Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

DataTelling How to tell a story in the infosphere

http://blog.debiase.com

Strategies

❖ Understanding & sharing

❖ Agenda setting & framing

❖ Media structuring & branding

data journalism narrative media

fact story content

cycle meaning context

structure framing platform

Features

❖ Discovering through data-telling and graphic design

❖ Story structuring in data-journalism and data-telling

❖ Making sense of data: DataTelling in a complex world

http://www.infodata.ilsole24ore.com

http://www.densitydesign.org

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net

Understanding & sharing

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Architecture for discovering

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us”.

Winston Churchill

Challenging complexity

Information architecture

❖ the structural design of shared information environments

❖ the art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability

❖ an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape

User experience design❖ interaction design

❖ information architecture

❖ storytelling

❖ usability engineering

❖ visual design

❖ information design

❖ copywriting

❖ computer sciencePeter Booersma, T-model, 2004

http://beep.peterboersma.com/2004/11/t-model-big-ia-is-now-ux.html

❖ From human-computer interaction

❖ To human-information interaction

Solutions

place making

Sign making

Landmarking

Mapping

place making

❖ this is not just another site

❖ this is exactly where you want to be

❖ you feel at home here

consistency

consistency

Classification

The order of things

the very ideas of coherence are grounded in time and culture

resilience

resilience

the capability of an information space to adapt to the needs of its users

the capability of an information space to support multiple information seeking strategies - searching browsing monitoring awareness

the principle of least effort?bates: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/information-behavior.html

http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F11495222_8

reduction

reduction

long tail and choice overload

more is less - less is more

organize and cluster - focus and magnify

chal

leng

e

skill

boredom

anxietyflow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

correlation

correlation

integrating the social and the information layers

breaking down the silos

metanarrative - theory - story

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

Architettura dell’informazione

❖ Andrea Resmini e Luca Rosati, Pervasive Information Archietcture, MK, 2015

❖ http://lucarosati.it/blog/pervasive-information-architecture

❖ http://www.slideshare.net/lucarosati/architettura-informazione-pervasiva-10622454

e…

Architettura della comunicazioneFederico Badaloni, Architettura della comunicazione, .. 2016

http://federicobadaloni.blog.kataweb.it/snodi/002364/architettura-della-comunicazione.html

http://lucarosati.it/blog/architettura-della-comunicazione

after space (design) will come time (story)

and next will come the fourth dimension

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Story structuring“We need

diversity of thought in the world to face the new challanges”.

Tim Berners-Lee

We need an epistemology

❖ Asking the Question;

❖ Scanning the World;

❖ Mapping the Possibilities;

❖ and Asking the Next Question

Jamais Cascio, futuris, Futures Thinking: The Basicshttp://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics

We need an epistemology

❖ Asking the Question? Make it operative, if you can

❖ Scanning the World? Make it inter-disciplinary

❖ Mapping the Possibilities? There is more than one understanding

We need an epistemology

❖ The Dragon - what we know that we don’t know

❖ The Black Swan - what we know doesn’t fit the theory

❖ The Mule - what we don’t know that we don’t know

Jamais Cascio, futuris, Futures Thinking: The Basicshttp://www.fastcompany.com/1362037/futures-thinking-basics

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/how-many-gigatons-of-co2/

what we know that we don’t know

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/billion-dollar-o-gram-2013/

what we know doesn’t fit the theory

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/mountains-out-of-molehills/

what we don’t know that we don’t know

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

4 questions to find a focus for your storyAsk these questions during the editorial process: when planning a story, when doing the reporting and photography, when writing and editing, when deciding how to present it, and in determining if follow-up is warranted.1. What is the central point?▪ What’s the story really about? What question or questions must the story answer to be worthwhile?▪ Why do people need or will want to know about it?▪ If it’s a “big” topic, how can it be broken down so it’s easier to explain?▪ If it’s a “small” topic, is there a story behind the story? Does it reflect a larger trend or theme?

2. What is the central evidence?▪ What kinds of evidence can be presented to verify or explain the central point of the story?▪ What kinds of evidence can be presented to prove that the story is relevant or newsworthy?▪ How good is the evidence? Will the reader be able to distinguish verified information from assumptions or assertions the

story may also include?3. What is the central place?▪ Where is the central place of the story?▪ Will the reporting and photography include covering the central place?▪ What information will come from somewhere other than the central place or places?▪ What will not be covered in the story?

4. Who are the central characters?▪ Where or from whom can the facts be learned?▪ Who can put the facts in perspective?▪ What is the relationship between the central characters and the central places of the story?

