WORKSHOP INTRODUCTION

Algorithmically mediated systems and tools are used by workers across the globe. Many of these workers are in low-power positions, where they have little leverage to make demands around transparency, explanation, or terms of use, yet, at the same time rely deeply on these systems for many aspects of their jobs. This tension between little power and high reliance drives the production of intensive algorithmic imaginaries, where workers engage in meaning-making to construct understandings of these systems. Yet, there has been little attention paid to the diversity and ingenuity of algorithmic understandings crafted by the workers.

In this workshop, our goal is to bring together researchers and practitioners from across disciplines to create a research agenda, compare vocabularies, and discuss methodologies around this form of “folk tradecraft.” Through a series of moderated discussions and small group brainstorming sessions around themes generated from participants position papers we aim to cultivate recommendations around theoretical, methodological and design interventions that can be made to respect the algorithmic imaginations of those who labor. This toolkit will help elicit insights into these phenomena and ultimately build mechanisms by which the labor of algorithmic meaning-making can be respected, understood, and leveraged for system design.

While this workshop invites conversation around any professionals who interact with opaque technological systems, we welcome papers which elevate how the CHI community talks about low-power workers managed by or engaging with algorithmic/digital platforms, with the goal of centering workers and their agency.

We invite position papers, from a range of disciplines, which discuss:

• Imaginations of what technology design would look like if it leveraged workers understandings of algorithmic underpinnings;

• New ways of framing interactions between on-the-ground algorithmically mediated workers and technological systems;

• Innovative methodological breakthroughs which can provide insight into the ‘people’s research’ workers undertake, i.e. cognitive labor, sensemaking, or algorithmic imaginaries, and/or their influence on platform functions.