Tag Archives: FYI

Privacy as a Human Right

To follow-up on our discussion of privacy and data-surveillance, here is an interesting article that looks at this issue from the angle of policy-makers worldwide:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/23/privacy-human-rights-frontier/
“We need a more powerful moral narrative, more powerful technical narrative… Here’s where this issue is different from many other issues, the knowledge level is very low, amongst people more widely, because it is very technical, because it’s very complex, so although it’s the new frontier of human rights it’s a very complicated frontier of human rights… It’s very different from other human rights issues — it’s one where we have to educate others because they will not always see the importance of it.”
I also strongly suggest reading The Circle by Dave Eggers, which is a utopian/dystopian near-future novel addressing these concerns.

And in case you missed it, here is the documentary I suggested (and some students used in their midterms): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084953/

You can watch a trailer here: http://tacma.net/tacma.php

 

Railroads and Clocks

To follow-up on our discussion of the connection between time keeping devices and the railway system, please check out this brief summary:

http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html

“The railways cared most about the inconsistencies of local mean time, and they forced a uniform time on the country.”

And this fun site puts it into perspective: http://railroad.lindahall.org/essays/time-standardization.html

More to come…

Optional Reading: Internet Mods

WARNING: this article contains explicit language.

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/

This article directly relates to our discussion on Internet censorship – especially the case we discussed in relation to child pornography. It is written by Adrian Chen, the same journalist we spoke about “doxx-ing” Reddit moderator ViolentAcrez (article here, )(rebuttal here). This is the story of Internet moderators:

“…companies like Facebook and Twitter rely on an army of workers employed to soak up the worst of humanity in order to protect the rest of us. And there are legions of them—a vast, invisible pool of human labor. Hemanshu Nigam, the former chief security officer of MySpace who now runs online safety consultancy SSP Blue, estimates that the number of content moderators scrubbing the world’s social media sites, mobile apps, and cloud storage services runs to “well over 100,000”—that is, about twice the total head count of Google and nearly 14 times that of Facebook.” (Chen)

I think this is very interesting, and important for you to be aware of, but again I warn that it does contain sexual and violent language.

Articles of Interest

FYI: Here are two articles making the rounds on social media this week that directly relate to our discussion on Monday. Please share your reactions in the comments below.
(These can also be found in our Zotero folder)
Cox, Susan. “Facebook Has Totally Reinvented Human Identity: Why It’s Even Worse than You Think.” N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
McGahan, Jason. “She Tweeted Against the Mexican Cartels. They Tweeted Her Murder.The Daily Beast. N.p., 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

As a follow up to our Fahrenheit 451 in class debate, check out this campaign to increase diversity in children’s books:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-need-diverse-books

What is We Need Diverse Books™?

Reading is the ultimate form of empathy.

Though more than half of schoolchildren are minorities–people of color, LGBTQIA, and/or people with disabilities–the fact remains that too few of these children see reflections of themselves in the books they read. Books are more than mirrors– they’re windows as well. The more kids read, the more they understand not just themselves, but the Story of Us All.We Need Diverse Books™ (WNDB) is a grassroots organization dedicated to advocating and supporting non-majority narratives.

Event of Interest: Extra Credit

Dean’s Roundtable with Brian Sirgutz (BA ’01)

Oct 22, 2014 | 12:30 PM-2:00 PM

Using Digital Content to Drive Social Change

Participate in a conversation with Senior Vice President of Social Impact at The Huffington Post Media Group/AOL Brian Sirgutz (BA ’01) around the idea of “doing well while doing good” and the impact of digital content as a means for social change. Learn how Sirgutz developed a critical component of The Huffington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning program “Beyond the Battlefield,” and how he came to lead all development of social impact-related business and product development innovations on The Huffington Post’s platform.

Brian leads all aspects of the company’s impact editorial content and engagement strategy. Brian founded the Impact, Education, Good News verticals which reach over 20 million people on a monthly basis.

Register here:

http://gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/events/2014/10/briansirgutz.html

Survallience Study

Since it is incredibly relevant to our class, I thought I would share this opportunity to participate in a research study:

http://notice.websci.net/

Ever wondered who’s watching you browse the web?