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

3 story structuresHere are three different strategies for putting together a story.The hour glassWriter Roy Clark has identified this structure. It is a hybrid of narrative and inverted pyramid. You begin by telling the news, and then there is a break in the pyramid, and a line that begins a narrative, as in, “it all began when …”You can begin to turn the characters and plot into something more interesting. And in the end broaden the piece back out and come back to the point at the top. Fly on the wall This approach involves being there with the story’s main characters when the event in question happens. What is the conversation between them? What are their reactions? It may take special access, which requires planning ahead, getting permission, and even special agreements, such as allowing subjects to see a draft of your story ahead of time, but, it may be worth the pay off.In their own wordsFor one of the biggest scoops of Watergate, Jack Nelson agreed to have one source tell his own story in his own words. Nelson interviewed him, taped him, wrote the story and then let the source edit and put his own byline.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

The Black Box system for organizing a storyLen Reed, environment and science team leader at The Oregonian, developed a system to help reporters handle unruly information.The Black Box helps reporters sort through and prioritize the information they have and quickly and clearly make the case for their stories to editors. With the system, writing a story is essentially boiled into four phases:1. Reporting phase▪ Gather▪ Search▪ Ask▪ Interview▪ Sort

2. Black Box phase▪ What is this information?▪ What does it mean?▪ What is the headline?▪ What is its context – with what does it connect?▪ Who cares?▪ How can you quickly tell it to the clueless and make it count?

3. Writing phase▪ You’ve got a lead; now order a sequence in telling: organize.▪ As you write, periodically ask yourself: Who cares?▪ As you write, periodically frighten yourself: The audience is leaving.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Good stories prove their relevance to the audienceGood stories have strong central charactersGood stories use detailGood stories connect to deeper themesGood stories explore tensionsGood stories capture emotionsGood stories provide contextGood stories surprise the readerGood stories empower the reader

http://labs.densitydesign.org/ddx/es2/

Controversies on the Web

http://labs.densitydesign.org/ddx/es2/

Controversies on the Web

http://labs.densitydesign.org/ddx/es2/

Controversies on the Web

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

What is journalism supposed to be for?

Why we make the news?

Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel

The elements of journalismhttps://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Why do we do journalism?

Journalism’s first obligation is to the truthGood decision-making depends on people having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but in a capacity that is more down to earth.“All truths – even the laws of science – are subject to revision, but we operate by them in the meantime because they are necessary and they work,” Kovach and Rosenstiel write in the book. Journalism, they continue, thus seeks “a practical and functional form of truth.” It is not the truth in the absolute or philosophical or scientific sense but rather a pursuit of “the truths by which we can operate on a day-to-day basis.”This “journalistic truth” is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Then journalists try to convey a fair and reliable account of their meaning, subject to further investigation.Journalists should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information. Even in a world of expanding voices, “getting it right” is the foundation upon which everything else is built – context, interpretation, comment, criticism, analysis and debate. The larger truth, over time, emerges from this forum.As citizens encounter an ever-greater flow of data, they have more need – not less – for suppliers of information dedicated to finding and verifying the news and putting it in context.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Its first loyalty is to citizensThe publisher of journalism – whether a media corporation answering to advertisers and shareholders or a blogger with his own personal beliefs and priorities — must show an ultimate allegiance to citizens. They must strive to put the public interest – and the truth – above their own self-interest or assumptions.A commitment to citizens is an implied covenant with the audience and a foundation of the journalistic business model – journalism provided “without fear or favor” is perceived to be more valuable than content from other information sources.Commitment to citizens also means journalism should seek to present a representative picture of constituent groups in society. Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of disenfranchising them.The theory underlying the modern news industry has been the belief that credibility builds a broad and loyal audience and that economic success follows in turn. In that regard, the business people in a news organization also must nurture – not exploit – their allegiance to the audience ahead of other considerations.Technology may change but trust – when earned and nurtured – will endure.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Its essence is a discipline of verificationJournalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying information.While there is no standardized code as such, every journalist uses certain methods to assess and test information to “get it right.”Being impartial or neutral is not a core principal of journalism. Because the journalist must make decisions, he or she is not and cannot be objective. But journalistic methods are objective.When the concept of objectivity originally evolved, it did not imply that journalists were free of bias. It called, rather, for a consistent method of testing information – a transparent approach to evidence – precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of the work. The method is objective, not the journalist.Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as possible about sources, or asking various sides for comment, all signal such standards. This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other forms of communication such as propaganda, advertising, fiction, or entertainment.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they coverIndependence is a cornerstone of reliability.On one level, it means not becoming seduced by sources, intimidated by power, or compromised by self-interest. On a deeper level it speaks to an independence of spirit and an open-mindedness and intellectual curiosity that helps the journalist see beyond his or her own class or economic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender or ego.Journalistic independence, write Kovach and Rosenstiel, is not neutrality. While editorialists and commentators are not neutral, the source of their credibility is still their accuracy, intellectual fairness and ability to inform – not their devotion to a certain group or outcome. In our independence, however, journalists must avoid straying into arrogance, elitism, isolation or nihilism.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

