SIPP: Social Context

Maria Keet

Department of Computer Science

University of Cape Town
Growth of the Internet

■
Growth of the Internet
■
Social implications of computing in a networked world
■
ICT for Development and peace
■
Sustainable computing

2
The World Before Ubiquitous
Computers
●
When did the first digital computers originate?
●
Internet?
●
World Wide Web? https://line-mode.cern.ch/
●
So what did the world
look like in 1973, say?
– Phones?
– Calculators?
– Searching for
information?
– Computers?

SP: Social Context 3

 And then things started
changing … fast
1980s: bulletin boards, UseNet groups, email
1990s: world wide web, then search engines,
e-commerce, mobile phones, PDAs
2000s: record/CD shops close (in Europe,
USA), smart phones, iPhone &
Android
■
The classic scholarly source for a feel of
the Zeitgeist for this is Manuel Castells
“The Information Age: Economy, Society
and Culture”, three volumes (first published
in 1996, revised edition 2010).

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So what has changed in the Information
Age?
■
The way we live and work
– (At least, for the “we” that
have the resources to
participate)

What else?

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 Effects of the ICT
Revolution
■
Disruptive effects on:
– Buying and selling
– Communication
– Access to knowledge
– Socializing and falling in love
– Crime
– Classroom
– …
■
Effects
– Globalization & Economics
– Privacy and surveillance
– How we think?

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 Digital Natives
■
People born in the digital networked era: i.e., you:
– Spend much of life online: with little
distinction between offline (identity) and
online (identities)
– Express, create and relate while mediated by
technology
– Tendency to multitask, not successfully
– Different notions of privacy (and online
information can come back to haunt you)
Find interesting publicly available
images of your classmates and staff
Use different search engines: DuckDuckGo,
Yahoo, Bing, …
Can you find any images of staff of which it looks
like they were students?
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 … not all of it is good!
●
Many studies show the negative impact of mobile phone, laptop and tablet
use in the classroom.
– Jeffrey H. Kuznekoff & Scott Titsworth (2013) The Impact of Mobile
Phone Usage on Student Learning. Communication Education, 62:3,
233-252, DOI: 10.1080/03634523.2013.767917
●
Students who were not using their mobile phones wrote down 62%
more information in their notes, took more detailed notes, were
able to recall more detailed information from the lecture, and
scored a full letter grade and a half higher …
– Andrew Lepp, at al. (2014) The relationship between cell phone use,
academic performance, anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in college
students. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 343-350, DOI:
10.1016/j.chb.2013.10.049
– Many more

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… not all of it is good!

“if you cease to exist or I do not acknowledge you

SP: Social Context I cease to exist” 9
Social implications of
computing in a networked
world

■
Growth of the Internet
■
Social implications of computing in a networked world
■
ICT for Development and peace
■
Sustainable computing

10
Literature on IT & society
• Manuel Castell’s “Rise of the network society” (ch1 on
Amathuba)
• David Harvey’s contradiction 8 “Technology, Work and
Human Disposability” (pdf on Amathuba)
• Etc.

• Not everything is positive about ICT

• Disruptive effects on jobs
• Changing media landscape
• ICTs to facilitate violence (e.g.: drones, surveillance,
autonomous weapons systems)
• …

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 Characterizing the new
media (Castells)
■
"These new media are self-generated in content, self-directed in
emission, and self-selected in reception by many who communicate
with many. This is a new communication realm, and ultimately a
new medium, whose backbone is made of computer networks,
whose language is digital, and whose senders are globally
distributed and globally interactive."
– Really?

■
For Castells the facts is that we no longer distinguish between the
virtual online world of our avatars and the real world of our physical
existence. He calls this increasingly hybridized everyday life a “real
virtuality”.
– And then there is augmented reality; e.g., Pokémon Go

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 Characterizing the new
media (Castells)
■
"These new media are self-generated in content, self-directed in
emission, and self-selected in reception by many who communicate
with many. This is a new communication realm, and ultimately a
new medium, whose backbone is made of computer networks,
whose language is digital, and whose senders are globally
distributed and globally interactive."
– Really?

■
For Castells the facts is that we no longer distinguish between the
virtual online world of our avatars and the real world of our physical
existence. He calls this increasingly hybridized everyday life a “real
virtuality”.
– And then there is augmented reality; e.g., Pokémon Go

SP: Social Context 13

Human disposability and the fear of
Artificial Intelligence (well, robots)

• Recall pop-quiz question

• Automatisation typically has the consequence of firing
employees
• Who’s responsibility is it to mitigate this effect, if anyone?
• Do you have an idea how to solve capital’s inherent
contradiction?
• In short: profit is generated by under-paying employees; can’t do
that with robots; then if all is roboticised, then there’s no profit to
be gained from that, yet capital needs profits to perpetuate itself

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Asimov’s laws of robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being or,
through inaction, allow a human being to
come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by
human beings except where such orders
would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as
long as such protection does not conflict
with the First or Second Laws.

