My Meta is Your Data
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- Sniff, Scrape, Crawl: Part 1
Presentation Title:
- My Meta is Your Data
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: Sniff, Scrape, Crawl: Part 1
A mysterious thing called “data” flows from computers to computers, laptops to servers, servers to mobile phones. But data is useless without a context of interpretation. Already, the battle over the production, ownership and control of these contexts has been waged for quite some time in the world of web 2.0 and ubiquitous computing. A proliferation of gray literature plays a powerful role in this dynamic, which is articulated through diverse terms of use, licenses, national and international legal frameworks and multilateral agreements. My paper will examine different data practices, taking examples from “social” networks, activist collectives and open source communities in order to compare the key elements of their economic and political organization. Examining these examples in their diverse forms, I will look at the recent decisions taken by major forums such as the EU Council, various national parliaments and ACTA negotiators, in order to show how they privilege a very specific form of social interaction based on specific data practices. I will analyze how these decisions threaten a wide variety of spontaneous as well as organized collaborations, social interactions, and cultural and economic developments. In conclusion, I want to emphasize the importance of caring for contexts of interpretation and suggest simple as well as more complex strategies to do so.