Understanding how ethical values are embedded in technology, and working to ensure values are considered in technology design practices.
I'm late commenting on this, but I just read Andrew Keen's provocative piece in the Weekly Standard on the Web 2.0 movement. Keen has received considerable criticism for making comparisons between the Web 2.0 meme and Marxism, but he does…
Read More Keen: Web 2.0, Marxism, and Unintended Consequences
The website for the the Sixteenth Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy has been launched. The theme for this year's CFP is Life, Liberty and Digital Rights. From the page:Now, more than ever, the lines of technology, freedom, and privacy…
We're lucky to have Anders Albrechtslund visiting the Dept of Culture & Communication for the next week. Anders is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at Aalborg University in Denmark, where he is engaged in research on surveillance…
A new report by the Center for Democracy & Technology details a widening gap between the technology that collects sensitive personal data and the laws designed to protect that data against government misuse. The National Security Agency's domestic spying program,…
Today's New York Times features the article "Taking Spying to Higher Level, Agencies Look for More Ways to Mine Data," which focuses on government meetings with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, hoping to find or develop advanced technologies…
I recently received a request from a journalism graduate student to comment on a story about "growing anti-Google sentiment and what is fueling it" and about "how Google's principles have changed, and how the public is reacting to this switch."…
Read More Thoughts on “growing anti-Google sentiment and what is fueling it”
Mark Fiore's latest cartoon satirizes the activities of US search engine companies contributing to the Great Firewall of China: "Protect Your Regime with iRepress - with Powerful Democracy Filtering!"
Last month, Google changed their censorship policy after launching their censored Google.cn service in China. Now it seems Google has changed its "core principles" regarding providing only organic search results. Previously Google’s Principles included this statement: The order and contents…
Read More Google No Longer Claims Completely Organic Results
I'm co-editing a book on web search engines with Amanda Spink (Professor of Information Technology, Queensland University of Technology): CALL FOR PAPERS Web Searching: Interdisciplinary Perspectives Digital Formations Series. Peter Lang Publishing. Editors: Amanda Spink, Professor of Information Technology, Queensland…
Last summer, I had the great pleasure of attending a 2-week graduate student workshop on Values in Computer and Information System Design hosted by The Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University. A highlight was Terry Winograd's…
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