Data Driven Societies Digital & Computational Studies Bowdoin College April 28, 2014 Professor Gieseking Lecture Slides "Power & Format"

1. Data Driven Societies:
Power & Format
Professors Gieseking & Gaze

2. ✦ Algorithms are not only
socially constructed, the
social construction is always
political
✦ Algorithms (ex. software-
sorting, filter bubbles) shape
our everyday lives
Recap: On
Algorithms

3. ✦ R/O Culture as consumption
only vs. R/W Culture of
mixing, matching, merging
✦ As businesses grow, they
change culture, laws, norms,
values, and—in so doing—us
✦ Remix produces community
and education (per Lessig)
Recap: On
Remix

4. Power & format matter just as much as the algorithm.

5. Long
Tail
Anderson’s “The Long Tail”

6. Drawing is the ability to translate scenes into
paper—making a direct translation. Visualization is
the ability to put ideas onto paper—taking data
and distilling it as a concept.
- Hagy (p. 363)

7. Indexed
• It’s an elephant
!
• It’s art
!
• It’s business

8. Indexed
• It’s timeless
!
• It’s right now

9. Indexed
• It’s coded
!
• It’s clear (and in
context)

10. Indexed
• It’s learnable

11. Indexed
• It’s a buzzword
!
• It’s an opportunity

12. Thinking about power and format, algorithms and
remix, and, always, visualization with Matt Wilson.

13. Next Class: Apr. 30
✦ Today: power & format
!
✦ Next: Last lecture on
presentation skills with
Hagy, time to work on
final in class and lab
!
✦ Last blog assignment
due 5/1
!
✦ DCSI lectures: Matt
Wilson on 4/28 (req’d)