Exploring Digital Spheres

"Silicon Savannah", "Africa is rising" – much attention is directed at Africa as a continent of economic opportunity and growth. In this episode, HIIG researcher Nicolas Friederici stresses that relative to the hype and hope, things are not that easy and we shouldn't limit our focus on how to copy silicon valley models. The research presented in this episode is part of the ERC-funded Geonet project by the Oxford Internet Institute (check the show notes for more information on the project).

"People think it’s inherent of the internet that you lose your privacy, but it’s not, it’s based on the business model of those companies.” – Marleen Stikker speaks about how the fairphone was invented, what fablabs are for and how we eventually should get involved ourselves to decide what to do with disruptive technology. This is an episode for smart citizens!

When did you hear of the last German Facebook, Uber or Amazon? Today’s episode is on the question why Germany tends to find it difficult to make the translation between researching AI and creating a successful AI startup. We’ll be speaking with Jessica Schmeiss, doctoral researcher at the Humboldt Institute. Her research focusses on digital entrepreneurship and in trying to make AI less of a ‘black box’.

Wie kann dein Selfie noch origineller sein? Der Versuch, immer und überall authentisch und unverwechselbar zu sein, ist keine Modeerscheinung. Das meint zumindest der Soziologe Andreas Reckwitz. Mit HIIG-Forscher Thomas Christian Bächle diskutiert er, wie neben der Standardisierung der modernen Gesellschaft die Einzigartigkeit von Subjekten und Kollektiven im gegenwärtigen Fokus steht.

Christian Djeffal talks about how artificial intelligence can help public administrations cut costs and resources, and re-allocate them to be of better service to its citizens.

Julia Krüger is deeply convinced that we need to create alternative moderation schemes to uphold liberal values. Together with HIIG-researcher Amélie Heldt, she discusses the different methods of moderation, the role of AI yet to come, and what she personally hopes for.

Wouter met Martin Riedl in the middle of Berlin to discuss how platforms keep the internet "clean" from undesirable content – but what is undesirable? And what does it mean for moderators when they click through thousand of graphic images?

Nick Couldry has recently coined the term 'data colonialism' in order to highlight continuities from colonialism’s historic appropriation of resources to today's datafication of everyday life. He visited us in Berlin for his lecture "Colonised by data". HIIG researcher Thomas Christian Bächle met with Couldry – who once was his professor at Goldsmiths College in London eleven years ago – for a talk on the digital society. In this episode, we learn about Couldry's very own media rituals – celebrity spotting and falling asleep to the radio news – as well as how a media professor is dealing with knowing what kind of personal data WhatsApp is collecting. Also: What exactly is data colonialism? How is it different from concepts such as surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2018) or data capitalism?

In this episode, Wouter dives deeper into the universe of algorithms in order to clean up the mess of buzz words we are confronted with on a daily basis. Did you also wonder why certain videos pop up in your timeline that seem most unlikely you ever wanted to see them? How do computers recognise objects and animals on photos? In an insightful conversation with Wouter, HIIG director Björn Scheuermann tells us about his research as a computer scientist and in how far he trusts algorithm based machines.

Amélie Heldt speaks with Clara Iglesias Keller about the regulation of fake news in times of election campaigns. Both have been analysing recent examples such as new preliminary injunction procedures or data protection rules. Clara explains how publicly accessible phone numbers on Facebook have allegedly been used during the 2018 presidential elections in Brazil to spread fake news and political propaganda through WhatsApp. Furthermore, the two speak about the dissemination of false information in social media, the set of problems regarding information manipulation during the elections in France and the United States, possible countermeasures and much more.

A conversation with Rike Maier on the use and mis-use of remixes on the internet. How does one regulate the immeasurable amount of material uploaded every minute and do filters do a good job of keeping copyright infringements at bay?

We find ourselves surrounded by buzzwords like Big Data, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence and it becomes ever more difficult to understand the world that we are currently building. This is Exploring Digital Spheres, a brand new podcast produced by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. My name is Wouter Bernhardt and I’m very excited to announce this podcast all about our digital society.