S03E28 of Connection Problem: Data Barons
Sitrep: In a slightly mad travel logistics booking spree. I'll be traveling on short notice for a few weeks, so Things Have To Be Sorted.
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As always, a shout out to tinyletter.com/pbihr or a forward is appreciated!
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Personal updates
On behalf of ThingsCon, I got to co-sign two Very Official Documents: the Toronto Declaration about AI and human rights and the Open Letter to G20 Leaders.
Also in ThingsCon related news, we're working on a follow up to our 2017 ThingsCon Responsible Internet of Things report (#RIoT), due out later this summer.
Travel: Next up: NYC 6-11 June, Toronto 11-15 June, Spokane, WA for the rest of June.
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Data Barons
Interesting play on the "data is the new oil" theme in this article, With data as the “new oil”, we should all aspire to be Norway :
"If data is truly the new oil, then it should be much easier to use technology to enable value creation and distribution to be more balanced and more fair for everyone. Unlike oil, there are no geographic or demographic distinctions to data, and data can be used unlimited times to generate value. From a technical perspective, the data can be used, easily, for as long as we want! Access to oil means access to power—this power, in the hands of the few, will never end well. We must ensure that the knowledge and power generated by data is distributed, limited, and interrogatable." (Highlights mine.)
I fully support the overall sentiment; but the bold highlight above struck me as potentially flawed in several ways:
- While data doesn't inherently have geographic distinctions, data collection and processing infrastructure certainly does: That's why the US (now) and China (soon) are ahead of the pack. Access to data to collect couple with loose data policies and research funding mean more things built around data, for better or worse.
- I believe you could well argue that data does have inherent demographic distinctions, insofar as data collected about vulnerable communities and demographics are inherently more problematic through the potential for abuse. You don't need to invoke Godwin's law to go there, just look at algorithmic decision-making around insurance pricing or risk assessment.
The idea to make better commons-oriented investments in data, and put that to good use in the long term, sounds like a good idea. But let's not forget that while Norway funded a lot of great social policies on the back of oil, we're still talking about a fundamentally unsustainable product there that adds a lot to global issues. So when using these metaphors to guide political discussions, maybe we should differentiate between the primary use of a resource, how it's harvested and exploited, and how we can best use the benefits it generates. Otherwise we'll need to ask ourselves: Who are the data barons of the 21st century?
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Things that caught my attention
File under: Smarter smart cities
Barcelona is leading the fightback against smart city surveillance [WIRED UK]. When it come to smart cities, Barcelona is a bit of a gold standard these days (highlights mine):
"when Colau came to power she inherited one of the world’s premier smart cities: the host of the annual Smart City Expo and with dozens of sensor networks that drew data on transport, energy usage, noise levels, irrigation — all kinds of things. As citizens lived their lives, data was continuously harvested and funnelled into city hall and private sector partners where it was analysed for insight into how the city could be run more efficiently — or used to develop services and products for sale. Now, that data infrastructure is being repurposed. “We are reversing the smart city paradigm,” says Bria. “Instead of starting from technology and extracting all the data we can before thinking about how to use it, we started aligning the tech agenda with the agenda of the city.”
File under: Cryptarians
(1) Almost half of cryptocurrency and bitcoin bros identify as libertarian, says Quartz, and illustrates it with this handy Venn diagram. I love a good oversimplified Venn diagram, and this one makes for all the right feels.
"Libertarians and crypto enthusiasts have some serious overlap (...) Both are overrepresented by white dudes partial to ostentatious displays of wealth, among other things. It’s no wonder, then, that the libertarian “hippies of the right” and some corners of the crypto community have become chummy. They make great bedfellows. Once firmly on the fringe, both libertarians and cypherpunks are having a moment. "
(2) Ethereum Classic Claims Successful BlockChain Fork: (...) "the upgrade puts both technical and ideological distance between the ethereum classic and ethereum blockchains". Do you back the dollar, the original dollar or the dollar classic?
(3) Bitcoin is the market's new fear gauge: Talk about a fickle crowd. Also, this nugget which I think deserves some attention: "Cryptocurrencies allow investors to move their money off the balance sheets of banks and decrease credit risks." (Highlights mine.)
(4) A blockchain start-up just raised $4 billion, without a live product: At least once the bubble bursts and half the ICO bros are publicly exposed as frauds we'll have an blockchained immutable public record of it.
File under: If you scan emails and faces, don't be defense contracting
Google Employees Resign in Protest Against Pentagon Contract: Defense contracts are tricky. If you are in the business of running analytics (including facial recognition) within large scale consumer products, they become even trickier.
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I wish you an excellent weekend.
Yours truly,
Peter
PS. Please feel free to forward this to friends & colleagues, or send them to tinyletter.com/pbihr
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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores the impact of emerging technologies — like Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research, strategy & foresight company. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that fosters the creation of a responsible Internet of Things. In 2018, Peter is a Mozilla Fellow. He tweets at @peterbihr. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.
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The picture at the top by Alex Holyoake via Unsplash. (The one at the bottom is by me.)