December 2020 - nexa - server-nexa.polito.it

Trasferimento della Conferenza Nexa in una nuova sala online a causa di problemi tecnici | Invito al pubblico a seguire la diretta streaming della Conferenza Nexa sul canale YouTube del Centro Nexa
by Nexa Media Dec. 10, 2020

Dec. 10, 2020

Gentilissimi, a causa di un guasto hardware all’infrastruttura che gestisce le virtual classroom dellapiattaforma BigBlueButtonnella giornata di oggi non sarà possibile collegarsi alla sala online indicata nelle precedenti comunicazioni; abbiamo pertanto trasferito la Conferenza Nexa in una nuova sala online sulla piattaforma open source di conference call *Jitsi Meet*. Visto il numero elevato di partecipanti invitiamo però il pubblico a seguire la *diretta streaming della Conferenza Nexa* al seguente link:https://youtu.be/Ze8npsHetqA <https://youtu.be/Ze8npsHetqA>per non sovraccaricare il software. Le *domande dei partecipanti saranno raccolte tramite commenti sui canali YouTube, Twitter**e Facebook del Centro Nexa* e segnalate ai relatori della conferenza dalle persone incaricate della gestione delle fasi di Q&A degli incontri. Cordialmente, -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino _web:_ https://nexa.polito.it/ <https://nexa.polito.it/> _mail:_anita.botta@polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it> tel: 011 090 7219

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Google's Ethics Effort Is Looking Rather Evil - By Cathy O'Neil
by Giacomo Tesio Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

Google used to have a simple motto: Don’t be evil. Now, with the firing of a data scientist whose job was to identify and mitigate the harm that the company’s technology could do, it has yet again demonstrated how far it has strayed from that laudable goal. Timnit Gebru was one of Google’s brightest stars, part of a group hired to work on accountability and ethics in artificial intelligence — that is, to develop fairness guidelines for the algorithms that increasingly decide everything from who gets credit to who goes to prison. She was a lead researcher on the Gender Shades project, which demonstrated the flaws of facial recognition software developed by IBM, Amazon, Microsoft and others, particularly in identifying dark female faces. As far as I can ascertain, she was fired for doing her job: specifically, for critically assessing models that allow computers to converse with people — an area in which Google is active. Full disclosure: It’s hard for me to untangle my opinion on this from my personal and professional loyalties. I’m not acquainted with Gebru, but we have quite a few friends in common and I’ve admired her work for some time. I signed a letter supporting her. I also run an independent company that specializes in auditing algorithms for bias, so I have an interest in getting big tech firms to use my services rather than do their vetting in-house. All that said, I genuinely believe that Gebru’s story illustrates a broader issue: You can’t trust companies to check their own work, particularly where the result might conflict with their financial interests. My favorite example is Theranos, which insisted that its research into a novel blood test was so amazing and valuable that it couldn’t be shown to outsiders — until it proved to be a dangerous fraud. The warning applies no less to tech companies such as Google, IBM, Microsoft and Facebook, which have created internal ethics groups and external tools in an effort to display responsibility and keep their algorithms unregulated. I’ll admit that to some extent, I envy the people who work on the accountability teams. They have fascinating jobs, with access to tons of data that they’d never be able to play with in academia. At the same time, though, they have little or no influence to push their employers to actually implement the fairness frameworks that they so carefully develop. Their scientific papers are often heavily edited or even censored, as I learned when I once tried to co-author one (I quit the project). I often wondered about Gebru and others working at Google: How could they stand the bureaucracy, or express their very real concerns in that environment? As it turns out, they couldn’t. Gebru, along with co-authors from academia as well as Google, was trying to get the company’s approval to submit a paper on some unintended consequences of large language models. One problem is that their energy consumption and carbon footprint have been rapidly expanding along with their use of computing power. Another is that, after ingesting a large chunk of the entire history of all written text, they’re troublingly likely to use nasty, racist or otherwise inappropriate language. The findings, while perfectly good and interesting, were not particularly new. Which makes it all the more bizarre that someone higher up at Google decided, with no explanation, that Gebru had to back out of publishing the paper. When she demanded to know what the actual complaints were so she could address them, she was fired (with her boss informed only after the fact). Aside from turning the paper viral, the incident offered a shocking indication of how little Google can tolerate even mild pushback, and how easily it can shed all pretense of scientific independence. The fact that Gebru was one of the company’s only Black female researchers makes it a particularly egregious example of punching down in the same old tired way. Embarrassing as this episode should be for Google — the company’s CEO has apologized — I’m hoping policy makers grasp the larger lesson. The artificial intelligence that plays a growing role in our lives requires outside scrutiny, from people who have the proper incentives to be independent and the power to compel meaningful reform. Otherwise, algorithms will be doomed to repeat and amplify the flaws of the humans who made them. Tratto da https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-12-09/google-s-firing-of-ti… Qui le "scuse" del CEO di Google https://www.axios.com/sundar-pichai-memo-timnit-gebru-exit-18b0efb0-5bc3-41… Giacomo

