Review of the “Privacyrede 2019” by Virginia Eubanks at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, 16-01-2019 Although Virginia Eubanks describes herself as a “hard-won optimist”, it is difficult not to feel a tinge—or a wave—of technological pessimism when she lays out the devastating consequences of the automation of various social services across the United States. One of the first…

For “Big data Histories”, a special issue of the Journal for Media History, Karin van Es and Eef Masson interviewed the Data School co-founder and project lead Mirko Tobias Schäfer. In this interview he describes our distinct approach to research the impact of data and digitization. Initially it was lack of funding that pointed us…

In its most recent predictions of trends for the coming year, Gartner indicates digital ethics and privacy as a top strategy for companies. As the technology and financial industries, governments and even research institutions grapple with ethical issues raised through the data practices and their social impact, ethics starts to fill the vacuum left by…

You are cordially invited to the launch of the ‘Big Data Histories’ special issue of TMG – Journal for Media History Please RSVP via this GoogleForm Programme 15.30 Opening by issue editors Karin van Es (UU) and Eef Masson (UvA) 15.40 “The Database Revolution, 1970s/80s” – Dr. Niels Kerssens 16.10 “Unmasking Biometrics’ Biases” – Rosa…

by Lucia Dossin and Lídia Pereira Topic modeling, algorithmic clustering and profiling are common practices of social networks. Users are characterized by, for instance, inferring psychological traits though Facebook Likes. This analysis is then used to target advertising and steer user behavior. Recently, this practice has caused public outrage when it appeared Facebook’s ad profiling…

Maranke Wieringa & Karin van Es (d.d. 17 August 2018) Walking is ingrained in human, and especially urban (Amato 2004), culture. Recently, there has been a wave of structured, reflective walks in the city aimed at contributing to the agenda of “data studies” (Kennedy 2018). In this paper we seek to parse out the design…

We are very (!) excited to welcome Tim de Winkel and Maranke Wieringa to our team as PhD students of the department Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University (starting in September 2018)! Their PhD projects are, in respective order, “Governing Digital Societies in Europe” and “Approaching Algorithmic Account(-)Ability” (see description of these projects and…

Cite as: Van Es, Karin, Maranke Wieringa and Mirko Tobias Schäfer. 2018. “Tool criticism: From digital methods to digital methodology.” Datafied Society Working Paper Series. 28 May. Web. https://datafiedsociety.wp.hum.uu.nl/tool-criticism NB an updated version has been published ACM and can be downloaded here In this blog post we wish to reflect on the fact that digital…

Door: Maranke Wieringa, Ludo Gorzeman, Daniela van Geenen, Mirko Tobias Schäfer In een team van onderzoekers verbonden aan de Data School (Universiteit Utrecht) en de Hogeschool Utrecht, voornamelijk het lectoraat Crossmediale Kwaliteitsjournalistiek zijn we in een langlopend project bezig om de Nerderlangs(talig)e Twittersfeer in kaart te brengen. Het onderzoek in opdracht van Vrij Nederland en Nieuwsuur is…

Tracing ethical issues in data projects with the Data Ethics Decision Aid (DEDA) Data, algorithms and models are not simply neutral. On the contrary, they can constitute significant social impact and affect the individual livelihood as much as larger parts of society. Recently the Unemployment Agency of Michigan has been criticized for using a software…