It must serve as an independent monitor of powerJournalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affect citizens. It may also offer voice to the voiceless. Being an independent monitor of power means “watching over the powerful few in society on behalf of the many to guard against tyranny,” Kovach and Rosenstiel write.The watchdog role is often misunderstood, even by journalists, to mean “afflict the comfortable.” While upsetting the applecart may certainly be a result of watchdog journalism, the concept as introduced in the mid-1600s was far less combative. Rather, it sought to redefine the role of the journalist from a passive stenographer to more a curious observer who would “search out and discover the news.”The watchdog role also means more than simply monitoring government. “The earliest journalists,” write Kovach and Rosenstiel, “firmly established as a core principle their responsibility to examine unseen corners of society. The world they chronicled captured the imagination of a largely uninformed society, creating an immediate and enthusiastic popular following.”Finally, the purpose of the watchdog extends beyond simply making the management and execution of power transparent, to making known and understood the effects of that power. This includes reporting on successes as well as failures.Journalists have an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gain.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromiseThe news media are common carriers of public discussion, and this responsibility forms a basis for special privileges that news and information providers receive from democratic societies.These privileges can involve subsidies for distribution or research and development (lower postal rates for print, use of public spectrum by broadcasters, development and management of the Internet) to laws protecting content and free speech (copyright, libel, and shield laws).These privileges, however, are not pre-ordained or perpetual. Rather, they are conferred because of the need for an abundant supply of information. They are predicated on the assumption that journalism – because of its principles and practices – will supply a steady stream of higher quality content that citizens and government will use to make better decisions.Traditionally, this covenant has been between news organizations and government. The new forms of digital media, however, place a responsibility on everyone who “publishes” content – whether for profit or for personal satisfaction – in the public domain.The raw material cast into the marketplace of ideas sustains civic dialogue and serves society best when it consists of verified information rather than just prejudice and supposition.Journalism should also attempt to fairly represent varied viewpoints and interests in society and to place them in context rather than highlight only the conflicting fringes of debate. Accuracy and truthfulness also require that the public discussion not neglect points of common ground or instances where problems are not just identified but also solved.Journalism, then, is more than providing an outlet for discussion or adding one’s voice to the conversation. Journalism carries with it a responsibility to improve the quality of debate by providing verified information and intellectual rigor. A forum without regard for facts fails to inform and degrades rather than improves the quality and effectiveness of citizen decision-making.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

It must strive to keep the significant interesting and relevantJournalism is storytelling with a purpose. It should do more than gather an audience or catalogue the important. It must balance what readers know they want with what they cannot anticipate but need.Writing coaches Roy Peter Clark and Chip Scanlan describe effective newswriting as the intersection of civic clarity, the information citizens need to function, and literary grace, which is the reporter’s storytelling skill set. In other words, part of the journalist’s responsibility is providing information in such a way people will be inclined to listen. Journalists must thus strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.Quality is measured both by how much a work engages its audience and enlightens it. This means journalists must continually ask what information has the most value to citizens and in what form people are most likely to assimilate it. While journalism should reach beyond such topics as government and public safety, journalism overwhelmed by trivia and false significance trivializes civic dialogue and ultimately public policy.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

It must keep the news comprehensive and proportionalJournalism is our modern cartography. It creates a map for citizens to navigate society.As with any map, its value depends on a completeness and proportionality in which the significant is given greater visibility than the trivial.Keeping news in proportion is a cornerstone of truthfulness. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping, or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map. The most comprehensive maps include all affected communities, not just those with attractive demographics. The most complete stories take into account diverse backgrounds and perspectives.Though proportion and comprehensiveness are subjective, their ambiguity does not lesson their significance.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscienceDoing journalism, whether as a professional writing for a news organization or as an online contributor in the public space, involves one’s moral compass and demands a personal sense of ethics and responsibility.Because “news” is important, those who provide news have a responsibility to voice their personal conscience out loud and allow others to do so as well. They must be willing to question their own work and to differ with the work of others if fairness and accuracy demand they do so.News organizations do well to nurture this independence by encouraging individuals to speak their minds. Conversation and debate stimulate the intellectual diversity of minds and voices necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society. Having a diverse newsroom does little if those different voices are not spoken or heard.It’s also a matter of self-interest. Employees encouraged to raise their hands may “save the boss from himself” or protect the news organization’s reputation by pointing out errors, flagging important omissions, questioning misguided assumptions, or even revealing wrongdoing.Having a sense of ethics is perhaps most important for the individual journalist or online contributor.Increasingly, those who produce “the news” work in isolation, whether from a newsroom cubicle, the scene of a story, or their home office. They may file directly to the public without the safety net of editing, a second set of eyes, or the collaboration of others. While crowdsourcing by the audience may catch and correct errors or misinformation, the reputation of the author and the quality of public dialogue are nevertheless damaged.

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the newsThe average person now, more than ever, works like a journalist.Writing a blog entry, commenting on a social media site, sending a tweet, or “liking” a picture or post, likely involves a shorthand version of the journalistic process. One comes across information, decides whether or not it’s believable, assesses its strength and weaknesses, determines if it has value to others, decides what to ignore and what to pass on, chooses the best way to share it, and then hits the “send” button.Though this process may take only a few moments, it’s essentially what reporters do.Two things, however, separate this journalistic-like process from an end product that is “journalism.” The first is motive and intent. The purpose of journalism is to give people the information they need to make better decisions about their lives and society. The second difference is that journalism involves the conscious, systematic application of a discipline of verification to produce a “functional truth,” as opposed to something that is merely interesting or informative. Yet while the process is critical, it’s the end product – the “story” – by which journalism is ultimately judged.Today, when the world is awash in information and news is available any time everywhere, a new relationship is being formed between the suppliers of journalism and the people who consume it.The new journalist is no longer a gatekeeper who decides what the public should and should not know. The individual is now his or her own circulation manager and editor. To be relevant, journalists must now verify information the consumer already has or is likely to find and then help them make sense of what it means and how they might use it.Thus, write Kovach and Rosenstiel, “The first task of the new journalist/sense maker is to verify what information is reliable and then order it so people can grasp it efficiently.” A part of this new journalistic responsibility is “to provide citizens with the tools they need to extract knowledge for themselves from the undifferentiated flood or rumor, propaganda, gossip, fact, assertion, and allegation the communications system now produces.”