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Schiavi del clic di Antonio A. Casilli - Il Tascabile
by J.C. DE MARTIN Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

https://www.iltascabile.com/recensioni/schiavi-del-clic-di-antonio-a-casill… (Sent from my wireless device; please excuse brevity and typos (if any))

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Call for abstracts 8th STS Conference
by Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

Cari nexiani, approfitto di questa rete per invitarvi a presentare un abstract alla sessione "*How to Protect Communities from Sars CoV-2 through Co-production of Health and the Design of Commons-Based Ecosystems by Adopting Distributed Ledger Technologies?" *per la prossima conferenza di STS Italia. Ecco la nostra presentazione della Open Track on PANDEMIC AND STS: How to Protect Communities from Sars CoV-2 through Co-production of Health and the Design of Commons-Based Ecosystems by Adopting Distributed Ledger Technologies? <https://a7f67c59-118d-44bf-9b5c-7aae7deef875.filesusr.com/ugd/c5e005_950f20…> *Convenors:* Sowelu Avanzo, Vincenzo Giorgino, Guido Boella e Valeria Poli *.* Per maggiori informazioni riguardo alla conferenza e alla sessione, affinchè possiate diffonderla all'interno della vostra rete, vi riporto il testo generale della call for abstract. The *8th STS Italia Conference* <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/> will be hosted by the University of Trieste, Italy, June 17 through 19, 2021, by the Italian Society of Science and Technology Studies. It is our pleasure to announce that the calls for abstract are now open *until December 18th, 2020.* The conference will be an opportunity to present empirical and theoretical work from a variety of disciplines: sociology, anthropology, design, economics, history, law, philosophy, psychology and semiotics. The focal theme of the 8th STS Italia Conference will be "Dis/Entangling Technoscience: Vulnerability, Responsibility and Justice”. This broad theme refers to the complex and ambivalent role of technoscience and innovation in constituting societies – making possibilities flourish, but also creating new vulnerabilities. The conference will include 28 tracks, which are clustered into five thematic streams. The tracks focus on several topics, including: biomedicine, digital platforms and media, work and organizations, expertise and public policy, ethics of technology and innovation, and governance of science and technology at large. Please, see the submission guidelines below, or consult the complete list of tracks. *Abstracts (written in English, or in Italian in case of tracks in two language) should be submitted by December, 18* to the conference email address (stsitaliaconf(a)gmail.com) and to the emails of convenors' selected track. Track Convenor(s) will be responsible for reviewing, accepting/rejecting and organising submissions into their track. *THEMATIC STREAMS* · Biomedicine, bodies and technoscience <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>; · Platforms, digital technologies and media environment <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>s <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>; · Rethinking science, technology and innovation: emerging challenges <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>; · Including, excluding and connecting through / within technoscience <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>; · Governing and reshuffling technoscience and innovation processes <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts>; · Open Track: Science and Technology Studies in Post-socialist countries/in Central and Eastern European countries; <https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts> · Open Track on PANDEMIC AND STS: How to Protect Communities from Sars CoV-2 through Co-production of Health and the Design of Commons-Based Ecosystems by Adopting Distributed Ledger Technologies? <https://a7f67c59-118d-44bf-9b5c-7aae7deef875.filesusr.com/ugd/c5e005_950f20…> Un saluto cordiale, Vincenzo Giorgino -- A new book https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319665917 "One of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution." - Martin Luther King, Jr., "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino, Ph.D. Dept. of Economic and Social Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics University of Torino - Italy

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Banda minima garantita (Re: Il lato oscuro del lavoro da remoto)
by Antonio Iacono Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

... > La copertura di rete è necessaria per la vita quotidiana, per la salute, il > commercio, il lavoro e il tempo libero ... aggiungo solo un elemento di discussione. La questione non dovrebbe essere su banda larga si o banda larga no. Piuttosto banda minima garantita (BMG) si, BMG no. A casa mia il contatore è di 3kW, e questa potenza ci è sufficiente. Se avessimo un pavimento riscaldato elettricamente ne avremmo bisogno per tre volte. I 3kW sono garantiti, posso persino arrivare a 3,9kW prima che il contatore mi disconnetta, ma sicuramente non è variabile in diminuzione. Sarebbe assurdo avere un momento 3kW e il momento successivo 0,1kW. Con la rete Internet questo assurdo invece accade (in questo periodo, per me, un po' troppo spesso). La banda, che in buona sostanza corrisponde alla potenza elettrica, è estremamente variabile e i fornitori raramente garantiscono una BMG elevata. Mettiamo il caso di un piccolo fornitore che fornisca connettività WiMAX agli utenti non raggiunti da fibra o adsl e che, per semplificare, abbia un router con una porta da 1Gbit, bene, se 100 utenti connessi a quella porta "consumano" 10 Mbit, il centounesimo dovrà mettersi in "coda", anche se, in teoria, pure lui avrebbe diritto ai 10Mbit. Quindi, in definitiva, per lavorare non serve (tranni in alcuni casi) la banda larga, necessaria per film in streaming o per videogiocare, ma la banda minima garantita.

