Using Big Data for Epidemiological Surveillance

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Google Flu Trends and the Methodological Shift from ‘Supply’ to ‘Demand’

In June this year (2014), transcript published an edited volume on “Big Data“. I contributed a chapter to this publication, on a topic which fascinates me: data obtained through search engine queries – and hence based on the digital traces which users leave behind. While I have looked into this topic more generally with regards to Google Trends before, this paper analyses Google Flu Trends and the connection between Big Data and epidemiological surveillance more specifically. The paper is in German, but I recently discussed the topic with Max Haiven and Anna Sauerbrey at the SLOW Politics conference in Berlin. Below you can find a summary of the paper and a video of our discussion.

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Call for Papers: “Digital Material/ism”

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Digital Material/ism: How Materiality shapes Digital Culture and Social Interaction – First Issue of Digital Culture & Society

Abstract deadline: February 1, 2015

The idea of a society, in which everyday smart objects are equipped with digital logic and sensor technologies, is currently taking shape. Devices connected as learning machines to the “Internet of Things” necessitate further research on issues related to digital media and their materiality. In this context, media, culture and social theories, dealing with the materiality of digital technology, have gained increasing relevance.

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New Journal: Digital Culture and Society

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Together with my colleagues Pablo Abend, Mathias Fuchs, Ramon Reichert and Karin Wenz, I recently initiated the publication of a new journal:

Digital Culture & Society is a refereed, international journal, fostering discussion about the ways in which digital technologies, platforms and applications reconfigure daily lives and practices. It offers a forum for critical analysis and inquiries into digital media theory. The newly established journal provides a publication environment for interdisciplinary research approaches, contemporary theory developments and methodological innovation in digital media studies. It invites reflection on how culture unfolds through the use of digital technology, and how it conversely influences the development of digital technology itself.

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Coming up: Science Hack Day Eindhoven

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As part of my research on hacking and making communities, I recently came across the upcoming Science Hack Day in Eindhoven. It is organised by the MAD emergent art center: a “laboratory, platform and provider on the intersection of art, science and technology delivering open innovation for social creativity”. The event is coming up soon, but if you are interested in participating, you can still sign up via eventbrite. The hackathon takes place from at the Gaslab in Eindhoven from 30-31 August 2014. Tickets are free and the event language will be English.

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Exhibiting Decay

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Tensions of Authenticity in Illegal and Organised Urban Exploration

‘Urban exploration’ originally refers to practices of individuals or groups while visiting and investigating abandoned, often industrial sites. Most of these locations are not officially open to the public, so that these visits are usually illegal. The thrill of trespassing and the fact that visitors face artefacts in what is considered their ‘authentic state of decay’ rather than after their ‘artificial restoration’ act as crucial incentives for urban exploration. In this sense, urban exploration is originally a practice where the infringement of ownership is part of the authenticity of the experience.

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“Creating Cultures” Conference at King’s College London

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The “Creating Cultures” postgraduate conference (King’s College London, June 12/13) will explore intersections between contemporary media, participatory cultures and creative industries. The programme covers critical issues in journalism, looks at cities and contested spaces as well as practices of artistic and activist participation. Lev Manovich will present the first keynote on Thursday, with a response from David Berry. I will contribute to the section “Digital Participatory Communities” with a presentation on the Reddit-marketplace and its gift-exchanges.

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Launched: “Value and Currency in Peer Production”

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The Journal of Peer Production has just launched a new issue on “Value and Currency”. The editors introduce the publication:

“Peer production has often been described as a ‘third mode of production’, irreducible to State or market imperatives. The creation and organisation of peer projects allegedly take place without ‘managerial commands’ or ‘price signals’, without recourse to bureaucratic apparatuses or the logic of competitive markets. Instead, and mimicking the technical architectures upon which many peer projects are based, production is described as non-hierarchical and decentralised. Group dynamics are also commonly described as ‘flat’ and this is captured, of course, in the very notion of the ‘peer’. When tested against the realities of actual projects, however, such early conceptions of peer production are, at best, in need of further elaboration and qualification”. (source)

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