This guide, like many of the others in API’s Journalism Essentials section, is largely based on the research and teachings of the Committee of Concerned Journalists — a consortium of reporters, editors, producers, publishers, owners and academics that for 10 years facilitated a discussion among thousands of journalists about what they did, how they did it, and why it was important. The author, Walter Dean, was CCJ training director, and API Executive Director Tom Rosenstiel formerly co-chaired the committee.

https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/what-is-journalism/elements-journalism/

Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoHegel: nella società moderna le notizie prendono il posto della religione come fonti primarie di orientamento e paradigmi di autorevolezza.

Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoI media sanno rendere i propri meccanismi invisibili e quindi difficili da mettere in discussione.

Alain de Botton

News Istruzioni per l’usoPerché noi, il pubblico, controlliamo di continuo le notizie? In gran parte è una questione di paura.

I guai degli altri ci fanno sentire fortunati. Ma con le notizie assorbiamo ansia.

Le conseguenze di tanta ansia news-indotta non sono indagate abbastanza.

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Making sense of data in the infosphere

“Frequently the messages have meaning”.

Claude Shannon

We live in a new kind of environment

An environment that is enriched with information

❖ DIGITALLY RECORDED KNOWLEDGE:

❖ 2000: 25% ———> 2013: 98%❖ In 2013, 98% of information recorded by humans was in

digital format; in the year 2000 it was 25% - Martin Hilbert, quoted by Victor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier in BIG DATA 2013

And we use new tools that are now part of our body

❖ The Supreme Court has decided that the phone is part of human anatomy

Is it all making us better informed citizens?

It is not about the change in the media

It is about the change in ourselves

What’s the consequence of:

❖ Digitalization of the media?

❖ Media that are an environment?

❖ Media that change our body and ourselves?

It all starts with the notion of “information”

A Mathematical Theory of Communication By C. E. SHANNON

❖ «The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.

❖ Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem.

❖ The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages. The system must be designed to operate for each possible selection, not just the one which will actually be chosen since this is unknown at the time of design.»

BIT: unit of information

❖ Information is a reduction of uncertainty. Information is associated to the message, it is not the message

❖ In a situation in which it is possible to have more than one message, there is uncertainty.

❖ Information is then linked to that one message that arrives and reduces uncertainty

Information: a flood

❖ Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live.

Luciano Floridi History of information

❖ We live an information-soaked existence - information pours into our lives through television, radio, books, and of course, the Internet. Some say we suffer from 'infoglut'. But what is information? The concept of 'information' is a profound one, rooted in mathematics, central to whole branches of science, yet with implications on every aspect of our everyday lives: DNA provides the information to create us; we learn through the information fed to us; we relate to each other through information transfer - gossip, lectures, reading. Information is not only a mathematically powerful concept, but its critical role in society raises wider ethical issues: who owns information? Who controls its dissemination? Who has access to information? Luciano Floridi, a philosopher of information, cuts across many subjects, from a brief look at the mathematical roots of information - its definition and measurement in 'bits'- to its role in genetics (we are information), and its social meaning and value. He ends by considering the ethics of information, including issues of ownership, privacy, and accessibility; copyright and open source. For those unfamiliar with its precise meaning and wide applicability as a philosophical concept, 'information' may seem a bland or mundane topic. Those who have studied some science or philosophy or sociology will already be aware of its centrality and richness. But for all readers, whether from the humanities or sciences, Floridi gives a fascinating and inspirational introduction to this most fundamental of ideas.

❖ https://www.academia.edu/256681/Information_A_Very_Short_Introduction

Information❖ Information has a history. Digital information theory starts in 1948. And it

changed a lot of our lives. At present, a sort of info-sphere is our new environment: a digital ecosystem in which we both live and learn. There are consequences that we should think more about.

❖ Luciano Floridi, Information. A very short introduction, 2010

❖ Paolo Vidali e Federico Neresini, Il valore dell’incertezza, Mimesis 2015

❖ James Gleick, The information, 2012

❖ Claude Shannon, A mathematical theory of communication, 1948 http://worrydream.com/refs/Shannon%20-%20A%20Mathematical%20Theory%20of%20Communication.pdf

Information changes the environment…

…and the way we are…

…and the way we will be

Infosphere

❖ We live in an environment enriched by data, using prosthetics that connect us to it and everybody else

❖ Media and the environment are blurring

❖ Media and the body are blurring

prehistory history

hyperhistory

prehistory history

hyperhistory

prehistory

prehistory history

hyperhistory

history

historyprehistory

resources are scarce: humans choosewhat to write and that must be important

writing makes the difference

but what happens when we write everything?

