Hello everyone, and welcome to the class blog for DATA 74000: Data, Place, and Society. Here’s what you should do first:
1) If you have not done so for another class, sign up for a Commons account (you do not need your own blog for this class, but you’re welcome to create one on the system). Once you have a username, look for the “Join this Site” widget to the bottom right to add yourself as an “Author” to this site, which means that you can create, edit, and publish your own posts to this blog (you’ll need to do this for assignments). You won’t be able to make changes to the course documents or other students’ posts, so don’t worry about that. Need more help? Check here.
2) Familiarize yourself with the blog layout and the syllabus materials I’ve uploaded. You’ll find a link to the syllabus at the top along with assignments, policies, and the course schedule with links to all the readings.
3) Leave a comment to this post when you’re all signed up and introduce yourself (like: give a first impression of the class, ask a question, tell us about your interest in the M.S., or say what you hope to get out of the class).
Hi everyone!
I’m the guy who fidgets with his pen.
So, my question. Maybe because we were all doing data collection, the classroom activity didn’t seem off-putting or creepy. When does data collection cross that line?
Hi again.
I think that collecting information when people aren’t aware of it or using information in a way that is different than what people have agreed to is when things become creepy. For instance, Google tracks people even when the location history setting is turned off. And they’ve just told people about this longstanding practice (and only because an AP article made the public aware, not because they decided on their own to be more transparent). To me that seems invasive and awful. https://www.apnews.com/828aefab64d4411bac257a07c1af0ecb/AP-Exclusive:-Google-tracks-your-movements,-like-it-or-not
I agree Nicole,
From the article – “They build advertising information out of data” is crossing the line to me. Google using or selling information about us which is then used to persuade us is creepy; particularly when we are not fully aware of the types of data collected about us.
Hello classmates, I am looking forward to a great semester!
Hi all,
Looking forward to a great semester! I’m interested in how the narratives extrapolated (or created) from data affect the ways in which we (either as individuals or the government) interact with different communities. I’m excited to learn about the different ways in which opinions about different people are already formulated from the existing data collection structures that permeate (or integrated) into our everyday lives.
Hi everyone,
Nice to meet you all! I am Jing Zhao, a graduate student of the Master’s of Liberal Studies program. My track is digital humanities and I am interested in the intersection of interactive digital technology and pedagogy. I am also the owner of a team digital project called “Interrogating Marxism (https://dhmarx.commons.gc.cuny.edu)” , which was completed during the “digital praxis 2” course in the Spring Semester of 2018. We need support for hosting the project. If you happen to know any organization or individual who may have interest in this project and who can potentially provide low-cost or free hosting services that are compatible with the Shiny app of R studio, please kindly help us to connect with them. Thank you and looking forward to our next class.
Hi again everyone,
Like with my other two classes, my first impressions are a mixture of excitement and anxiety. The class syllabus sounds interesting and important in today’s world. My anxiety/excitement is about tackling the workload and figuring out where I want my studies to take me. Reading the Introduction and Data Reimagined chapters of Everybody Lies gives some clarity. It’s fascinating that data reveals more truth of how we really behave over how we think or say we behave. The notion that people don’t query Google- they confide in it is obvious when you think about it, but I’d never considered it like that before. Stevens-Davidowitz assertion that “Google searches are the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche” is a big claim. I think he could be right and it will be interesting exploring this and other ideas about Data, Place and Society in the coming weeks.
Colin