Last Thursday (20th April 2023), Twitter began removing the blue ticks from formerly verified users who had failed to subscribe to the new Twitter Blue service. The blue tick was once a symbol of “authenticity”, confirming that the holder of that account was indeed the person or institution referred to in the name or description of the account. Moreover, … Continue reading What Twitter’s Blue Tick says about the value of symbols and authentication
Category: Marketing in everyday life
A brief history of TripAdvisor’s evolution – or how social media-users are key, yet unpaid, enablers of the business model of social media platforms
Last week, Child 1 and I watched the Lehman Brothers trilogy, a play that traces the story of the three Lehman brothers, and their descendants, who created the (in)famous Bank of the same name. Their business empire didn’t start as a Bank, though. Rather, it started as a textiles’ trader which went on to become … Continue reading A brief history of TripAdvisor’s evolution – or how social media-users are key, yet unpaid, enablers of the business model of social media platforms
It’s not because a dataset is big that it will be good. And it is not because we used a sophisticated algorithm that the decision will be fine
These are the notes from a talk that I delivered, recently, about the importance of data quality, and how to assess it. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/1ect9VUVbgOPt7 In my talk, I started by noting the critical role of data as a source of insight and, subsequently, as an enabler of service automation. Then, went on to note that data … Continue reading It’s not because a dataset is big that it will be good. And it is not because we used a sophisticated algorithm that the decision will be fine
Moving fast, without breaking things – leveraging big data in incumbent organisations
Back in July 2020, I examined c’s PhD thesis, looking at how incumbent firms can leverage big data. This PhD was really pleasant to read and easy to examine. So, it was with some pleasure that, last week, I came across the paper “Leveraging big data for strategic marketing: A dynamic capabilities model for incumbent … Continue reading Moving fast, without breaking things – leveraging big data in incumbent organisations
The exasperating lack of progress on women’s and girls’ digital rights
Last week, we marked yet another International Women’s Day (Yes, there’s an International Men’s day, too. Don’t worry. It’s November 19th). This is supposed to be a day when we celebrate progress in women’s rights such as gender equality or reproductive rights, and ending abuse against women. The UN chose as its theme for this … Continue reading The exasperating lack of progress on women’s and girls’ digital rights
Assessing the risk of misuse of language models for disinformation campaigns
The report “Generative Language Models and Automated Influence Operations: Emerging Threats and Potential Mitigations” discusses how large language models like the one underpinning ChatGPT might be used for disinformation campaigns. It was authored by Josh A. Goldstein, Girish Sastry, Micah Musser, Renee DiResta, Matthew Gentzel and Katerina Sedova, and is available in the arXiv repository. … Continue reading Assessing the risk of misuse of language models for disinformation campaigns
How are music artists adjusting to algorithmic recommendation systems?
I have written a few times, here, on the blog, about algorithmic recommendation systems. Sometimes, I focus on the technology itself. Other times, I focus on the recipients of those recommendations. Occasionally, I have looked at the impact on advertisers. However, I don’t often consider the perspective of the producer - i.e., the person / company / brand … Continue reading How are music artists adjusting to algorithmic recommendation systems?
Charging for Twitter’s API changes the nature of Twitter data from “igniter of value” to “end product”
Twitter has announced, on February 2nd, that it is ending free access to its application programming interface (API). Starting February 9, we will no longer support free access to the Twitter API, both v2 and v1.1. A paid basic tier will be available instead 🧵— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) February 2, 2023 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Twitter API is … Continue reading Charging for Twitter’s API changes the nature of Twitter data from “igniter of value” to “end product”
The handful of datasets that rule our lives
There are numerous examples of how the datasets that are used to train the algorithms that rule our daily lives are biased. For instance, tools that automatically translate professional titles tends to follow gender stereotypes: males are doctors while nurses are females. There is also bias against faces of females and faces of people of colour. But if these biases are … Continue reading The handful of datasets that rule our lives
New paper: Unpacking the Personalisation-Privacy Paradox in the Context of AI-Enabled Personalisation in the Physical Retail Environment
Once the stuff of fiction, it is now possible for you to enter a store and receive an offer which was personalised to your preferences, past purchases and even what’s happening around you. Unlike John Aderton in Minority Report, though, you don’t need to scan your eyes as you enter the store, in order to … Continue reading New paper: Unpacking the Personalisation-Privacy Paradox in the Context of AI-Enabled Personalisation in the Physical Retail Environment
Ana Canhoto 