Hyperhistory

❖ Every single human act is registered (important or not; new idea of importance is ex post)

Hyperhistory

❖ Every single human act is registered (important or not; new idea of importance is ex post)

❖ Floridi thinks that it is an ICT dependent age https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/Contribution_Floridi.pdf

Hyperhistory

❖ Every single human act is registered (important or not; new idea of importance is ex post)

❖ Floridi thinks that it is an ICT dependent age

❖ Martin Hilbert, as we have seen, shows that 98% of registered knowledge in 2013 is in some digital memory (it was 25% in 2000) - http://annenberg.usc.edu/news/future-media/phd-student-calculates-how-much-information-world

Hyperhistory

❖ If everything is written…

❖ … power shifts from deciding what to write…

❖ …to writing the algorithms that manage information

Hyperhistory

❖ The problem is now:

❖ which platform controls the information flow?

❖ and what are its algorithms and its interests?

Hyperhistory❖ PLATFORMS CAN BE:

❖ open, commons and neutral

❖ proprietary and non interoperable

❖ ALGORITHMS CAN BE:

❖ known to all

❖ unknown to most

❖ BUT THE NEW WRITING IS WRITING ALGORITHMS

Agenda setting & framing

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Data framing “Frequently the messages have meaning”.

Claude Shannon

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Exponential framing “Frequently the messages have meaning”.

Claude Shannon

Exponential framing

Patterns of evolution

❖ Moore’s law

❖ Metcalfe’s law

❖ Power law

Patterns of evolution

❖ Moore’s law

❖ Metcalfe’s law

❖ Power law

❖ Computing

❖ Networking

❖ Big Data

adoption rate

exponential?

Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Chasm

absolute numbers

logistic curve

network effectcumulative

resources limitsin a world

imagination

enab

ling

tech

nolo

gies

in a context of meaningor in a given technology

Exponentiality is not a given

On Singularities and Black Holes in Combination-Driven Models of Technological Innovation Networks. by Ricard Solé, Daniel R. Amor, Sergi Valverde. Plos.

So: either you change context and start a new rise…

… or you find a niche in which to thrive

Readings

❖ Exponential organizations http://www.slideshare.net/vangeest/exponential-organizations-h

❖ THE BARABÁSI-ALBERT MODEL http://barabasilab.neu.edu/networksciencebook/download/network_science_december_ch5_2013.pdf

❖ BarabàsiLab: http://www.barabasilab.com and read some chapters of Link http://www.barabasilab.com/LinkedBook/index.html

❖ Innovation Killers. How Financial Tools Destroy your Capacity to do New Things, by Clayton Christensen, Stephen Kaufman and Willy Shih, 2008, Harvard Business Review

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Future setting “Frequently the messages have meaning”.

Claude Shannon

Innovation is not a set of new things

Innovation changes a story… or even history

Patterns of evolution

❖ Imagination (process of creation)

❖ Connection (enabling environment)

❖ Selection (choice of what survives and thrives)

How do we think?❖ If we live in an info-sphere and if we are changed by our

tools, we need a new mindset to decide

❖ A mindset that makes us able to live through a fast and complex history

❖ The new way of thinking is a new way of linking the “now” and the “future”

❖ In order to do this we design places capable to help users make sense of information and we create narratives, frames, stories

The first law of future studies

–Institute for the Future

“There are no facts in the future, only narratives”

Narratives

Narratives

❖ Financial❖ Technological❖ Ecological

Narratives

❖ This is where humanities and techno-science collide and generate what we are - for now - calling: digital humanities

❖ Both science and arts are a sort of research in unknown territories

❖ They just use different tools. And they should be talking more between each other

Narratives

Financial values

The only judge is the market value, which in turn is defined by future ability to make profits. This means, for example, that if humans cost too much, they will be replaced by robots. This means that if a startup has more financial backing it will win on every competing idea. Because the best is the financially healthier. The rest is secondary.

Narratives

Techno-progress

What works wins. There are laws in technological progress which allow us to understand what will happen. The Moore’s law commands on all of them. And it describes the future in terms of exponential explosion of the power of computing. Which will extend to every digitally powered machine. Exponential growth is inevitable. Resistance is futile.

Narratives

Ecological stories

Everything is interconnected. Phenomena coevolve. There is a plurality of life forms and the more there are the better for the health of the environment. Pollution happens when consumption of resources exceeds the generation of resources. Every species growth arrives to its limits. Every mutation looks for its niche. Equilibrium is in diversity.

Narratives create a perspective

❖ People need to choose and a narrative creates an idea of what a choice will bring

❖ Storytelling can be a sort of manipulation of the will of people

❖ Freedom is consciousness about the narrative we think we live in

–Carlo Goldoni

“I cannot write what is true, because if I did nobody would believe me.

Thus, I write what is likely”.

