Dear AoIR colleagues, A reminder that the first event (of two) starts today at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC/GMT -4 hours). Hope to "see" you "there" via the question tool or on twitter! Feel free to forward. Best, Christian ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Christian Sandvig <csandvig@umich.edu> Date: Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 6:38 PM Subject: Mark Your Calendar: Live-streams of THE COMPUTER SAYS NO + HOW TO WATCH THEM WATCHING YOU (9/28-9/29) To: air-l@listserv.aoir.org Hello AoIR colleagues, We'll be hosting a workshop with some familiar AoIR people next week. I'm writing to this list because we will be live-streaming two of our public events on YouTube and I am wondering if you would like to "attend." We will be taking questions from the Internet via Twitter and the BKC question tool. Even if you are not in the right timezone, I hope this will be of interest. I dare Europe to stay awake for the first one, and Australians to stay awake for the second one. Live-Streamed Events: THE COMPUTER SAYS NO: The Bad News About Online Discrimination in Algorithmic Systems Thursday, September 28, 2017 4:00-5:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC/GMT -4 hours) http://auditingalgorithms.science/?p=53 HOW TO WATCH THEM WATCHING YOU: Researching Social Media, Online Platforms, and Algorithmic Systems From the Outside Friday, September 29, 2017 10-11:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (UTC/GMT -4 hours) http://auditingalgorithms.science/?p=64 The overall occasion is a workshop entitled "Auditing Algorithms: Adding Accountability to Automated Authority," explained here: http://auditingalgorithms.science/ Its goal is a white paper about this area of research, which I expect to emailing this list about again in the future. We are also working on some weirder participatory online activities -- if you like these topics you'll want to jump on in on them. More on that after these events. For more context, here is a related quote: "The equations of big-data algorithms have permeated almost every aspect of our lives. A massive industry has grown up to comb and combine huge data sets — documenting, for example, Internet habits — to generate profiles of individuals. These often target advertising, but also inform decisions on credit, insurance and more. They help to control the news or adverts we see, and whether we get hired or fired. They can determine whether surveillance and law-enforcement agencies flag us as likely activists or dissidents — or potential security or criminal threats….Largely absent from the widespread use of such algorithms are the rules and safeguards that govern almost every other aspect of life in a democracy. There is an asymmetry in algorithmic power and accountability…Fortunately, a strong movement for greater algorithmic accountability is now under way. Researchers hope to find ways to audit for bias….Society needs to discuss in earnest how to rid software and machines of human bugs." –Unsigned Editorial, Nature (2016) Hope you'll be "there", Christian (on behalf of the co-organizers) -- http://www-personal.umich.edu/~csandvig/