Cognitive Science Program

Big data, bigger dilemmas: A critical review (2015)
Hamid Ekbia, Michael Mattioli, Inna Kouper, Gary Arave, Ali Ghazinejad, Timothy Bowman ...
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66 (8), 1523-1545

Abstract

The recent interest in Big Data has generated a broad range of new academic, corporate, and policy practices along with an evolving debate among its proponents, detractors, and skeptics. While the practices draw on a common set of tools, techniques, and technologies, most contributions to the debate come either from a particular disciplinary perspective or with a focus on a domain‐specific issue. A close examination of these contributions reveals a set of common problematics that arise in various guises and in different places. It also demonstrates the need for a critical synthesis of the conceptual and practical dilemmas surrounding Big Data. The purpose of this article is to provide such a synthesis by drawing on relevant writings in the sciences, humanities, policy, and trade literature. In bringing these diverse literatures together, we aim to shed light on the common underlying issues that concern and affect all of …

Artificial dreams: the quest for non-biological intelligence (2008)
Hamid Reza Ekbia
Cambridge University Press.

Abstract

This book is a critique of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the perspective of cognitive science–it seeks to examine what we have learned about human cognition from AI successes and failures. The book's goal is to separate those'AI dreams' that either have been or could be realized from those that are constructed through discourse and are unrealizable. AI research has advanced many areas that are intellectually compelling and holds great promise for advances in science, engineering, and practical systems. After the 1980s, however, the field has often struggled to deliver widely on these promises. This book breaks new ground by analyzing how some of the driving dreams of people practicing AI research become valued contributions, while others devolve into unrealized and unrealizable projects.

Heteromation and its (dis) contents: The invisible division of labor between humans and machines (2014)
Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi
First Monday, 19 (6),

Abstract

The division of labor between humans and computer systems has changed along both technical and human dimensions. Technically, there has been a shift from technologies of automation, the aim of which was to disallow human intervention at nearly all points in the system, to technologies of “heteromation” that push critical tasks to end users as indispensable mediators. As this has happened, the large population of human beings who have been driven out by the first type of technology are drawn back into the computational fold by the second type. Turning artificial intelligence on its head, one technology fills the gap created by the other, but with a vengeance that unsettles established mechanisms of reward, fulfillment, and compensation. In this fashion, replacement of human beings and their irrelevance to technological systems has given way to new “modes of engagement” with remarkable social, economic, and ethical implications. In this paper we provide a historical backdrop for heteromation and explore and explicate some of these displacements through analysis of a number of cases, including Mechanical Turk, the video games FoldIt and League of Legends, and social media.

Digital artifacts as quasi‐objects: Qualification, mediation, and materiality (2009)
Hamid R Ekbia
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60 (12), 2554-2566

Abstract

Digital artifacts have novel properties that largely derive from the processes that mediate their creation, and that can be best understood by a close examination of such processes. This paper introduces the concept of “quasi‐object” to characterize these objects and elucidate the activities that comprise their mediations. A case study of “bugs” is analyzed to illustrate exemplary activities of justification, qualification, and binding in the process of bug fixing in Free/Open Source Software development. The findings of the case study lead to broader reflections on the character of digital artifacts in general. The relationship of “quasi‐object” to other similar concepts are explored.

Heteromation, and other stories of computing and capitalism (2017)
Hamid R Ekbia and Bonnie A Nardi
MIT Press.

Abstract

An exploration of a new division of labor between machines and humans, in which people provide value to the economy with little or no compensation. The computerization of the economy—and everyday life—has transformed the division of labor between humans and machines, shifting many people into work that is hidden, poorly compensated, or accepted as part of being a “user” of digital technology. Through our clicks and swipes, logins and profiles, emails and posts, we are, more or less willingly, participating in digital activities that yield economic value to others but little or no return to us. Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi call this kind of participation—the extraction of economic value from low-cost or free labor in computer-mediated networks—“heteromation.” In this book, they explore the social and technological processes through which economic value is extracted from digitally mediated work, the nature of the value created, and what prompts people to participate in the process. Arguing that heteromation is a new logic of capital accumulation, Ekbia and Nardi consider different kinds of heteromated labor: communicative labor, seen in user-generated content on social media; cognitive labor, including microwork and self-service; creative labor, from gaming environments to literary productions; emotional labor, often hidden within paid jobs; and organizing labor, made up of collaborative groups such as citizen scientists. Ekbia and Nardi then offer a utopian vision: heteromation refigured to bring end users more fully into the prosperity of capitalism.