Narratives need to be credible

❖ If people experience a life that is defined by a narrative, they are brought to think that the narrative is the truth

❖ If a narrative is shared by the vast majority and is not challenged, it tends to become self-fulfilling

❖ People live in an environment which is build by its architects with a narrative in mind

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Innovation “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

A robot suitcase which follows you is made by the

Israeli startup NUA Robotics. It is full of sensors, computer

vision and robotics

Innovation is not a set of new things

Innovation changes a story… or even history

Patterns of evolution

❖ Imagination (process of creation)

❖ Connection (enabling environment)

❖ Selection (choice of what survives and thrives)

Patterns of evolution

❖ imagination

❖ enabling technologies

❖ selecting mechanisms (market, research…)

selection by market forces

❖ finance❖ sales❖ talents

selection by research

❖ we can select by doing research: that’s about what’s true and false; what’s documented and what’s not…

❖ verification handbook❖ http://

verificationhandbook.com

selection by technology

❖ it works❖ it is too old❖ it is too new

Is it in sync with my time?

Innovation

Five Dangerous Lessons to Learn From Steve Jobs

1. Customers don’t know what they want2. Maintain obsessive secrecy3. Project a reality-distortion field4. Micromanage every detail5. Beat people up

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2011/10/17/five-dangerous-lessons-to-learn-from-steve-jobs/print/

Innovation happens when the creation generated by new vision

is adopted

innovation is…❖ …not a new thing…

❖ … it is a new thing that is adopted thus changes a story, or history

❖ adopted means that people make that thing become part of their lives

❖ There is some common narrative, a shared vision, an understanding of the technology, a meaning and a use value that is understood. And it just works

Innovation is where technology and humanity meet

convergence

❖ Digital humanities are part of the innovation process…

❖ … because a common understanding needs a technical narrative and a meaningful technology

convergence

❖ program❖ project❖ progress❖ prospect❖ prosperity

Innovation is a revelation

Media structuring & branding

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

News innovation “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them”.

Steve Jobs

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html

http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/entertainment-media/outlook/segment-insights/newspaper-publishing.html

http://www.wptdatabase.org/world-press-trends-2015-facts-and-figures

2015

http://www.wptdatabase.org/world-press-trends-2015-facts-and-figures

2015

Luca De Biase

Cambiare pagina

Lo spazio sul quale pubblicare era scarso e controllato dagli editori. Il prezzo era alto. Il copyright protetto.

Il tempo, l’attenzione, il riconoscimento di rilevanza è scarso. Il prezzo è basso. Il copyright non è protetto.

Al servizio del pubblico ci si concentra sulla creazione di luoghi di senso

Luca De Biase

Cambiare pagina

L’innovazione continua è parte integrante del senso che si deve creare, pensando nuovi modelli di business.

Linguaggi innovativi sono parte della ricerca.

I dati e la grafica, insieme al software, sono al cuore del lavoro giornalistico.

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

New York Times

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/nov/13/worlds-cities-face-growing-health-risks

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/nov/13/worlds-cities-face-growing-health-risks

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/aug/28/interactive-infographics-development-data

B.J. Fogg’s model

Technologiescan be persuasive

B.J. Fogg’s model

Ecology of media: a plurality of mutations

❖ Infinite mutations are needed for a rich media ecosystem to flourish. A sort of new consciousness is needed to escape the danger of being trapped in a platform without making the most of it.

❖ Lev Manovich, The language of New Media, Mit, 2001

❖ Luca De Biase, Homo pluralis, Codice 2015

❖ Aaron Balick, The psychodynamics of social networking, Karnac 2014

Tell me why…

To be happy in the info-sphere we need to be actors and not audience

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

“Happiness is not something that happens. It is not the result of good fortune or random chance. It is

not something that money can buy or power command”.

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

“The optimal state is one in which there is order in consciousness. This happens when psychic energy

- or attention - is invested in realistic goals, and when skills match the opportunities for action”.

chal

leng

e

skill

boredom

anxietyflow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

“The last step: how people manage to join all experience into a meaningful pattern”.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow

Another way to see the flow

Narratives and happiness

❖ We feel in the flow if we live in a story that makes us feel compelled and able to achieve our goals

❖ Narratives are (sort of) the story in which we live and have an influence on our goals

❖ As we innovate in a way that is adopted we may experience the flow

Service design, community design

❖ Ezio Manzini, Design, when everybody designs. An introduction to design for social innovation. “We define social innovations as new ideas (products, service and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations”

To be happy we need meaning

Are we better informed in the info-sphere?

Are we better informed in the info-sphere?

❖ There are more opportunities for getting informed

❖ There are maybe too many opportunities for getting information

❖ We can be better informed only if we are aware of the way platforms work

What is a platform and how does it affect our relationships

❖ Information overload is a failure of filters. How do platforms help us deal with it and what are the algorithms that they use? What are the consequences of those algorithms? Do you know about the Facebook experiment?

❖ Eli Pariser, The filter bubble, 2011

❖ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-the-filter-bubble-by-eli-pariser.html?_r=0

❖ http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2014/08/04/the-facebook-experiment-what-it-means-for-you/

Facebook’s experiment

We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional

contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues.

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full

“Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks”

❖ A study by Gregory Trevors and other shows why it is so difficult to convince people with facts. It shows that if facts oppose people’s beliefs, which are part of their identity, then facts are rejected. If facts bear out people’s sense of identity then they are taken into account

❖ Why is it so hard to persuade people with facts?

