<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">astrid mager <<a href="mailto:astrid.mager@univie.ac.at">astrid.mager@univie.ac.at</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>[iDC] introduction</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">4 June 2014 1:27:47 PM GMT+02:00<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><a href="mailto:idc@mailman.thing.net">idc@mailman.thing.net</a><br></span></div><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"><br>
Dear Samuel, dear list, <br>
<br>
your email finds me in the middle of a two-day conference and a
two-week family trip, so please excuse me for a rather brief
introduction. <br>
<br>
I'm a postdoctoral researcher from Vienna working at the Institute
of Technology Assessment. My background is in science and technology
studies (STS) and my current research is concerned with search
technology and how sociotechnical visions, value-systems, and
ideologies shape search algorithms, but also business models based
on practices of user profiling in different cultural contexts. <br>
<br>
At the moment, I'm leading a project on search engines at the
intersection of global capitalism and local (Austrian)
socio-political cultures - obviously, the European level will be
central here as a kind of middle ground for governance processes.
The ongoing reform of the EU data protection legislation will be
central in this analysis since it is an important arena where
supposedly global search engines - Google first and foremost - are
imagined and governed in European contexts. It's a site where
tensions between US-American search engines/ social media and
European, but also different national visions and values may be
observed, where IT lobbying takes place on a grand scale, and where
Edward Snowden and the NSA scandal plays a crucial role too. <br>
<br>
The analysis of European visions and value-systems will then be
compared to my past research on capitalist ideologies driving search
engines in US-American contexts.That's where digital labor comes
into play. I've argued that we need to go beyond the political
economy of search engines to understand complex actor-networks and
power relations involved in the construction and stabilization of
big players like Google. Accordingly, content providers and users
are not merely exploited by Google & co, but rather stabilize
its powerful role and capital accumulation cycle by
contributing mundane forms of labor - Profit is generated due to
heavy sharing, liking, poking, messaging, watching videos, creating
content etc. Drawing on contributions from critical theory
(Althusser, Marx, Gramsci) I've conceptualized the notion
algorithmic ideology to grasp co-shaping processes of algorithmic
logics and socio-cultural values, capitalist ideologies in
particular.<br>
<br>
Grounded in this body of work, I'll talk about "digital labor,
capitalist ideology, and alternative future" at #DL14. I will
discuss how ideology critique can help us to understand the gridlock
of mundane forms of digital labor that help corporate search engines
(and social media etc.) to further expand, exploit, and commodify
larger and larger parts of the web (and social reality). However, I
will further discuss how users may opt out of Google's capital
accumulation cycle and what role “organic intellectuals” (Gramsci
2012) can play in challenging hegemonic actors like Google,
Facebook, Twitter, ...<br>
<br>
If you got interested in my work, you'll find further information/
publications etc on my blog: <br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.astridmager.net/">http://www.astridmager.net/</a><br>
<br>
or you just get in touch with me on twitter, facebook etc. -
ironically, I'm using these tools to share critical ideas about
search engines, social media, and so forth.. - underlining the
dialectical nature of the digital objects we are working with..
hehe. <br>
<br>
I guess that's all for now. I'm looking forward to interesting
discussions and an exciting time at #DL14!!!<br>
Have a nice summer! Best, Astrid<br>
<br>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>iDC -- mailing list of the Institute for Distributed Creativity (<a href="http://distributedcreativity.org">distributedcreativity.org</a>)<br><a href="mailto:iDC@mailman.thing.net">iDC@mailman.thing.net</a><br>https://mailman.thing.net/mailman/listinfo/idc<br><br>List Archive:<br>http://mailman.thing.net/pipermail/idc/<br><br>iDC Photo Stream:<br>http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/idcnetwork/<br><br>RSS feed:<br>http://rss.gmane.org/gmane.culture.media.idc<br><br>iDC Chat on Facebook:<br>http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2457237647<br><br>Share relevant URLs on Del.icio.us by adding the tag iDCref</blockquote><br></div><div><br></div><br></body></html>