All these emotions, all these yearnings, all these data ... · MoodPanda, Nike Fuelband, The...

Platform openness, data sharing and visions democracy

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou (University of Sussex/ 2014

Visiting Scholar Science & Justice).

Center for Cultural Studies

University of California, Santa Cruz

5 February 2014 Supported by: RCUK Digital Economy NEMODE +, Tracking biodata: issues of ownership and sharing.

EPINET is an EU funded project under the seventh framework program, coordinated by the Centre for the

studies of the sciences and humanities, University of Bergen.

'All these emotions, all these yearnings, all these data':

Guiding questions & theoretical

perspective

Types of knowledge are is being made/epistemic communities? Role of

mediated self-disclosure and identity performance? Privacy/ownership

of personal data?

Theoretical perspective:

- A broader sociological perspective

- Ritualistic performance

- Naturalization of quantification with digital technologies

Methodological perspective: Social Analytics (developed with Nick

Couldry in forthcoming article Real Social Analytics)

Sensors, apps and all these data: the

landscape

Technologies and devices: Metadata, tracking and apps, quantification

e.g. Google Glass

50 billion devices and objects will be online in 2020

- embedded devices (ubiquitous computing)

- Internet of Things

- smart cities - buildings, roads, household appliances

Recognised brands

Fitbit, myZeo, BodyMedia, MapMyRun, RunKeeper,

MoodPanda, Nike Fuelband, The Eatery,

Luminosity’s Brain Trainer,NeuroSky, Emotiv

brain-computer interfaces (BCI)

Devices and promises

Clinical - reality vs grand narratives

• first bullet point still

• second bullet point here

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seventh bullet point

eight bullet point here

ninth bullet point

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Big data

Large complex data sets

stored and managed

in the cloud

currently on the order of

zettabytes (10,000

gigabites) per year

Algorithmic living and right to be

forgotten

Privacy?

“effective right to oblivion confirms the need for a

paradigm shift in the traditional understanding of

private information/life, leading to a multidimensional

conceptualisation of the right to privacy” (Xanthoulis

2013)

'GE has wired hardware with innovative software using data to track patients and equipment. Brilliant Machines Are Transforming the Patient Experience'

From lab to living room

“[...] neoliberalist desires for quick fixes; a growing

desire for self-computational wearable and mobile

devices; common discourses linking data collection to

human progress; and reductionist consumer science

discourses that present the body and mind as

segmented, coherent, modular systems”

(Gardner 2013)

Tiziana Terranova

“Cultural and technical labor are not produced by

capitalism in any direct, cause-and-effect fashion; that

is …they have developed in relation to the expansion

of the cultural industries and are part of a process of

economic experimentation with the creation of

monetary value out of knowledge/culture/affect”

Sensors, apps and all these data: the

landscape

Users: self-tracking, bodyblogging and personal informatics

Other colours in scheme

Colour Scheme

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

•This colour

There is an app AND a sensor for that

Apple wants to let you know when to buy new shoes

Sensor-lands and Data-utopias

“Technology will be able to understand how you feel. The fridge will be

able to create recipes for you by knowing the blood sugar levels of

your home.” (BioBeats)

Sensor-lands and Data-utopias

Visualization of Keywords Used in Quantified Tracking Device Descriptions.

Not Just More Data—New Kinds of

Data!

Kallinikos, 2009: ‘data’ only ever become

‘information’ when they are interpreted in a

context that is defined relative to the interests of

particular actors.

BIG DATA ARE CULTURAL

Data not 'just numbers' : they are culturally produced

and interpreted (Gitelman, 2013, Bowker, 2005).

a.fotopoulou@sussex.ac.uk

Web: http:// loopingthreads.com

https://trackingbiodataproject.wordpress.com/

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou

2014 Visiting Scholar

Research Center Science and

Justice, University of California

Santa Cruz