archive

Technological infrastructure that shapes our identity

Marius Constantin Cucu and Oana Elena Lenta (Stefan cel Mare): Philosophical Pragmatism in the Digital Era. Tim Jacquemard, Alan F. Smeaton, and Bert Gordijn (DCU): Lifelogs and Autonomy. David Roberts on how the personal (technology) is political. Juli L. Gittinger (McGill): Is There Such a Thing as “Cyberimperialism”? Rex Troumbley (Hawaii): Colonization.com: Empire Building for a New Digital Age. Xanadu as phalanstery: Rob Lucas reviews Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier. Guy Patrick Cunningham reviews Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection by Ethan Zuckerman. Jathan Sadowski on the “digital native”, a profitable myth. When websites peek into private lives: Using personal data for research has vast benefits, says OkCupid founder Christian Rudder. The reason to fear Facebook and its ilk is not that they violate our privacy — it is that they define the parameters of the grey and mostly invisible technological infrastructure that shapes our identity. How much should you know about how Facebook works? Adrienne LaFrance wonders. Twitter claims a 90 percent accuracy rate for the clever techniques it uses to learn the gender of any given user; Glenn Fleishman reports on the company's disconcerting new analytics tools, the research behind them, and how large a pinch of salt they come with. Should Twitter, Facebook and Google executives be the arbiters of what we see and read? Glenn Greenwald wonders. Emily Bell on why we can’t let tech giants, like Facebook and Twitter, control our news values. Sarah Perez on how social media is silencing personal opinion — even in the offline world (and more). Rob Horning on how the silence of the masses could be social media.