power

Reclaiming our agency over AI

The AI Now Institute has published a most timely and incisive “Artificial Power: 2025 Landscape Report”, proposing an actionable strategy for the public to reclaim agency over the future of AI. Excerpt from the Executive Summary:

“Why society would ever accept this bargain is the critical question at hand. Amid the excitement over AI’s (speculative) potential, the sobering reality of its present and recent past is obscured. When we consult the record on how AI is already intermediating critical social infrastructures, we see that it is materially reshaping our institutions in ways that ratchet up inequality, render institutions opaque to those they are meant to serve, and concentrate power in the hands of the already powerful. It makes clear that for all the whiz-bang demos and bold Davos proclamations, on the ground AI is consistently deployed in ways that make everyday people’s lives, material conditions, and access to opportunities worse and the systems that incorporate them stronger.”

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Posted by Aldo de Moor in Ideas, 0 comments

New publication: Citizen Sensing Communities: From Individual Empowerment to Collective Impact

A. de Moor (2019). Citizen Sensing Communities: From Individual Empowerment to Collective Impact. In Proc. of the 17th CIRN Conference, Monash Centre, Prato Italy, 6 Nov – Friday, 8 Nov 2019, pp. 91-101.

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Abstract:

We examine a case study in which one form of network mapping – participatory community network mapping – was used to visualize and help discover common collaborative ground between stakeholders in a Dutch multi-sectoral climate action coalition of the willing. After introducing the 2018 Dutch Klimaatstroom Zuid Climate Summit case, we discuss how the CommunitySensor methodology for participatory community network mapping can help discover collaborative common ground in such complex networks. We share how we applied CommunitySensor to the climate summit case. We end with a discussion on how such participatory mapping could support the process of common agenda setting towards collective impact.
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Posted by Aldo de Moor in CommunitySense, Publications, 0 comments

Conference presentation – Citizen sensing meeting community informatics: from power to empowerment?

Last week, I attended the 17th International Community Informatics Research Network Conference in Prato, Italy. This year’s theme was of particular interest to my research & consultancy interests: WHOSE AGENDA: ACTION, RESEARCH, & POLITICS.

This time, I decided to base my talk on a citizen sensing panel discussion at Tilburg Night University I was asked to participate in last month as a “community informatics expert”. In my Prato talk, I expanded my thoughts, thinking through in more detail what are the relationships between citizen sensing, citizen science, and community informatics, from the angle of power & empowerment.

Title: Citizen sensing meeting community informatics: from power to empowerment?

Abstract: Citizen sensing offers much promise in engaging citizens for the common good, such as working on addressing climate change at the grassroots level.… Read more...

Posted by Aldo de Moor in Conferences, Ideas, Presentations, 0 comments