Events

VIEW PAST EVENTS: ALL 2021 TO PRESENT

Should you believe Wikipedia? Social epistemology, virtue epistemology, and the practice of internet research

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

https://youtu.be/a9GqncndRrw Amy S. Bruckman, Regents' Professor and Senior Associate Chair, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Social computing researchers increasingly need to question the nature of “truth” in our day-to-day work. In this talk, Dr. Bruckman will review ideas from philosophy, especially social epistemology, to give us practical, working definitions of “truth” and “knowledge.” Building on that, she examines the value of virtue epistemology (a combination of social epistemology and virtue ethics) to our research and teaching practice. Finally, exploring reasons why Wikipedia has been successful and broader lessons we can draw from […]

Free

Digital Platforms and American Life: A Conference on Technology and Government

More Information and Registration here. Event is In-Person AEI, Auditorium 1789 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20036 The ever-growing importance of internet platforms and Big Tech companies in civic life present difficult questions: How should we govern digital spaces? How does regulation affect innovation and vice versa? How do we do more to provide underserved communities access to digital tools? In almost every realm of our lives, technology is forcing us to confront problems that are both timeless and unique to our era. With the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, AEI’s Digital Platforms and American […]

Free

Toxic, Schmoxic? Societal Repercussions for the Normalization of Hate in Gaming Spaces

Quello Center 404 Wilson Rd, Room 191, East Lansing, MI, United States

https://youtu.be/-6tslwD0LAo Rachel Kowert, Ph.D Research Director of Take This Keynote at Meaningful Play Conference | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu In this talk, Dr. Kowert will explore the ways in which toxic behavior and toxic gamer cultures permeate beyond the virtual walls of our digital playgroups. This will include a discussion of the normalization of hate in gaming spaces and the games industry as well as overview who and how these actions are impacting. While toxic gamer culture is often downplayed or believed to live exclusively within online spaces, it has a radius of impact on mental health, workplace culture, and even extremism […]

Free

Dealing with the (In)security of the Internet

Online Event

https://youtu.be/Kqiv8s7AXZ0 David Clark, Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Much attention today is focused on security challenges faced by computers attached to the Internet: system penetration, malware, ransomware, and so on. The security of the Internet itself seems to get less attention, but most of the key systems that make up the packet carriage layer of the Internet suffer from serious vulnerabilities that are exploited today be malicious actors. The Internet service is the foundation on top of which all applications are build, and these vulnerabilities can have an […]

Free

New Perspectives on the Digital Economy: Sharing, Platforms & Regulation a Weizenbaum Institute online symposium

Online Event https://plamadiso.weizenbaum-institut.de/symposium-digital-economy/

Johannes M. Bauer, will share research on the governance of the digital economy at the Weizenbaum Institute online symposium New Perspectives on the Digital Economy: Sharing, Platforms & Regulation, Friday, December 2, 2022, 10:15 AM-6:46 PM CET. Specifically, his presentation An Information-Economic Perspective on Platform Governance, scheduled for 1 PM CET, will suggest a new conceptual framework for the design of digital platform policy that avoids some of the shortcomings of prevailing approaches. The full program is available at https://plamadiso.weizenbaum-institut.de/symposium-digital-economy/ and registration is free.

Free

Broadband Leaders Summit

Johannes M. Bauer spoke at the national, invitation only, Broadband Leaders Summit in Miami, FL, on December 9, 2022. The presentation, titled "Broadband Opportunities Compass: Metrics to Monitor, Evaluate, and Guide State Broadband Policy", was based on work done by a national task force, initiated and co-coordinated by the Quello Center, on a theoretical and methodological framework for the monitoring of the effectiveness of the massive federal and state broadband infrastructure and digital equity investments.

The Return of the State into the Digital Economy

Online Event

Johannes M. Bauer will give an online seminar on Thursday, January 5, 11 AM-12 noon, on "The Return of the State into the Digital Economy". The seminar is organized jointly by the Center for Tele-Information at Columbia University and the International Media Management Academic Association. Participation is free, but registration is required at https://citiimmaabauer2023.eventbrite.com.

Free

Innovation and Competition in the Digital Economy Part I: Big Tech, Competition & Innovation in the Digital Economy

Online Event

Joint event with the Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin Via WebEx | The panel is part of the Symposium on Innovation and Competition in the Digital Economy jointly organized by Prof. Johannes M. Bauer, Quello Center at Michigan State University, and Dr. Volker Stocker, Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society. The event will provide a stimulating venue for researchers from multiple fields, including economics/management and law, to discuss their work and perspectives on the roles of big tech for innovation and competition in the digital economy. Specifically, we would like to discuss the impact of big tech companies on competition and their […]

The Future is Multinetworked: Lessons for Broadband Networking from Rural Places, Morgan Vigil-Hayes, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University.

