April 1
8am-10am (EDT/Boston Time)
In this session, participants will critically challenge the notion of “self-determination” and explore alternative or at least complementary perspectives that put more emphasis on solidarity and the social conditions of digital self-determination. The session seeks to deepen the shared understanding of the social context and conditions - and assumptions behind - any form of “self-determination.” It will also examine the role of shared and “trustworthy” data spaces as an example of how digital self-determination and larger societal goals can be aligned
Pre-session Materials
Session Overview
Readings:
Fiorini, M. (2021), ‘Even the blockchain can be imperialist’, Stop at Zona-M - link (a short synopsis of the Olivier Jutel paper shared as post-session reading)
Paul Mozur, In Hong Kong, a Proxy Battle Over Internet Freedom Begins - link (this will be shared via the email titled: Session 3 Agenda)
Lokman Tsui, The coming colonization of Hong Kong cyberspace: government responses to the use of new technologies by the umbrella movement (this will be shared via the email titled: Session 3 Agenda)
Nishant Shah, The Insidiousness of Information Overload (this will be shared via the email titled: Session 3 Agenda)
Sprint participants are encouraged to read at least 2 of the 4 readings.
8am: Opening Welcome: Malavika Jayaram
8:05am: Sparks and 1-1-1 Collaborative Annotation
Megan Kelleher, Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre‑Doctoral Fellow in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT, Australia
Lokman Tsui, Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Nighat Dad, Executive Director, Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan
Nishant Shah, Professor Aesthetics and Culture of Technologies, ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands
9:05am: Rapid Prototyping for Self-Determination and Survival:
Group exercise in 4 breakout rooms
Groups to decide when to take a break during this window
9:35am: Pitching prototypes
3 mins per group
9:50am: Synthesis: Nishant Shah
9:55am: Wrap Up & Next Steps: Lance Eaton
Resources for Further Consideration
Olivier Jutel, Blockchain Imperialism in the Pacific - link
Ideally, participants should try to do both but if time only allows for one, Assignment 2 should be prioritized.
Building on the work we did this past week in crafting a useful bibliography around research and resources on Digital Self-Determination, we want to consider what a Wikipedia page might look like and start to sketch out the sections.
For this week, we want to do the following
Take a look at other similar topics (Self-determination, E-democracy, digital rights, electronic colonialism) and in general, explore Wikipedia to get a sense of what might be ideal sections/subsections to include. Be sure to keep a track of and list of these Wikipedia entries to reference.
In your own document, draft what you think would be ideal sections & subsections along with 1-sentence descriptions of what that section/subsection might be for a Wikipedia entry on Digital Self-Determination.
NOTE: For now, try to only go 2 levels: Sections & 1 tier of subsections. You might indicate possible sub-sub-sections, but for now, let’s keep it at 2 levels.
Visit this working document and see what other participants have added in terms of sections/subsections.
Here comes the tricky but important part. We're writing collaboratively here so we want to be mindful and careful about changing/erasing/editing (out) other people's contributions.
When you enter, if you see where some of your sections and subsections would make sense, please add them. However, if you see overlap or similar but distinct language, avoid just out right removing what was there and putting your choice in. Use the comment feature to raise questions about distinctions between the different wordings/sections.
This will be important practice not just for finding common ground and agreement with folks in the Sprint but if we do end up creating a Wikipedia entry, we will all have to be prepared to deal with others editing/adjusting our work and working through the process for collaborative knowledge.
Complete and submitted by Thursday, April 8, by 7am EDT/Boston Time
In Session 3, you engaged in rapid prototyping that included the following based upon Nashant Shah's talk:
Identify an informational life form.
Find something that threatens its well-being.
Imagine an intervention to minimize the condition of the threat
Ensure that you are engaging in a politics of survival
We would like you to do a similar activity for this assignment and build it out in full as a narrative covering the points above. You can focus on the informational life-form you did in Session 3 or choose something new. You can work as individuals or as pairs.
Goal: To create a narrative piece around an informational life form.
