I agree that we should be talking about this. I am increasingly seeing our community, which was the original "early adopters" now becoming the "early unadopters." But a) that's easier in the North and out you're wealthy than in the south or poor (what a surprise) and b) it requires some expertise and understanding of how, why, and what's involved. And indeed, university leadership doesn't seem to be treating this as seriously as they should.

I'm increasingly thinking that this is the major challenge for us--i.e. Digitally knowledgeable humanists--to take up. I also don't think we are addressing it as seriously as it requires. We should be writing guides about how to disengage as seriously as we wrote them about engaging. We need to start talking about the societal costs we are seeing.
From: globaloutlookdh-l <globaloutlookdh-l-bounces@uleth.ca> on behalf of Marcello Vitali-Rosati <marcello@chiavedisvolta.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 6:41:40 AM
To: globaloutlookdh-l, MailList <globaloutlookdh-l@uleth.ca>
Subject: Re: [globaloutlookDH-l] A Faustian bargain
 
Dear Domenico,

I completely agree with you. I particularly liked your paper
"Geopolitica della conoscenza digitale. Dal web aperto all’impero di GAFAM."

I think the stakes are huge. I have myself many ongoing project on what
knowledge will be in few years if we do not do something (and what we
could do).

A would like to underline here a simple fact (I think a discussion about
it here could be useful): I think our institutions are completely deaf
about this problem. At UdeM, we are obliged to use Microsoft mail for
our institutional email address (for some other universities it is
Gmail), it is impossible to write without using Word (I always have
problem when I refuse to give a docx file and I send instead an HTML).
There are many things I cannot do with my Linux on the digital
infrastructure of the university (for example: to review student
applications for admission, we can **only** use Internet Explorer; our
VPN does not work with Linux, there is only documentation for Windows
and Mac, etc.). Our colleagues find normal to use Facebook or Google
Hangout to stream their conferences... And when I say something about
that everybody answers: "but it is easier, I do not have time to lose
with your geek things".

I am as sconsolato as you

best

m



On 2019-11-23 12:20 PM, Domenico Fiormonte wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> as a DHer I was particularly struck by this report by Amnesty on surveillance giants:
>
> https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/1404/2019/en/
>
>
> "But despite the real value of the services they provide, Google and Facebook’s platforms come at a systemic cost. The companies’ surveillance-based business model forces people to make a Faustian bargain, whereby they are only able to enjoy their human rights online by submitting to a system predicated on human rights abuse."
>
> As some of you already know, I've been criticizing the political and social role of these platforms since long ago. And I'm increasingly wondering how the DH community - and especially our global community - can remain silent in the face of documented violations of human rights. Beacause this is exactly what's going on. It's not just about data.
>
> Would make any sense to start a discussion here on how to respond as digital scholars to these (not anymore just epistemological or cultural) abuses?
>
> Or should we just go on, using Google and Facebook as those and other documented abuses did not exist?
>
> Sconsolatamente Vostro,
>
> Domenico
>
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