1,721,012 research outputs found
How the next billion users are challenging global tech assessment: Interview with Payal Arora
No full textGender data : what is it and why is it important for the future of AI systems?
No full textPayal Arora and Weijie Huang ; issuing department Competence Centre on the Future of Wor
Kaplan-Lab-Pitt/Thiolutin: Thiolutin_Scripts_Kaplan
No full text<p>Kaplan Lab Scripts @paa49 Payal Arora for analyzing ChIP-seq data for thiolutin treated yeast</p>
Ethnographic perspectives on the information society : a review essay
No full textBook review of the titles: Payal Arora, Dot Com Mantra: Social Computing in the Central Himalayas, 2010, Ashgate Publishing and Jenna Burrell, Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana, 2012, MIT Press
Behind the Music: How Labor Changed for Musicians through the Subscription Economy
No full textIn the last decade, many musicians have taken to digital platforms to share their music.
The provision of users with low or no cost access to vast libraries of music initiated a decrease
of the role of middlemen in the industry, such as record labels. This development
comes with certain advantages for artists, but at the same time, they can no longer rely on
revenue generated solely by their music, due to the pay-back model of these platforms.
There is growing evidence of exploitation of the creative workers in the subscription economy.
While the perspectives of music platforms, as well as record labels, have been covered
extensively, the artist perspective is alarmingly sparse. We know little of musician's new
forms of labor that enable them to capitalize on streaming services.
Hence, this paper examines how the labor of artists in the music industry changed
through the rise of streaming platforms, specifically in the context of Germany, the fourth
largest music market in the world. To date, little research exists regarding the German music
market and its digital growth. If we want to investigate the global implications of the subscription
economy, it is essential to move beyond the usual suspects of the United States
and the UK as chosen contexts for research.
In this research, a qualitative analysis of the contemporary German music market from
the artist perspective was carried out. In the course of this, thirteen semi-structured indepth
interviews with German musicians were conducted to investigate how their labor
changed due to the rise of streaming platforms. The findings show that artists no longer perceive
their music as a product, but as a marketing tool for their brand. Further, the gradual
elimination of the album as an artistic element and the enormous competition caused by
subscription services pressures artists to produce solely hit singles. Other than that, the creative
process is not extensively impacted through the datafication, facilitated through subscription
services. The non-creative process and the perception of music as a commodity has
changed tremendously. Thereby, artists leverage on the data that platforms provide to support
their non-creative tasks. Further, new intermediaries in the market have emerged in the
form of digital distributors, which enable artists to share their music for a small fee on all
available digital platforms. Through the increased amount of time which is needed for noncreative
tasks, the wish for an even broader intermediary network becomes obvious. It can
be questioned whether this provides artists with more creative freedom or if they find themselves
in an even more exploitive and precarious position. As expected, the perceptions of
artists regarding their platform labor are double-edged. While they perceive a big pleasure
and satisfaction through their work, they get burdened with new non-creative laboring due
to these rising subscription services.
To conclude, this paper adds to the conversations on the globalization of music platform’s
labor and provides a basis for comparative analyses with other markets. It serves to
reimagine the intersection between creativity and digital labor in the German music subscription
industry and challenges current understandings on intermediaries in the music industry
Refugees in the Digital Age: Investigating Refugees’ Perceptions regarding Digital Privacy on Social Media Platforms
No full textIn recent years, thousands of people prominently coming from Middle East, forced to leave their home countries and move to Europe in order to escape from the ongoing violence and conflicts in their region, and at the same time to protect themselves and their families. It is quite well known nowadays that this refugee crisis that Europe witnesses is considered to be the biggest refugee crisis after the World War II. According to migration literature, digital technologies are an essential tool for refugees not only to overcome numerous obstacles they might face during their resettlement, but also to maintain ties with their country of origin. In this context, this research explores refugees’ perceptions on digital privacy when using these technologies in the Netherlands. The censorship and the violations of personal privacy that these people have experienced or witnessed by the local authorities in their home states, raise questions regarding their present digital behaviour; how they use these technologies, if, and how, they manage to protect their personal privacy. Great attention was given by the academia to the relationship between the digital technologies and refugees in a more practical way. The current literature focuses on how new technologies facilitate refugees’ resettlement and integration into the host society. Less emphasis has been placed on refugees’ notions regarding their digital privacy when using them. Therefore, this thesis examines refugees’ perceptions and experiences through interviews referring to the digital privacy.