Advertisers, market intelligence companies and other websites routinely track many of the web pages that we visit. At the University of Southampton, we’ve developed a tool that shows you information about who’s tracking your web browsing and the information that they might have. The tool also gives you the ability to remove that information by deleting the small “cookies” that link you to it.

Help us out!

We’re looking for participants to help us evaluate our tool. Participation is straightforward and just involves the (very easy) installation of an extension in Google Chrome. The study takes just over a week, during which you can use your computer as normal but will be presented with information about what various websites have learned about you.

Please note that you must be at least 18 years old and regularly use the Google Chrome web browser in order to take part.

During the study, we’ll collect limited information about some of the websites that you visit and the information that they may have learned about you, including a partial list of the websites that you have visited. We only do this to help us measure the messages that are being displayed and to understand more about their efficacy. All of this data is collected anonymously and we don’t think it’s a threat to your privacy.

To get started, you just need to install the Chrome extension. Once it’s installed you’ll be asked to consent to the formal study briefing and to give us some basic demographic information about yourself.

If you like, you can read the participant information before installing the extension.

Design

Considering how interesting and insightful our discussion on what Kevin Kelly called “beauty” but we agreed referred to design, I thought I would post the article someone mentioned in our Fishbowl in order to keep this conversation going both online and of:

http://diply.com/trendyjoe/art-katerina-kamprani-the-uncomfortable-design/50765/1

Thanks again for the thoughtful responses. I look forward to seeing how you will use these insights to generate your midterm projects.

Advertising Week at Gallatin

Here is the event I mentioned in class on Wednesday:

http://gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/events/2014/10/prototypeyourlife.html

Prototype Your Life: Advertising Alumni Panel

Oct 2, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM

Advertising Week

Hear from marketing and advertising trailblazers and learn how to focus your passion and sell your talents—and your Gallatin degree–and discover what it takes to be a 21st century Don Draper.

This lively panel discussion will be moderated by Professor Stephen Duncombe and will feature:

Mallory Blair (BA ’10)
Named to this years Forbes 30 under 30 and Business Insider’s top 50 PRs, Mallory started her own firm fresh out of Gallatin four years ago. Since cofounding Small Girls PR, the firm has become the agency of record for technology companies such as GE and Karma, as well as the promotional arm for fashion companies such as Ann Taylor. It has never used a wire, rarely writes press releases, and never sends blanket pitches, relying instead on creative story telling and out of the box partnerships with bloggers, writers and founders. You can keep in touch with her @yourpalmal.

James Del (BA ’08)
James is the Executive Director of Gawker Media’s in-house creative and events department, Studio@Gawker. As a lifelong believer in oversharing on the web, in 2008 he joined Gawker Media Group as employee #2 in Advertising Operations. From there he made the transition to sales & marketing and eventually worked his way up to Advertising Director, overseeing all of Gawker Media’s most notable advertising partnerships and creative executions. Prior to Gawker, James consulted a variety of digital marketing agencies, including Mr Youth, Mekanism, Kadium and The Intelligence Group. He graduated from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and once dressed up as a lion on MTV’s TRL, but never mind that.

Rachel Tipograph (BA ’09)
Rachel considered herself amongst the digerati since the moment she became an eBay poweruser at 13. Forbes listed Rachel as one of its “30 under 30 Who Are Changing The World” and Business Insider named her one of “New York Tech’s Coolest People.” After being the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Gap, Rachel traveled the world for 100 days and is now building a media company based in NYC.

Farryn Weiner (Tisch BFA ’06, GAL ’09)
Farryn heads global social strategy for fashion brand Michael Kors Worldwide, overseeing social, editorial and digital marketing and media strategy. She led the development of the first Instagram ad ever, which ran in November. Weiner previously headed up social media, editorial content and marketing strategy for Jetsetter.com at Gilt Groupe. She’s been a panelist at SXSW, Internet Week, Social Media Week and Luxury Daily Conference, among others. Accolades include Top 10 Most Stylish Social Media Gurus in Stylecaster; 140 Most Influential Twitter Feeds of 2013 in Time; and 25 Women to Watch (Nov. 2013) in Luxury Daily.

Date + Time Oct 2, 2014 | 6:30 PM-8:30 PM
Location Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts
Category Alumni Events
Contact Lauren at lnisenson@nyu.edu / 212.992.8982
Open to Public? yes
RSVP