Network organizations: Symmetric cooperation or multivalent negotiation? (2005)
Hamid R Ekbia and Rob Kling
The Information Society, 21 (3), 155-168

Abstract

The network model of organization plays a central role in recent sociological accounts of the information economy. This model is also often presented in organization and information and communication technologies (ICT) literature with an air of enthusiasm that underscores its advantages—flexibility, cooperative culture, innovativeness, and knowledge and technology intensity. Such themes are usually based on a “networking logic” that assumes the trustful cooperation of large and small production firms in a rapidly changing economic environment. We believe that both the logic and the themes based upon it are too narrow to be able to explain the complex dimensions of interorganizational networking. Using Enron as a case study, our goal in this article is to enrich the logic just described and to develop an extended model of the network enterprise. We argue that this is only possible by extending the unit of …

Regimes of information: Land use, management, and policy (2009)
Hamid R Ekbia and Tom P Evans
The Information Society, 25 (5), 328-343

Abstract

Socio-ecological systems are inherently complex. One source of complexity is the uncertainties involved in the decisions and behaviors of human actors that determine how landholdings are managed. Land management decisions are often influenced by diverse factors and considerations. Particularly significant among these are (1) the sources of information land managers utilize with their perceived quality, reliability, and accessibility; (2) the social networks of the decision maker with their pertinent history, appeal, and authority; and (3) the interests, resources, and prior experiences of individual decision makers. This degree of diversity and uncertainty gives rise to behaviors that cannot be entirely explained in terms of rational choice or any variation thereof. How can we best understand and explain these behaviors, as spatial but also social and informational, in land-use decision making? This article presents the …

The quality of evidence in knowledge management research: practitioner versus scholarly literature (2008)
Hamid R Ekbia and Noriko Hara
Journal of Information Science, 34 (1), 110-126

Abstract

The viability of KM partly rests on how researchers garner empirical support for their purported theories. One aspect of this would involve the evaluation of the evidence provided in KM research. This paper presents a comparative study of the evidence that is presented in scholarly and professional literature on KM. For this purpose, the paper introduces a typology of evidence to analyze the data obtained from the survey of the literature. The classification based on this typology reveals quantitative differences between the types of evidence put forth in the scholarly and practitioner literature. More interestingly, however, our analysis reveals differences in terms of the questions they ask, the perspective they adopt, and the methods they follow to convince others of the validity of their claims. We explain these …

Context and relevance: A pragmatic approach (2001)
Hamid R Ekbia and Ana G Maguitman
Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. 156-169

Abstract

In recent years, AI research has started to take seriously the role of context in developing models. This trend is heralded by a departure from logic-based views and their over-emphasis on the formal aspects of thought processes. The departure, however, has not been complete— some fundamental assumptions of formal logic are still maintained in the new approaches. Similarly, “relevance” remains a major challenge for AI research. This paper outlines an alternative proposal that takes context and relevance as intertwined aspects of thought and intelligence. We argue for a pragmatic approach, which shows better promise than formal logic in dealing with such issues.

Inverse instrumentality: How technologies objectify patients and players (2012)
Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi
Materiality and organizing: Social interaction in a technological world, 157-176

Abstract

Popular narratives of technologies portray them as tools in the service of human welfare and well-being. These portrayals derive from an instrumentalist view which considers technology as something that can be mastered, a means to an end (Heidegger, 1949). They are also compatible with the modernist framework of a “service economy,” which conceives of all natural and man-made systems as calculable resources in the service of human well-being (Suchman, 2007). On close scrutiny, however, these portrayals are untenable. Indeed, in examining certain large, complex technologies, we observe the inverse: a move to strategically insert human beings within technological systems in order to allow the systems to operate and function in intended ways. Such is the case, for instance, with massively multiplayer online video games and certain health information technologies (HITs) such as electronic health records. We argue that some large, complex technological systems cannot meet their goals without instrumentalizing end users as indispensable mediators in the system. Such systems, which we call “technologies of object-ification,” stand in contrast to “technologies of automation” such as banking and financial systems. Technologies of automation are designed to disallow human intervention at nearly all points within the system, excluding carefully controlled access to simple input and output (such as a bank teller accessing a customer account) or professional information management conducted by specialists who configure, troubleshoot, and repair systems. These systems represent different ways of regulating human behavior, some of …