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Presentazione del libro di Antonio Aloisi e Valerio De Stefano "Il tuo capo è un algoritmo. Contro il lavoro disumano" | 18 Dicembre 2020
by Nexa Media Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

Gentilissimi, vi invitiamo a partecipare all'incontro dedicato alla presentazione del libro /*"Il tuo capo è un algoritmo. Contro il lavoro disumano"*/ (Antonio Aloisi, Valerio De Stefano, Laterza, Roma, 2020), che si terrà *venerdì 18 dicembre dalle ore 16:30 alle ore 18:30*, con ospiti gli autori del libro *Antonio Aloisi* (Università IE di Madrid) e *Valerio De Stefano* (Università di Lovanio). L'evento, organizzato dal /Centro Nexa su Internet & Società /in collaborazione con//l'/Italian Institute for Advanced Studies in Torino 'Umberto Eco' "Scienza Nuova"/, si svolgerà in modalità telematica utilizzando il software open source di conference call *Jitsi Meet*; per chi vorrà partecipare all'incontro sarà possibile accedere alla conference call attraverso il seguente link: https://meet.nexacenter.org/PresentazioneLibroAloisiDeStefano <https://meet.nexacenter.org/PresentazioneLibroAloisiDeStefano> e raccomandiamo di collegarsi al link indicato utilizzando il browser *Google Chrome* per una migliore resa del servizio. Maggiori informazioni sull'incontro sono disponibili alla pagina: https://nexa.polito.it/2020/12/aloisidestefano <https://nexa.polito.it/2020/12/aloisidestefano> Cordiali saluti,   -- Anita Botta Communication Manager Nexa Center for Internet & Society Politecnico di Torino – DAUIN Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 - 10129 Torino _web:_ https://nexa.polito.it/ <https://nexa.polito.it/> _mail:_anita.botta@polito.it <mailto:anita.botta@polito.it> tel: 011 090 7219

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Facebook faces antitrust allegations over deals for Instagram and WhatsApp | Technology | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/dec/08/facebook-antitrust-lawsu…> Facebook faces antitrust allegations over deals for Instagram and WhatsApp Deals that brought the top four social media companies under Facebook rule would be violations if they were considered a threat Facebook is expecting significant new legal challenges, as the US Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of attorney generals from up to 40 states are preparing antitrust suits. Sign up for the Guardian’s First Thing newsletter Although the specific charges in both cases remain unclear, the antitrust allegations are expected to center on the tech giant’s acquisition of two big apps: a $1bn deal to buy the photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012, and the $19bn purchase of the global messaging service WhatsApp in 2014. Together, the buys brought the top four social media companies worldwide under Facebook’s control. The purchases would constitute antitrust violations if Facebook believed the companies were viable competitors. 'Too much power': Congress grills top tech CEOs in combative antitrust hearing Read more At the time of its acquisition, Instagram had 30 million users, and, even though it was growing rapidly, it wasn’t yet making money. WhatsApp boasted more than 450 million monthly active users when it was acquired. “WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people,” Zuckerberg said in a statement at the time. The FTC cleared Facebook for the acquisitions when they occurred, and the company is hoping to leverage those approvals in mounting a defense. Facebook executives have also argued their company has helped the apps grow. But Facebook has come under greater scrutiny since the deals were done, and the FTC launched a new investigation into the potential antitrust violations in 2019. The FTC probe will build on findings from a separate inquiry conducted by the US House Judiciary subcommittee, which released millions of documents that appeared to show that Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were concerned the apps could become competition, before aggressively pursuing them. In one 2012 email, made public through the House investigation, Zuckerberg highlighted how Instagram had an edge on mobile, an area where Facebook was falling behind. In another, the CEO said Instagram could hurt Facebook even if it doesn’t become huge. “The businesses are nascent but the networks are established, the brands are already meaningful and if they grow to a large scale they could be disruptive to us,” Zuckerberg wrote. Instagram’s co-founder also fretted that his company might be targeted for destruction by Zuckerberg if he refused the deal. The FTC is expected to vote on a possible suit this week. Three of the five-member commission are believed to be in favor of the move, including chair Joseph Simons, who is expected to leave the agency before the new Biden administration is sworn in, Politico reported. [...]

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Why shops are going over to the "dark" side
by Luigi Scorca Dec. 8, 2020

Dec. 8, 2020

https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/busines… Luigi

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sede arbitraggio internazionale
by Aldo Pedico Dec. 8, 2020

Dec. 8, 2020

Parigi, futura sede per l’arbitraggio internazionale https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/paris-future-capitale-des-arbit… Aldo

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Il lato oscuro del lavoro da remoto
by Luigi Scorca Dec. 7, 2020

Dec. 7, 2020

https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/il-lato-oscuro-lavoro-remoto-senso-isolamen… Luigi

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