Format: This activity can be written, audio recording, video, or some other multimedia concept (animation, branching scenarios, collage, Prezi, etc). We encourage the use of visuals to conceptualize it but those visuals can be simple (hand-drawn on notebook paper that you capture with your phone) or more complex--and obviously, no visuals if you are doing something written or in audio solely.
We encourage you to be as creative as you want with this but we also encourage that if you are making things, particularly visuals or integrating video/audio content from elsewhere that you make sure you have the legal permission to do so. Along those lines, we encourage the use of Creative Common licensed materials or even materials from places like the Internet Archive. Additionally, we ask that you do not use logos of Digital Asia Hub or Berkman Klein Center in the creation of your artifacts.
Length/Duration: This is a bit tricky with different formats. For instance, we could say that if you are writing, to keep it to 300-500 words, yet that might be wildly over the mark if you are writing a poem or under the mark if you wrote out a script, but just perfect if you’re writing some reflections. What some can cover in 3 minutes in speaking might be covered in 2 minutes with images and sound.
So we don’t have an ideal length but we do have an ideal audience. Think about how you would construct this narrative so that people who are new or interested in this subject. As we have said, these assignments are being pooled together into a final syllabus on Digital Self-Determination, so consider, what might be a reasonably small but deep engagement with following the life of a data that embodies some part of an individual.
We also want to emphasize that you should not spend more than 3-5 hours in creating this artifact.
Complete and submitted by Tuesday, April 6, by 12pm EDT/Boston Time
Please submit your artifact using this form: https://forms.gle/EsCanYoVyys6Zx3dA
The form will require that you include a link to your assignment that is somewhere online (on a website, in a cloud-drive, etc). Please make sure if using a cloud-storage, the link settings are set to allow for people to access the document.
Malavika Jayaram
Malavika is the inaugural Executive Director of Digital Asia Hub, a Hong Kong-based independent research think-tank incubated by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where she is also a Faculty Associate. A technology lawyer for over 15 years, she practised law at Allen & Overy, London, and was Vice President and Technology Counsel at Citigroup. She was featured in the International Who’s Who of Internet e-Commerce & Data Protection Lawyers, and voted one of India’s leading lawyers.
Megan Kelleher is a PhD candidate and one of RMIT’s Vice Chancellor’s Indigenous Pre‑Doctoral Fellows in the School of Media and Communication. The title of her thesis is ‘Blockchain Mapping and Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Observations at the interface between distributed consensus technology and Indigenous governance’. Megan is investigating whether blockchain technology can interface with an Indigenous knowledge system – and conversely whether an Indigenous knowledge system can be used to guide the coordination of processes within a blockchain system. Grounded in her Barada/Baradha and Gabalbara/Kapalbara heritage, the research will be approached from an Indigenous standpoint, contributing to the field from an important Australian research perspective.
Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan. She is an accomplished lawyer and a human rights activist. Nighat Dad is one of the pioneers who have been campaigning around access to open internet in Pakistan and globally. She has been actively campaigning and engaging at a policy level on issues focusing on Internet Freedom, Women and technology, Digital Security and Women’s empowerment. Ms. Dad has been recently included in Next Generation Leaders List by TIME's magazine for her work on helping women fight online harassment.
Nishant Shah is Director of Research & Outreach and Professor Aesthetics and Culture of Technologies, at ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands. Knowledge Partner for the global art-technology Digital Earth Fellowship. Faculty Associate 2020-21 at the Berkman Klein Centre for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Mentor on the Feminist Internet Research Network. His work is at the intersections of body, identity, digital technologies, artistic practice, and activism, with a specific focus on non-canonical geographies. His current interest is in thinking through questions of artificial intelligence, digital subjectivity, and misinformation towards building inclusive, diverse, resilient, and equitable societies. His new book Really Fake is out in Spring 2021 with University of Minnesota Press.
Lokman Tsui is a scholar, activist, and currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), where his research focuses on free expression, digital rights and internet policy. Lokman was formerly Google's Head of Free Expression in Asia and the Pacific (2011-14).