Articles in the Dissertation Category
Academic, Dissertation, Privacy, SDP2007, Search Engines, Search privacy »
Today I gave an abbreviated presentation of my dissertation research at the OII Summer Doctoral Programme hosted by the Berkman Center. (PDF of slides)
Along with a summary of the diss, my talk included a brief meta-discussion of both the challenges of engaging in value-conscious design with technical design communities, as well as a call for help on the next steps I need to take with this research, which included these three areas:
Continued conceptual expansion of the values at play with the design of the perfect search engine: This includes helping …
Behavioral targeting, Dissertation, Google, Perfect Search, Search Engines, Search privacy, SmartAds, Yahoo »
In my dissertation I outline the quest for the “perfect search engine” – a search engine capable of indexing all available information and providing fast and relevant results. The perfect search engine will have to have “perfect reach” to deliver any type of online content from all online (and, increasingly, offline) sources, as well as “perfect recall” to deliver personalized and relevant results that are informed by who the searcher is.
For example, given a search for “Paris Hilton,” the perfect search engine will know whether to deliver results about the …
Academic, Dissertation, Personal »
I’m pleased to announce that I have successfully defended my dissertation, “The Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Values, Technical Design, and the Flow of Personal Information in Spheres of Mobility.”
Thanks to everyone for their help and support.
(blogging will be light for the next week…)
Dissertation, Library & Information Science »
One of the more pleasant unintended consequences of my dissertation research was unearthing how the values of privacy, autonomy, and freedom of inquiry are central to the institution of the public library. I argue that libraries serve as spheres of intellectual mobility, where citizens enjoy the ability to read, inquire, and learn free from undue answerability and oversight.
Excellent starting points for these arguments include:
American Library Association. (2006). Intellectual freedom manual (7th ed.). Chicago: American Library Association. (link)
Foerstel, H. N. (1991). Surveillance in the stacks: The FBI’s library awareness program. …
A2K, Academic, Dissertation, ISP, Personal, Privacy, Search Engines »
Motivated by recent events, I’m pleased to announce that I have completed and filed my dissertation, “The Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Values, Technical Design, and the Flow of Personal Information in Spheres of Mobility.” All that awaits is the oral defense (please be kind, Siva).
Assuming the defense goes well (/knocking on wood), I’m also thrilled to announce that I will be joining the Information Society Project at Yale Law School as the Microsoft Fellow for the 2007-2008 academic year. While at ISP, I hope to continue to explore …
Data Aggregation, Dissertation, Google, Online Privacy, Privacy, Search privacy »
Gene at Fred’s House sounds like one of the multitude who are beginning to embrace the “Google lifestyle”:
I look around my desktop and I see Google Reader, Google Mail, Google Talk, Google Toolbar, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google News, Google Analytics, Google Earth, and of course Google Google. Google WiFi was a pleasant surprise when I was in Mt View a few weeks ago, and last night I found pizza…using mobile Google on my phone. All of these things are becoming indispensable tools for me, and I really like using …
Dissertation, Google, Online Privacy, Personalized Search, Search privacy »
Blogging has been light lately as I’m busy (a) finalizing details for the Identity & Identification in a Networked World symposium at NYU, (b) working out the logistics for my upcoming research trip to Europe (which now also includes a stop at Aalborg University in Denmark), and (c) trying to make some progress on the dissertation.
Regarding the diss, I’ve been writing on how web search engine providers have relied upon what I refers to as infrastructures of dataveillance to collect and aggregate data about users across services:
These infrastructures rely on …
Academic, Dissertation, Grants, Online Privacy, Perfect Search, Privacy, Privacy on the Roads, Search Engines, Technology & Society »
I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded a Science & Society Dissertation Improvement Grant from the Division of Social and Economic Sciences of the National Science Foundation.
This grant will support my dissertation research of the value implications of two emerging technologies of everyday life: networked vehicle systems and web search engines. Networked vehicle systems (GPS-based navigational tools, automated toll collection, automobile black boxes, and vehicle safety communication systems) rely on the transmission, collection and aggregation of a particular vehicle’s location and telemetry data. The drive towards the …
Dissertation, Google »
Alejandro Diaz, a grad student at Stanford University in Communications (with a BA in Computer Science), has written an excellent (and nearly 200-page) honors thesis entitled “Through the Google Goggles: The Sociopolitics of Search Engine Design” [pdf]. Here is the abstract:
As much of our knowledge, news, and discourse moves online and to the Web in particular, search engines are increasingly becoming the “gatekeepers” of cyberspace. What’s more, a single search engine—Google—now handles the majority of Web queries. Google directs hundreds of millions of users towards some content and not others, …