Social inequality and HCI: The view from political economy (2016)
Hamid Ekbia and Bonnie Nardi
ACM. 4997-5002

Abstract

Massive changes in the economy and computing technology in recent years call for a close examination of their relationship. Changes include a broad range of topics and issues, some of which directly and crucially fall within the purview of HCI research and practice. We propose a perspective that engages issues of political economy, with a focus on social inequality. We introduce some of the history of concepts of this perspective, and discuss implications for HCI. We observe that practical and conceptual resources within HCI for considering political economy and inequality are emerging.

How IT mediates organizations: Enron and the California energy crisis (2004)
Hamid R Ekbia
Journal of Digital Information, 5 (4),

Abstract

Market activity, understood as the outcome of arms-length interactions among calculative agents, often involves asymmetries due to the capability of some agents to impose events, actions, and relations that others have to take into account. Information and communication technologies are playing an increasingly significant role in amplifying such capability, and to explain this role we need frameworks that take agents as entangled within the web of relations and connections that make it possible for them to mobilize technologies along with other allies such as people and organizations. Actor-network theory (ANT) is such a framework. The paper applies ANT to the study of Enron's involvement in California's energy market. It will show, from a social-informatics perspective, how technology was variously used, both as an intra-and extra-organizational device, to proliferate links, to enroll allies, to make image, and to amplify Enron's role in the energy market. In short, the paper will argue that IT mediated Enron in more than one way.

POWER IN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN LATE MODERN TIMES (2003)
Hamid R Ekbia and Rob Kling
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2003 (1), D1-D6

Abstract

This article examines how power relations apply to the theory and practice of knowledge management in modern organizations. A refined version of Michel Foucault's notion of a regime truth is applied to introduce three regimes that are involved in the functioning of publicly traded companies. In his attempt to provide a parallel and conjoined conception of power and knowledge, Foucault postulates for each society a regime of truth as the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true; the mechanisms and instances which enables one to distinguish true and false statements; the means by which it is sanctioned; the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth; and the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true. There are numerous and varied regimes of social truth that render statements such as 'IBM's annual report may be trusted as functionally true.' To …

Expanding the design horizon for self-driving vehicles: Distributing benefits and burdens (2016)
Pascale-L Blyth, Milos N Mladenovic, Bonnie A Nardi, Hamid R Ekbia and Norman M Su
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 35 (3), 44-49

Abstract

With over one billion vehicles in the world today, the motorized road vehicle is the pillar of modern society. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the automobile has revolutionized our spaces, practices, cultures, and identities through a complex matrix of technical, financial, economic, political, and social linkages. Visions of automobile use have always shaped its design, manufacture, and production. Now, motorized road transport is set to revolutionize our society once again on a huge scale. Recent technological developments in propulsion, telecommunications, sensing, and in-vehicle computing technology are expanding the range of vehicles? capabilities. A technological convergence is underway, moving towards self-driving vehicle (SDV) technology. These vehicles will utilize computational algorithms, sensors, and communication devices to automatically navigate a variety of environments with limited or …

Driving the self-driving vehicle: Expanding the technological design Horizon (2015)
Pascale-L Blyth, Milos N Mladenovic, Bonnie A Nardi, Norman M Su and Hamid R Ekbia
IEEE. 6-Jan

Abstract

Drawing perspectives from science and technology studies, philosophy of science, and literature from ethics and social justice, this paper examines the promises and challenges in the development of self-driving vehicle (SDV) technology. We start with the premise that the combination of different computing technologies embedded in SDVs is a powerful tool for efficiency in communications, information gathering, processing, and storage. However, by focusing on efficiency, SDVs provide a new mode of industrialized transportation whose users can only choose between transportation services, but have little or no say about the broader social implications of the technology. We argue that perspectives from social justice and ethics show that SDVs have implications beyond transportation, with profound consequences for users and societies. In particular, values such as privacy, security, and responsibility may be …