Values In Design – Page 5 – MichaelZimmer.org

4S: Privacy and Surveillance in Web 2.0

Posted by Michael Zimmeron October 11, 2007in Events, Privacy, Values In Design

I am currently attending the annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science in Montreal. Earlier today I had the pleasure of participating on a panel I co-organized with Anders Albrechtslund titled, "Ways Knowing Everything About Each Other:…

How Google Blew It with Street View

Posted by Michael Zimmeron October 2, 2007in Privacy, Search Engines, Values In Design11 Comments

As I just mentioned, Google recently announced plans to blur or otherwise obscure people's faces in the Canadian version of the Street View product. After a brief conversation with my colleague Chris Hoofnagle, I've come to realize that in their…

Privacy and Quaero’s Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities

Posted by Michael Zimmeron September 29, 2007in Privacy, Search Engines, Values In Design5 Comments

I'm in Maastricht today participating in the "Forum on Quaero: A public think tank on the politics of the search engine." In my talk, "Privacy and Quaero's Quest for the Perfect Search Engine: Threats and Opportunities," I call on the…

Bill McGeveran on Facebook, Context, and Privacy

Posted by Michael Zimmeron September 17, 2007in Privacy, Social Media, Values In Design3 Comments

William McGeveran, a professor at University of Minnesota Law School, points to this troubling story about a Florida State professor who made each student read aloud his/her Facebook profie, which noted how "the girls [sic] whose hobby was “being slutty”…

Completion

Posted by Michael Zimmeron June 1, 2007in Privacy, Professional, Search Engines, Values In Design4 Comments

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…

Anti-Sit Technologies

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 26, 2007in Values In Design

Those familiar with my work know I'm interested in how technologies can embody values, or more specifically, how the design of technologies bears directly and systematically on the realization – or suppression – of social, ethical, and political values, such…

Libraries vs. Bookstores vs. Google

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 17, 2007in Libraries, Search Engines, Values In Design5 Comments

Library Juice posts a wonderful essay by Tracy Nectoux, a library student at UIUC, who was assigned to visit a bookstore and compare the atmosphere to a library’s atmosphere. I think it's helpful to take the comparison one step further…

So, what exactly is Media Ecology? (video)

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 10, 2007in Social Media, Values In Design

A video honoring the 5th Anniversary of the Media Ecology Association has been posted to YouTube, featuring choice clips of (roughly in order of appearance) Camile Paglila, Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman (including his famous stint on Comedy Central's "Daily Show"),…

Google: “Did You Mean: ‘He Invented’?”

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 9, 2007in Search Engines, Values In Design

Philipp Lenssen points out that when you search Google for "she invented," on the results page you are asked "Did you mean 'he invented'?" There has been lots of discussion on this seemingly misogynistic "correction" that Google provides, and those…

Sherry Turkle: Can You Hear Me Now?

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 5, 2007in Values In Design5 Comments

Sherry Turkle has an excellent essay in Forbes about the alienating consequences of the digital revolution. (She gave a related talk for the McLuhan Lecture at NYU a few months ago). Her thesis is that "Thanks to technology, people have…