Week 5: Information Retrieval and Internet Search
Comment on the reading/article:
ABC News. (2017). If Google and Facebook rely on opaque algorithms, what does that mean for democracy? [online] Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/ai-democracy-google-facebook/8782970?pfmredir=sm
What were your first thoughts on reading the article?
After reading the article, my first thought was people who can manipulate someone else’s decision making by using big data algorithms were very clever. What a good marketing tool. Later, I thought to myself how could big data owners like Facebook, or Google, have allowed Cambridge Analytica to use their data to influence and manipulate people’s decision making on democratic elections, which were supposed to be fair and transparent. I wonder if big data companies have data ethics as part of the company’s code of conduct? Who should be held accountable for these incidents since the consequences are innumerable?
Do you think people are aware of the issue?
I think not many people were aware of the issue before the elections, otherwise the elections’ results could have been the other way around. After the election, the algorithm manipulation scandal became public, people started to become aware, and were educated more. In addition, with reference to the article, there are a lot of leading universities now incorporating safety and ethics into AI program development (Arvanitakis, 2017).
What can be done to combat the issue, or does anything need to be done?
In my opinion, I think it might be the time that people should be made more aware of the dark side of using social media or AI, and make sure that we balance the use of advanced technology. People need to be more careful in giving approval for use of their personal data. The data owner’s companies or any other companies who use other people’s data for any purpose should seriously conduct their business with ethics and transparency regarding the final use of the data.
Are universities the right place to teach data ethics?
Yes. Universities are the right place to start teaching data ethics for the new generation to be aware about this. However, global and national cooperation should be considered. It should urgently be part of a global and national campaign because it is a very important issue.
Do we need regulation?
Yes. I think regulation to supervise data ethics and AI development should be in place before it is too late, and technology turns to regulate us. However, who and how to regulate is not an easy question to answer since it is difficult to predict how advanced technology development will go, and also how to get standard regulation to span across multiple countries.
Any comment appreciated.
In my opinion, I do not want to see Terminator take over the world in my children’s generation. I use technology to make my life more convenient and provide me with information, but I have never let technology make decisions for myself. Using advanced technology really helps to make our life easier. However, there are some dark sides to be aware of.
Reference
Arvanitakis, J. (2017, August 11). If Google and Facebook rely on a opaque
algorithms, what does that mean for democracy? ABC News. Retrieved
from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/ai-democracy-google-
Fon's Blog 
Hi Fon,
Welcome. I hope you enjoy the course.
Jo
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Good discussion of the 24/7 library in Foster. Do you have any strategies for how libraries in larger city libraries might implement such a system?
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Implementation of 24/7 staff-less libraries in a big city is a major challenge, as the model is more successful in rural areas than cities due to the more peaceful rural setting where vandalism is generally less (Johannsen, 2017). However, the 24/7 model was successful in the city of Copenhagen, and this model was widespread in all public libraries by 2016. The most common challenges and problems with 24/7 were found to be inappropriate space utilisation by young people and the homeless, which has caused libraries to stop providing staff-less facilities in some areas. However, patron satisfaction (from a scale of 1 to 10) was measured at an average of 9.2 with the model, and they were generally very happy with the opportunity to be able to use their libraries over a longer period of time (Petersen as cited in Johannsen, 2017). The success factors of the 24/7 model in large city (like Copenhagen) libraries were to ensure that a suitable security system is in place to cope with the challenges and problems, and that the residents have developed local ownership in libraries use (Petersen as cited in Johannsen, 2017).
Reference:
Johannsen, C. G. (2017). Staff-Less Libraries: Innovative Staff Design. ProQuest.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
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Interesting discussion on the topic of IoT. You have given a good overview of many the issues. What do you think the challenges that IoT present to libraries’ IT leadership are?
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The major challenge that IoTs presents to libraries’ IT leadership is to create security management awareness to patrons who use the libraries network and devices (Massis, 2016). Librarians also need to be trained to be able to address the on-going security issues with patrons (Massis, 2016).
Reference:
Massis, B. (2016). The Internet of Things and its impact on the library. New Library
World, 117(3/4), 289–292. https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-12-2015-0093
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Good discussion on the topic of the influence of algorithms. You have raised a number of interesting points. Do you think libraries have an education role in this space?
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I think libraries have an education role in this space too (but not exclusively). Libraries can educate internet users and patrons (where the facilities are available) to be aware of the importance of this issue.
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Excellent evaluation. You have made good use of the literature to support your discussion. Including screenshots of the webpage would have helped illustrate some of your points. Good awareness of the accessibility issues. Seventeen navigation buttons seems quite excessive. I hope you found this activity useful.
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I think the activity has been very useful and practical. I have now developed a good website awareness of usability and accessibility. Anytime I browse a website, I try to evaluate if the website is usable, accessible and also identify the improvement areas (by talking to myself).
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