❖ http://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/02/why-is-it-so-hard-to-persuade-people.html.

❖ Robert Epstein and others show how the success of Google - and Facebook - is building a new manipulating information system. Responses by the search engine are able to change the perception of reality and thus user beliefs when they are unaware of any distorting effects that the engine can hold. It must be said that users are almost always uncritical towards the results offered by Google, and consider it essentially objective.

❖ Robert Epstein’s article is worth reading: The new mind control; The internet has spawned subtle forms of influence that can flip elections and manipulate everything we say, think and do

❖ https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts

Reason is minority

Digital and traditional media

❖ What’s so different in the digital media environment? Time, attention, authority are the new competitive dimensions. While our learning, memorizing and connecting strategies change quite a lot. But we now have to deal with information overload and some other problems. This is not the end of media evolution.

❖ Luca De Biase, Cambiare pagina, Rizzoli, 2011

❖ https://edge.org/conversation/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable

❖ http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/05/clay-shirky-future-newspapers-digital-media

Economy of digital media

❖ Scarcity was: space, memory, processing

❖ Scarcity is: time, attention, relevance

❖ Scarcity shifts: from supply to demand

Public dimension

❖ The medium blurs in the info-sphere

❖ Algorithms and interfaces manage information influencing the narrative

❖ Bubbles and tribes emerge

❖ Common dimension gets smaller, public space gets privatized

To be part of the project of the platform is part of being innovative

Present platforms are not the end of history

❖ Facebook, Google, Apple have a history. And a strategy. But they also have competitors. How does a platform get traction and success? How a newcomer can get a success, too? What is the network-effects and how can we deal with it?

❖ B.J. Fogg, Persuasive technology, 2003

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Happiness “Research is clear: Money doesn’t buy happiness”.

John Robbins

Why do we want to innovate?

Why do we want to innovate?

❖ to get rich

❖ to stay competitive in a changing world

❖ to make a better world

–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990

“Twenty-three hundred years ago Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and

women seek happiness”.

We now know that…:

❖ There is no correlation between consumption and happiness

❖ There is no correlation between growth in GDP and happiness

❖ There are goods that make us dependent and other goods that make us happy (or unhappy)

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_economics_of_happiness

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/16/daniel-kahneman-thinking-fast-and-slow-tributes

http://www.economist.com/blogs/feastandfamine/2012/04/happiness?zid=318&ah=ac379c09c1c3fb67e0e8fd1964d5247f

Easterlin paradox

Data show how high material standardsof living are not related to much happiness

“It is a remarkable paradox that, at the pinnacleof human material and technical achievement

we find ourselves anxiety-ridden, prone to depression, worried about how others see us, unsure of our friendships, driven to consumeand with little or no community life. Lacking

the relaxed sociale contact and emotional satisfaction we all need, we seek comfort in over-eating, obsessive shopping and

spending, or become prey to excessive alcohol, psychoactive medicines and illegal drugs”.

The book is based on thirty years’research: it shows that unequal

societies make everybody unhappy

Too little choice is unrewardingToo much choice make us feel unsafe

Consumption si not happiness

A test at Amazon showed that 24 choicesdrove more traffic to the page with themthan 6 choices, but those made less sales

Great value, no price

❖ relational goods

❖ environmental goods

❖ cultural heritage

Is the info-sphere good for happiness?

Is the info-sphere good for happiness?

❖ It generates more relations: of what kind?

❖ It makes us more informed: are we sure?

❖ It is fun: but what exactly is funny in here?

Television vs. Wikipedia

❖ Wikipedia was made in 100 million hours of human effort (2010)

❖ Americans watch 200 billion hours of tv every year

❖ Americans spend 100 million hours every weekend just watching commercials in tv

Television vs. Wikipedia

❖ Luigino Bruni and Luca Stanca, “Watching alone”, paper in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2010): television viewing plays a key role in crowding-out social activities with solitary ones

❖ Marco Gui and Luca Stanca, working paper (2009) Television Viewing, Satisfaction and Happiness: “television can play a significant role in raising people’s materialism and material aspirations, thus leading individuals to underestimate the relative importance of interpersonal relations for their life satisfaction and, as consequence, to over invest in income-producing activities and under-invest in relational activities”

Remix vs. Consumption

❖ Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture, How big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity

❖ piracy, copyright, public domain, fair use…

Alone together

❖ Sherry Turkle, Insieme ma soli, Perché ci aspettiamo sempre più dalla tecnologia e sempre meno dagli altri, Codice. (2011)

❖ Maybe it is a projection of human feelings into the machine?

Reclaiming Conversation

❖ Sherry Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation, The power of talk in a Digital Age, 2015

❖ Solitude, self-reflection❖ Family, friendship, romance❖ Education, work❖ The public square

Data narratives - Pisa 2016 - Luca De Biase

Rights“The Internet has played a

decisive role in redefining public and private space, structuring

relationships between people and between people and institutions.”.

