth: the share of prime-age men (25-54 years old) neither working nor looking for a job is increasing. The number of manufacturing jobs since 2000 has decreased by almost 30%. - The shrewdness of software. The impact of technology is not immediate, but may take years to fully displace their human counterparts. In 2013, researchers at Oxford University has predicted that in the next two decades machines might be able to perform half of all US jobs. Retail salesperson, cashier, food and beverage server, and office clerk together employ nearly 10 percent of the US labor force. Each is highly susceptible to automation, according to the Oxford study. Nine out of 10 workers today are in occupations that existed 100 years ago. Only 5% of the jobs generated between 1993 and 2013 came from "high tech" sectors like computing, software, and telecommunications. Our newest industries tend to be the most labor-efficient: they do not require many people.
What will social media look like in the future?
The humble beginnings of YouTube and Twitter Gina Lednyak five predictions for social media: 1. All of Gen-Y will be famous for 15 seconds: Andy Warhol: "In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes." every person is under the guise that they are just one viral video away from becoming famous Attention span is shrinking The value we place on digital things with minimal substance grows 2. Dawn of the technosexual age: Tinder app has closed the gap between digital and physical courtship Dating market is more efficient, offers instant gratification 3. Love it or hate it, Facebook is here to stay: Zuckerberg collects startups acquisitions Facebook transitions from the world largest social network to a bona fide tech giant 4. Virtual reality meets social networks: Facebook acquired Oculus, the company behind Oculus Rift Zuckerberg called virtual reality "the platform of tomorrow" How wearable technology will affect humans 5. Will there be another MySpace tragedy: A small change in user habit or perception has the potential to steamroll a social media network overnight MySpace did not have deep analytics, big data and the ability to learn from other networks MySpace did not evolve to meet the consumers' needs
Activism Moves to Facebook: What's Good for Social Media Might Not Be So Good for Democracy
Videos of police shooting and killing a black person have been a key driver of the Black Lives Matter movement How much power social networking sites have over politics and activism Activists are victims of the success they've helped create for the social networks Facebook, the world's largest social network, has 1.65 billion active users Every tweak in the algorithm that decides which information its users will see can have a massive effect If one does not buy into Facebook just-pay-to-have-your-content-seen service, then there is a lot of work to be done to still be seen, like gathering a lot of friends or likes Users who can't afford to pay to promote their pages often find their content hidden with only a few likes Paid advertising is promoted by Facebook very aggressively Is Facebook intentionally stifling certain topics? Curators regularly suppressed conservative news Facebook curators were told to "inject" selected stories into the site's trending topics Facebook is under no First Amendment obligations Under Facebook's Terms of Service, Facebook can block any content it wants OUR Walmart, a group of Walmart workers organized since 2012 for better working conditions at Walmart: uses Facebook groups to connect to new recruits
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
characterized by a convergence of the physical, digital, and biological worlds - the Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third
•Being exposed to the life before Internet existed, gave the privilege of the author of a more unbiased view of how Internet breaks and builds 'walls' on social issues •Racial division among teens between MySpace (seen for less educated students, obnoxious) and Facebook (more cultural, less cheesy) during the 2006-2007 school year •Racial division between Instagram (orderly, safe) and Vine (chaotic, dangerous) •Teenagers weren't creating the racialized dynamic of social media, they were reproducing what they saw everywhere else and projecting onto their tools •Journalists, parents, politicians, pundits gave teenagers the racist language they reiterated
•Today's technology is values - culturally and financially - based on how much it's used by the most privileged members of our society •"Big data" is a set of technologies and practices for analyzing large amounts of data to produce valuable insights with it •Big data analytics rely on the data entered as input, so biased input produces biased results
Technology Disrupts the Truth?
•journalists no longer required to believe their own stories or provide evidence •when a fact sounds almost true, it's difficult to tell difference b/w true facts and info that resembles the truth - does truth matter anymore? •people distrust facts that aren't in line with their own views •facebook/google search algorithms geared towards more personalized web experience
Is social media tearing us apart?
•more divisive than ever - social media linked to political debate since it's inception •it naturally organizes people into bubbles of people with same opinion, far from breaking down global barriers and exposing us to challenging new opinions •news and info is filtered to reinforce one's beliefs - are we getting all the facts?
Activism moves to Facebook
•the power social networking sites have over politics and activism •every tweak in algorithm deciding what info users see can have a massive effect •facebook aggressively promotes paid advertising •facebook is under no First Amendment obligations and can block any content it wants - is fb stifling certain topics? •OUR Walmart: group of walmart workers organized since 2012 for better working conditions
Productivity, Inequality and the 'Profound Impact' of the Personal Computer
•the technology has made some professions easier while rendering others obsolete •"In the U.S., we now see there are more software developers and programmers than there are lawyers or automobile mechanics. This makes up for one big block of growing jobs." •cheaper prices = more accessible for popoulation •the phenomenon is believed to have made millions of low-skill, low-wage positions obsolete in the workforce •Dorn says computers have contributed to a polarization of the labor market - individuals have been forced to flock to either the high-skill or low-skill ends of the spectrum if they wish to retain employment, hollowing out many jobs that for years sustained a thriving middle class