In that order….

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SP: Social Context 16
Beyond fictional laws of robotics
• Arguments not to fear robots would take over from
humans: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/527336/do-we-need-asimovs-laws/
• Robot misuse examples
• The Dallas shooting (bomb disposal robot
used to kill a suspect)
• Drones for drone strikes
• Robot use examples:
• Bomb disposal, earthquake rescue, mining,
carebot for assisted living
• What should robots be allowed to do
and what not? Why?

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Robot Secretary / Digital Assistant
• So perhaps you don't have money to buy and deploy
such robots yet (nor a cicerobot, barbot, and the like)
• What about a humble "roboticised secretary" that can
• Schedule your appointments
• Assist you in keeping a contact list
• Finding stuff
• Reminding you of things
• Etc.
• Currently known as: Digital Assistant. (e.g., Apple's Siri,
Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, and some 100
more)

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Robot Secretary / Digital Assistant
• What about culturally appropriate behaviour?
• They're mostly female-sounding servants …
• Who are they really serving?
• What about "eavesdropping?", i.e.: recording all
conversions in its vicinity
• Does it have the relevant knowledge?

(as jpg on Vula)

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 Technology-assisted learning
• Better than not learning at all
• Is it better than ftf learning?
• Do you think you learn better using tech than your parents
and grandparents when they were at school or university
mostly or entirely without tech?
• Surely, more of your learning activities and outcomes gets
recorded
• Too much surveillance?
• Privacy invasion?
• Other issues?
• See also article linked in section 1.4 of SIPPnotes

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ICT for Development

■
Growth of the Internet
■
Social implications of computing in a networked world
■
ICT for Development and for peace
■
Sustainable computing

21
 On that “D-word” in ICT4D

■
The term ‘development’ is not unproblematic
■
It has a neutral use
– E.g., as in “software development”
– The strict sense of the word

■
It has a political connotation
– To develop the developing world. As if ‘the developed
world’ is static, finish en klaar
– Assumes IT intervention will fix socio-economic problems
or situations that are from outside casted as a problem
– ‘IT missionaries’?

■
ICT4D can be interpreted in both ways, is used in both ways,
but perhaps more in the non-neutral interpretation
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 Potential of ICT4D

■
Characteristic of a so-called Developing Country is the need
for better and more equitable access to resources
■
An Information Community (or Society) is the desired outcome
of the information revolution sparked by ICT
■
Knowledge resources can potentially be distributed to the
have-nots without taking away from the haves
■
ICT can be used in a developing country to extend the
distribution of knowledge resources
– This includes information to support democracy and
political accountability

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 What is the Digital Divide? denotes the gap/difference
between people who do
have [easy, cheap, fast]
■
The major disparities in the penetration of the
Information
access to the internet with
Society all the information on the
Web, and those who do
– disparities in the access and use of ICT not.
– the gap between those who have access to the
Information Society and those who are deprived of
such access
■
There are two aspects to the digital divide
– Global Digital Divide (international): The disparity
between countries at the forefront of the Information
Economy and developing countries
– Local Digital Divide (domestic): Disparities between
groups in a particular country

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 What causes the Digital
■
Divide?
ICT mirrors and exacerbates existing disparities:
– poor education and illiteracy
– disability
– location (rural-urban)
– gender
– race
– income level
■
South African digital divide grows out of our history of division
– historical backlogs for large groups of people
– a particular South African version of colonial history

■
Digital divide also arises from global circumstances that apply to
all countries in the periphery (context: centre-periphery theory of
(under)development)

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 Consequences of the Digital
Divide
■
Reflected in computer systems with
– cultural bias in the applications and contents
– poor digital infrastructure
– inappropriate computer equipment

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Internet usage stats (2023)

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African Undersea Cables

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 How to bridge the Digital
Divide?
■
Localized studies and context-aware proposed solutions
■
On-the-ground initiatives
– providing sustainable solutions in under-serviced communities

■
Policy reform
– government policy will have to change to make ICT more
accessible to all
■
Example: South Africa. Old OU UK documentary about it:
https://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/keeping-ahead-in-ict-for-
ipod/id380224273?mt=10#ls=1 (screencasts on Amathuba)

29
Progress: Leap Frog

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 Universal Service and
Universal Access
■
Universal service is the rather old principle that all residents of a
country should have access to basic communications services
– Formulated in the 1930’s in the USA for telephone services

