The committee for the 2020 EMCA Best Paper Award,
consisting of David Gibson (Chair), Jason Turowetz and Dirk
vom Lehn, is pleased
to announce the recipient of this year’s award:
“A Not Quite Random Walk:
Experimenting with the Ethnomethods of the Algorithm” (Big Data & Society,
July-December 2017), by Malte Ziewitz of the Department of Science &
Technology Studies at Cornell University.
The article uses the deceptively
mundane exercise of a stroll around Oxford, guided by simple rules for choosing
a way forward at each intersection, to provide an insider’s view of an
algorithm. Ziewitz explores how the algorithm is used to make sense of
unanticipated situations, how it is modified to maintain workability, and how
seemingly neutral rules create ethical dilemmas while also relieving Ziewitz
and his walking companion of the need (and opportunity) to communicate and
reconcile their respective experiences and priorities. Thus, the article opens
the black box of the algorithm and puts people inside, demystifying this
central component of modern existence.
Timely,
clever, and delicately formulated, the article is a pleasure to read as well as
a spur to further research on the often opaque rules that govern expert
systems, and, implicitly, a call to scrutinize algorithms in all areas for
their alignment with human needs and experiences.
Very interesting, will have to read it carefully
ReplyDelete