A total amount of ten in-depth interviews were conducted with refugees who are currently residing in the Netherlands. The qualitative content analysis by in-depth face-to-face interviews was considered to be the most suitable method of answering the research question of this thesis as it examines individual’s experiences, feelings, notions and behaviours. The thematic analysis revealed five themes which explain refugees’ digital behaviour and perceptions regarding privacy: (1) the use of digital technologies, (2) refugees’ perceptions of integration, (3) datafication, (4) digital privacy and trust, and (5) privacy management and protection. These themes depict the way refugees use new technologies in their everyday life and how it has been influenced by the various privacy protection strategies that individuals have adapted in order to protect their privacy. Furthermore, this thesis provides a critical evaluation of its limitations and offers few suggestions for further research in order to gain a better understanding of the issue
Platform work – empowering or exploiting the labourers? - A Case Study of Taxify: An analysis of the relationship between the company and its labourers
No full textThe people’s need and dependence for community has led to a sharing economy in which underused resources or leisure time are monetised. This new type of economy has brought on the growth of the digital labour platforms that offer sharing solutions in various fields. For instance, it has created a ridesharing and providing trend. Apps like Uber offer seemingly easy options to earn money yet have regulations that make the labour conditions very precarious for the workers who are providing gigs for the companies. Many scholars have conducted studies about sharing economy and digital labour phenomena yet the current research on transportation sector lacks information from the labourers’ side. This empirical study dives into the transportation platform work and tries to uncover what is the relationship between Taxify, a ridesharing app, and its drivers. To what extent are the labourers exploited by the company and why? In order to answer the research question and sub-questions a qualitative research design was chosen. A case study method was chosen to analyse the relationships between the company and the employees, as well as, to understand the role of a digital labourer by looking into how the structuring of Taxify works. A thematic analysis was conducted based on the 100 latest posts from four different Facebook groups, in addition to two focus groups in which Taxify and the drivers were interviewed separately. The study revealed quite a lot of new information in regards of how the workers perceive the gig labour and their work conditions. Contrarily to the previous literature on the matter, this research showed that the drivers have a neoliberal view of the job and believe themselves to be responsible for their success. The relationship that Taxify has with its drivers can mainly be explained as transparent and supportive. The analysis showed no existence of exploitation and revealed that the drivers perceive Taxify’s treatment as fair. The main reason for the misconception surrounding the treatment of drivers might be caused by the fact that the regulations seem to leave all the responsibility on the drivers while the company actually has many positive activities that are not written down and announced to the larger public
Afterthoughts
Get PDFWriters Sugata Mitra and Payal Arora were invited to provide some afterthoughts having read each other's papers. As Arora observes, the Hole-in-the-Wall approach has shown that the absence of a teacher can sometimes encourage children to explore more bravely than they would in their presence. However, as she again observes, institutional indifference may result in abdication of responsibility and lack of sustainability. It sells its products to schools and hence locates its kiosks on school playgrounds. She also wonders whether placing of computers in playgrounds may not only breed collaboration but competition and discrimination. Payal Arora likes to focus on just two aspects of the Kalikuppam experiment. The design of the experiment itself and the role of the mediator. It is important to bear in mind that the children coming to these learning kiosks also continued to be taught in the formal classroom
Facebook and the digital romance economy: courtship, scams, and internet regulation in the global South.
No full textThrough the controversial internet.org initiative, Facebook now serves as The Internet to the majority of the world’s marginalized demographic. The Politics of Data series continues with Payal Arora discussing the role of Facebook and internet regulation in the global South. While the West have had privacy laws in place since the 1970s, the emerging markets are only now seriously grappling with this. This piece explores some of the unfolding areas of vulnerability in the digital romance economy
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