Overcoming Bias Through Inclusive Design Processes / Zoe Chao
This study path asks learners to investigate the design processes behind frequently-used technologies and analyze those processes for where a different approach can lead to better, less biased outcomes. By Zoe Chao, Penn State University, User Experience Librarian Abstract Nowadays technology is evolving at an unprecedented pace and our daily lives are ever more…
Read MoreAudio Visual Ontologies / Susan Barrett
This study path asks the learner to evaluate ontology creation in relation to automated metadata creation for audio visual digital materials, and asks learners to reflect on ways to disrupt the Anglo and Western ontologies that are often embedded in these systems.
Read MoreSee No Evil / Miriam Posner
Software helps companies coordinate the supply chains that sustain global capitalism. How does the code work—and what does it conceal? Posner’s article is both brilliant and approachable, investigating the ramifications of the modular design of supply-chain software: the modular design of both the code and the supply chain make it impossible to fully know what…
Read MoreMissed Connections: What Search Engines Say About Women / Safiya Umoja Noble
Noble writes evocatively about the effect of search algorithm biases on users — in this case, young black girls who will find that Google searches for “black girls” do not lead to books about black girls or communities in which young black girls might connect, but instead pornography as the top results. Noble investigates how…
Read MoreDiscrimination in Online Ad Delivery / Latanya Sweeney
A Google search for a person’s name, such as “Trevon Jones”, may yield a personalized ad for public records about Trevon that may be neutral, such as “Looking for Trevon Jones?”, or may be suggestive of an arrest record, such as “Trevon Jones, Arrested?”. This writing investigates the delivery of these kinds of ads by…
Read MoreON NONSCALABILITY: The Living World Is Not Amenable to Precision-Nested Scales / Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
This heavily theoretical piece provides a vital counterweight to the pressure for “scale” in technological projects, and can give cultural heritage project managers a useful vocabulary for questioning demands to follow tightly regulated software development processes when it is not appropriate for community-driven, humanistic work. Tsing shows that while “scalability” is defined as projects that…
Read MoreConsider the Boolean: The Challenge of Using Binary Data Structures in a Complicated World / Jacob Harris
I generally prefer to write about big picture subjects for my Learning pieces at Source. But today, let’s start from something small that illuminates the way even simple choices affect what we can represent and the stories we can tell. Let’s talk about the most basic datatype we often build our databases from: Boolean fields.…
Read MorePrototype Theory: An Alternative Concept Theory for Categorizing Sex and Gender? / Melodie J. Fox
This article explores prototype theory as an alternative to classical theories of classification. This article points to other, more fine-grained methods for classification than traditional systems with rigid boundaries and hierarchies. While this article does not delve into the technical systems needed to implement prototype theory, it is a very useful foundation for discussions on…
Read MoreHow We Analyzed the COMPAS Recidivism Algorithm / Mattu Larson and Angwin Kirchner
We set out to assess one of the commercial tools made by Northpointe, Inc. to discover the underlying accuracy of their recidivism algorithm and to test whether the algorithm was biased against certain groups. [zotpress userid=”1341761″ items=”B3VQQBGS” style=”chicago-author-date”]
Read MoreToward a Critical Technical Practice / Philip Agre
A foundational article in both Artificial Intelligence and critical technical practice, containing a powerful theoretical framework for thinking about the ways that human assumptions and bias enter programming decisions at even the most basic level. “A critical technical practice will, at least for the foreseeable future, require a split identity — one foot planted in…
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