User Centred Design Questionnaire

Reading List:

Chapters 1 and 2 of “The Real World of Technology” by Ursula Franklin.

Chapter 7 of “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr as well as the Introduction and Chapter 1 of “Weapons of Math Destruction” by Cathy ONeal.

Ensmenger, N., 2018. The environmental history of computing. Technology and culture, 59(4), pp.S7-S33.

AI Now Institute. 20119. AI and Climate Change: How they’re connected and what we can do about it. Online at: https://medium.com/@AINowInstitute/ai-and-climate-change-how-theyre-connected-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-6aa8d0f5b32c

Fogg, B.J., 2009, April. A behavior model for persuasive design. In Proceedings of the 4th international Conference on Persuasive Technology (pp. 1-7)

Zuboff, S., 2015. Big other: surveillance capitalism and the prospects of an information civilization. Journal of information technology, 30(1), pp.75-89.

Corner, A., Shaw, C. and Clarke, J., 2018. Principles for effective communication and public engagement on climate change: A Handbook for IPCC authors. Climate Outreach: Oxford, UK.

Fisher, M. and Taub, A., 2019. How YouTube Radicalized Brazil. The New York Times, 11(08).

• Hyde, A. and Linksvayer, M., kanarinka, Michael Mandiberg, Marta Peirano, Sissu Tarka, Astra Taylor, Alan Toner, and Mushon Zer-Aviv. 2012. What Is Collaboration Anyway. The Social Media Reader, pp.53-67.

Wikipedia at 15: in decline but condition isn’t terminal – so what may the future hold?. The Conversation. Jan 15, 2016. 

https://theconversation.com/wikipedia-at-15-in-decline-but-condition-isnt-terminal-so-what-may-the-future-hold-53185 

Tufekci, Z., 2017. Twitter and Tear Gas. Yale University Press. (Introduction and Chapter 1)

Masnick, M., 2019. Protocols, not platforms: A technological approach to free speech. Knight First Amendment Institute. https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech

Hao, K., 2021. How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation. MIT Technology Review.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/11/1020600/facebook-responsible-ai-misinformation 

Srinivasan, Dina. 2019. Google Monopolizes Ad Markets Through Conduct Lawmakers Prohibit in Other Electronic Trading Markets.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/go…

Lakier, Genevieve. 2021. The Great Free-Speech Reversal.

Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, 2019. Canada’s Digital Charter in Action: A Plan By Canadians, for Canadians. (Skim) – https://s3.amazonaws.com/tld-documents.llnassets.com/0017000/17210/canada’s%20digital%20charter.pdf 

Jenny O’Dell – How To Do Nothing (excerpt): https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f59bbb 

Tim Maughan – Platforms, Creative Communities, and the Need for a Radical Reimagining: https://thereboot.com/platforms-creative-communities-and-the-need-for-a-radical-reimagining/ 

Barendregt, W., Becker, C., Cheon, E., Clement, A., Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Schuler, D. and Suchman, L., 2021. Defund Big Tech, Refund Community. Tech Otherwise: https://techotherwise.pubpub.org/pub/dakcci1r/release/3

Part B:

1. On balance, would you say social media has been helpful or hurtful to climate scientists who

have tried to use social media to explain their work to a wider audience? Use specific

examples to support your argument.

2. Social media allows governments to collect vast amounts of data about our individual activities and opinions. Law enforcement agencies often argue this is a good thing, as greater surveillance helps to solve crimes and prevent terrorism, and they argue that * “if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear”. On balance, would you support this view, or not? Use examples of first, second and third order effects to support your argument.

3. Facebook has been widely criticized recently for giving political consulting companies such as Cambridge Analytica wide access to Facebook user data. Were Facebook’s actions in this case unethical? Justify your answer with reference to the kinds of data that was shared, and what it was used for.

4. Digital technologies have the potential to greatly reduce the environmental impacts of human activity through dematerialization, because “moving bits is easier than moving atoms” However, in practice, realizing this potential is hard, and switching to digital alternatives may sometimes lead to worse environmental impacts. Using examples of at least three different kinds of human activity, explain why digitization is sometimes better, and sometimes worse. For which kinds of activity do you expect digitization to provide the biggest environmental benefits?