■
Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa (USAASA): a
state owned entity of government established through the Electronic
Communications Act
– to ensure that "every man, woman and child whether living in
the remote areas of the Kalahari or in urban areas of Gauteng
can be able to connect, speak, explore and study using ICT's.”
– The Universal Service and Access Fund was established to
fund projects and programmes that strive to achieve universal
service and access to ICTs by all South African citizens.
– http://www.usaasa.org.za/usaif/
31
 Is Universal Access
Enough?
If everyone on the planet has a mobile phone and a mobile
phone signal, will we then have solved the problems associated
with the digital divide?
■ Will everyone be able to use it?
– Cost of metered access
– Lack of appropriate and
accessible content

32
 Effective Use

■
We should rather speak of “Effective Use”
– The capacity and opportunity to successfully integrate
ICTs into the accomplishment of self or collaboratively
identified goals.
■
Ask what will ultimately benefit individuals and communities
– Thus includes the infrastructure, hardware, software, and
social organizational elements that all must be combined
for development to occur.
■
Issues concerning effective use are significantly contextualized
– what is an effective use in one context will not necessarily
be so in another context.

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Context Aware Systems
Development for Development
How do we develop software for rural and disadvantaged communities in the
developing world?

overstretched facilities
poor roads

unreliable
electricity
supply
UNDP: “ICTs alone cannot
underdeveloped widely scattered
telecommunications lack of clean population improve peoples’ lives; the use of
infrastructure water and
sanitation
ICTs needs to occur within
broader strategies that are
tailored to make the most use of
these tools and techniques in
order to reap their potential
SP: Social Context 34
benefits for human
 Some ethical issues
■
Facebook’s limited free offer
– So now the farmer can also play Candy Crush?
– Is capped access to information (FB news only) ethical?

■
Tablets in Soweto’s paperless classroom
– But what about the pervasive surveillance?
– Shouldn’t they just get books and workbooks delivered, like
other schools?
■
Who will own the software when it is “co-designed” with people in
the community?
■
Trashware
– Old equipment with old software dumped in Africa
– Uses much more electricity
– Saves the EU/USA/… country from paying disposal charges,
but turns Africa into a wasteland
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 ICT 4 Peace

■
Be careful of its usage (also here):
– Honestly for peacebuilding efforts (sensu UN’s definition
and framing of peacebuilding)
– War under a different banner (sensu ‘peacemaking’ and
‘peace enforcing’)
■
Peacebuilding: “A range of measures targeted to reduce the
risk of lapsing or relapsing into conflict by strengthening
national capacities at all levels for conflict management, and to
lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development.”
■
ICT 4 Peace(building) Foundation http://ict4peace.org/ “Our
purpose is to save lives and protect human dignity through
Information and Communication Technology.”

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 ICT 4 Peace: examples

■
Communication across divides, where physically meeting is
too problematic
– E.g., between Palestinians and Israelis, between family
members in different refugee camps
■
Digital cameras capture the world around stakeholders as they
see it along with their thoughts on the challenges of
peacebuilding
– E.g., the Ugandan CD-ROM project, https://witness.org/

■
Multilingualism, translations, “Innovative websites need to be
created in vernacular languages to reach women who are
often not educated in foreign languages like English and
French.”

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ICT for war

https://shorturl.at/DILNW

https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/
Sustainable computing

■
Growth of the Internet
■
Social implications of computing in a networked world
■
ICT for development and for peace
■
Sustainable computing

39
 Computing and
sustainability
■
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
■
Green Computing

■
Where? How?
– Usage, as a source of pollution
– Usage, as part of the solution

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 Source of pollution

■
Basics (IT in society):
– User devices (PCs, servers, tablets, smart phones etc)
costs electricity
– Printing (device, paper, ink)
– Computer network infrastructure

■
Policies, practices, greed
– Trashware
– Forced obsolescence

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 Source of pollution

■
Compare carbon footprint of, e.g.:
– Cash payments vs card machines vs cryptocurrencies
– DVDs vs streaming video

■
Advanced (computing):
– Inefficient vs efficient algorithms
■
E.g.: compare selection sort to bubble sort
– Programming language (more or less energy-consuming
code compilation and execution)

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 Source of pollution

■
Compare carbon footprint of, e.g.:
– Cash payments vs card machines vs cryptocurrencies
– DVDs vs streaming video

■
Advanced (computing):
– Inefficient vs efficient algorithms
■
E.g.: compare selection sort to bubble sort
– Programming language (more or less energy-consuming
code compilation and execution)

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Source of pollution

■
Normalized global results for
Energy, Time, and Memory

https://doi.org/10.1145/3136014.3136031

44
Source of pollution

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 Contributing to the solution
■
Energy management; e.g.:
– Devices for demand-side control
– Feeding solar back into the Net (management of
distributed energy generation)
– Scheduling computing jobs based on electricity peak
demand/downtime
■
More efficient computation for, e.g., larger and more precise
climate models, optimising supply chain management, and
other supporting tasks, such as wildlife conservation

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