Quello Center 404 Wilson Rd, Room 191, East Lansing, MI, United States

Join us in person, Communication Arts & Sciences Room 191 (South entrance) or via Zoom (sign up here). Event is Sponsored by the Rural Computing Research Consortium, Quello Center, American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program, and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Rural places have experienced pernicious digital inequities for decades. Recent Pew Survey data finds that 28% of rural households in the US do not have broadband Internet access. For years, solutions to this digital divide have involved trillions of dollars invested into infrastructure that never quite bridges the gap. Instead of playing a perpetual game of technology […]

Free

Digitization and Social Control: Toward a Cybernetic Political Economy with Milton Mueller, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom | So many of the debates about public policy and the digital economy revolve around issues that are social-cybernetic in nature. That is, they deal with control and communication, but not “in the animal and the machine,” as Norbert Wiener’s foundational definition of cybernetics would have it, but control and communication in social systems. AI applications are accused of reinforcing societal biases by replicating patterns that reflect past discriminatory decisions. We want to know how much of our social life can be automated or turned over to robots, and whether this increases or decreases our sense of control […]

Free

Privacy Protective Behavior and “The Biggest Lie on the Internet” with Dr. Jonathan Obar, York University

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom | RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu When ignoring service terms and agreement implications, people contribute to an internet meme known as "the biggest lie on the internet" (said to be "I agree to the terms and conditions"). This talk will review research unpacking the meme. This includes survey research addressing policy ignoring behaviors, analyses of the length/complexity of service terms, and clickwrap user interface designs. Findings suggest deceptive designs like the clickwrap, and long/complicated policies contribute to ignoring behaviours. Findings also suggest privacy protective behaviors are viewed as tangential to service use goals. This is problematic as online consent processes […]

The Emergent Logic of the Online Information Ecosystem with David Lazer, Northeastern University

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom | Follow the link at the bottom to add to your calendar The first part of this presentation examines the emergent and sometimes paradoxical logic of the internet news ecosystem, in particular: (1) collectively, news diets have become far more concentrated in a small number of outlets; (2)  however, individuals have relatively diverse news diets-- almost certainly far more diverse than was plausible pre-Internet (as measured by number of unique content producers); (3) the social-algorithmic curation system of the Internet tends to point people to content with their preferences, sometimes in unlikely places. The greater diversity of consumption of news measured […]

Free

DataCare for Digital Twins: Participatory Data Analytics and the Social Licence to Operate Smart Cities with Dr. Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology School of Design

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Marcus Foth is a Professor of Urban Informatics in the School of Design and a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is a founding member of the More-than-Human Futures research group. Marcus’ research brings together people, place, and technology. His current research foci include: urban media and geoprivacy; data care in smart cities; digital inclusion and participation; blockchain and food supply chains; and sustainability and more-than-human futures.

Free

Placing bets and avoiding debts: Where working-class parents see opportunities in a technologizing future with Dr. Vikki Katz, Chapman University

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom  RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Evolving technologies are changing how young people learn and the kinds of work their parents do. These changes create uncertainty about how adults can ensure stability and mobility in the workforce today, and how to prepare for what they anticipate work will look like for their children in the future. How parents and children answer these questions is heavily influenced by their “technological timelines”: how they see their families and communities having been affected by technological changes past, present, and future. This presentation presents an in-depth view on how working-class Black and White families in […]

Free

Responsible innovation for climate-smart agriculture: Cases from the U.S. and remote mountain communities of Pakistan with Dr. Maaz Gardezi, Virginia Tech

Quello Center 404 Wilson Rd, Room 191, East Lansing, MI, United States

In Person in CAS Room 191 and Via Zoom  RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu A Rural Computing Research Consortium/Quello Center joint event. Responsible innovation can be helpful in the realm of developing climate-smart farming tools, where data-driven technologies, AI modeling, and localized farm data can enable climate adaptation and mitigation. However, to achieve benefits of these innovations for the public interest and for scaling up, it is imperative to cultivate trust among a range of actors and organizations across the food system value chain. This trust-building process necessitates the development of transparent pathways for converting raw data into actionable insights, a task that […]

Free

Evaluations of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency with Dr. Jessica S. Ancker, Vanderbilt University

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom  RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Early in 2020, the use of telehealth for primary care exploded because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by PCORI, their team launched an extensive set of quantitative and qualitative evaluations of this natural experiment and its impact on healthcare. Ancker will report on their findings about patient and provider experiences in three states on the basis of interviews and surveys, as well as a Medicare claims-based analysis of the effects of telehealth on preventable healthcare utilization. Jessica S. Ancker, MPH, PhD, is a professor of biomedical informatics and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. […]

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DigitalNWT: Codesigning community networking literacies with rural/remote Northern Indigenous communities in Northwest Territories, Canada with Dr. Rob McMahon, University of Alberta

Via Zoom Via Zoom, Click View Event to Register

Via Zoom  RSVP Here | or email quello@msu.edu Persistent digital divides exist between Northern and Southern Canada, and among communities in Northern Canada. Along with large-scale commercial telecommunications projects, locally designed and deployed networks offer potential solutions to improve connectivity. Community Networks involve residents in the deployment, ownership, and control of digital infrastructures - though such efforts also face many challenges. In this presentation Dr. McMahon will introduce DigitalNWT, a participatory action research initiative focused on these issues. After an overview of DigitalNWT's research, education and policy engagement activities, he will discuss the process that was used to codesign community networking resources with […]

Free