Declaration of Internet Rights

Public space can be designed for happiness

❖ Jan Gehl is making cities more walkable

❖ he studies how people live, where they go, how they use public space

❖ an architect working with anthropologists and data scientists

❖ he remade Times Square, by the way

How human rights are adapted to the info-sphere?

–Lawrence Lessig, Code, 2006

http://codev2.cc/download+remix/Lessig-Codev2.pdf

“Code is law”.

❖ “A future of control in large part exercised by technologies of commerce, backed by the rule of law (or at least what’s left of the rule of law).

❖ The challenge for our generation is to reconcile these two forces. How do we protect liberty when the architectures of control are managed as much by the government as by the private sector? How do we assure privacy when the ether perpetually spies? How do we guarantee free thought when the push is to propertize every idea? How do we guarantee self-determination when the architectures of control are perpetually determined elsewhere?”

❖ - Lawrence Lessig, Code, 2006

Writing code is making law

Writing code is making law

❖ We regulate daily life on the basis of incentives and rules that are written in the code of which platforms are made

❖ It can be that the future will be even more so, while technologies will work more and more smoothly into our daily life

❖ A discussion about rules is a democratic discussion

Writing code is making law❖ There is a “human rights dimension” for inspiration and

imagination

❖ There is a “constitutional dimension” to rule the rulers

❖ There is a “legislative and administrative dimension” for normal laws

❖ There is a private participation to ruling, that happens by writing code that is adopted and becomes part of daily life

❖ There is a commons dimension that needs social innovation

Digital media and human rights❖ At the Italian Chamber of deputies a Commission has been established

to study and propose a Bill of rights for the Internet. The question that was asked to members is clear: does the internet change the environment in which human rights work and can be diminished? The Commission’s works have generated a Bill. What does it say? And how can it be implemented?

❖ http://www.camera.it/leg17/1179

❖ http://www.camera.it/application/xmanager/projects/leg17/attachments/upload_file/upload_files/000/000/189/dichiarazione_dei_diritti_internet_inglese.pdf

Human rights and the internet

❖ net neutrality

❖ platform interoperability

❖ digital impact assessment

❖ 3. NET NEUTRALITY

❖ Any person has the right that the data he/she transmits and receives over the Internet be not subject to discrimination, restrictions or interference based upon the sender, recipient, type or content of the data, the device used, applications or, in general, the legitimate choices of individuals.

❖ The neutrality of the network, whether it be mobile or fixed, and the right to Internet access are necessary conditions for ensuring the effectiveness of the fundamental rights of the person. They preserve the “generative” function of the Internet and the production of innovation. They ensure that messages and their applications can travel online without suffering discrimination on the basis of their content and their functions.

❖ 8. RIGHT TO ONE’S IDENTITY

❖ Any person has a right to the complete and up-to-date representation of their identity on the Internet.

❖ The definition of identity regards the free construction of the personality and cannot take place without the intervention and the knowledge of the data subject.

❖ The use of algorithms and probabilistic techniques shall be disclosed to the data subject who, in any case, has the right to oppose the construction and dissemination of profiles regarding him or her.

❖ Any person has the right to provide only the information which is strictly necessary for complying with legal obligations, for the supply of goods and services or for accessing Internet platforms.

❖ The definition of an identity on the Internet by a state entity must be governed by appropriate guarantees.

❖ 11. RIGHTS AND SAFEGUARDS OF PEOPLE ON PLATFORMS

❖ Digital platform operators are required to behave honestly and fairly in dealing with users, suppliers and competitors.

❖ Any person has the right to receive clear and simple information on how the platform operates, not to have contractual terms arbitrarily altered and not to be subjected to conduct that could make accessing the platform difficult or discriminatory. Any person shall be in any case notified of changes in contractual terms. In this case, they have the right to terminate the relationship, to receive a copy of the data concerning them in interoperable form and to have the data concerning them removed from the platform.

❖ Platforms that operate on the Internet, if they represent services essential to the lives and activities of people, shall facilitate conditions – in accordance with the principle of competition and under equal contractual terms – for the appropriate interoperability of their main technologies, functions and data with other platforms.

❖ 14. CRITERIA FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE

❖ Any person has the right to have their rights recognised on the Internet both at national and at international level.

❖ The Internet requires rules consistent with its universal, supranational scope, aimed at fully implementing the principles and rights set out above, to safeguard its open and democratic nature, to prevent all forms of discrimination and to prevent the rules governing its use from being determined by those who hold the greatest economic power.

❖ The construction of a system of rules shall take account of the various territorial levels (supranational, national, regional), the opportunities created by a variety of forms of self-regulation consistent with the above principles, the need to preserve the capacity for innovation, the multiplicity of actors operating on the Internet, and shall encourage involvement in ways that ensure the widespread participation of all concerned. Public institutions shall adopt the appropriate instruments to ensure such participation.

❖ In any case, the regulatory innovations regarding the Internet shall be subject to an assessment of their impact on the digital ecosystem.

Can we make this work by design?

Civic media

❖ Social media help people meet other people they like

❖ People need to meet also people they don’t necessarily like, when they have something to do together

❖ “Civic media” need to be designed in order to meet that need

❖ Luca De Biase, Media civici, Apogeo Feltrinelli, 2013