Soctech seminar, Spring 2006

From PublicWiki
Revision as of 17:58, 28 February 2006 by David (talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Society and technology seminar: SLN 2932 CSE 590 SO, Tue 12:30-1:20, CSE 403

Spring 2006: The Social Ramifications of Search Technologies


It is an oft-quoted cliché that in today’s “information society” there is no shortage of information, but rather an inability to process information in meaningful ways. The primary contemporary response to this information inundation has been the Search. As a consequence, the search engine has become one of the most important transforming social institutions of our time.

Because the heart of search is a mechanical ordering of results by relevance to a query, search algorithms are a new way of judging quality. This extends perhaps most importantly to the ranking of the quality of cultural content, something which in the past has been a human task. What does this mean for the distribution of power in society? How might the search algorithms themselves open up new avenues of political participation and expression? How might they work toward social exclusion?

Google in particular has been in the news recently for a variety of essential topics which demonstrate that search engines are raising many questions about the organization of content and access to it. And in the process, they are clashing with many different social institutions. With regard to privacy: should the US government have access to privately held information about the search habits of its citizens? With regard to political change and censorship: what role should search engines play in China in regards to dissidence and freedom of information? With regard to the current copyright institution: what content should be searchable?

In this seminar, we will explore a wide range of topics related to the search engine, drawing on sources as varied as current news stories, social science research, and algorithm design. Although we don't want to focus on Google, let's be honest, it will be difficult to not center on the company whose name, in our vernacular, has become synonomous with the verbs "to search" and "to discover".

Contact information: This course is being organized by Travis Kriplean (travis at cs) and David Orange (dborange at gmail).

If you would like to continue to receive news about ongoing soctech activities, then subscribe to the soctech@cs mailing list.

Topics

Suggestions are welcome about additional topics, improved organization, how to refine the existing topics, and relevant readings for each. Please send an email to travis (@cs) if you have such suggestions! Note that the readings will be pared down to be manageable for a seminar.

  • Introduction: The Search Engine as a Social Institution
  • Brief History of Search Engines: Survey of search engines, how they’ve developed, and the evolution of the services they provide. From WebCrawler to Inktomi to Yahoo!. Talk briefly about search business models as well.
  • Basics of Search Engines: Basics of search engine algorithms (web crawling, building indexes, etc.). How does PageRank work? The use of WWW link structure to identify authoritative sources for user queries.
For the more technically inclined:
  • Strengths and weaknesses of search: If a search engine can only use keywords to look over webpages, what effects does this have? Explore how keywords are better for simple questions, and their deficiencies for deeper ones (e.g. Where is Rome? vs. Are there patents covering this technology?). Also consider which types of information are not easily accessible, such as financial data and databases, and the result of substituting webpages.
  • Fair use of content: What fair use currently entails and where should it go. What can we understand about it by analyzing it from an economic, legal or social perspective? What does it mean for discourse in a society?
Relevant current issue: Google Book Search (formerly GooglePrint)


  • Agglomeration of Personalized Data: Search engines enable users to parse the overload of information available online. But there is a trend for search companies to track personal search histories as well in order to provide customized content. Private companies now hold vast databases of information about the behavior of large portions of populations. What implications will this have?
  • The Search, Customization, and Media Content: What are some possible results of customization? How far can it go? Will it help create cross-cutting communities as people find each other with similar interests, or will it serve to isolate people as they are served information that continually reinforces social boundaries that have already been constructed?
GoogleZon: A dystopic story of the future of media content. Far-fetched? Maybe, maybe not! Regardless, it raises interesting questions. (8 minutes).
  • Privacy rights in the US and elsewhere: What new issues does search raise for privacy? What complications arise in terms of national governments?
Relevant current issue: Dept. of Justice request for Google's search logs.
  • Dissidents in China: Google, Freedom and Information
  • Search as Political Statement: Is the use of link structure to evaluate quality a democratizing force? Or does it reinforce the status quo? Are phenomena like Google Bombing quirks or do they open up new avenues of serious political commentary?
  • Social Exclusion and Inclusion through Search: How do search algorithms work to reinforce or disintegrate social stratification? How does it affect our approach to cultural content? What are the implications of mechanical evaluations of quality?

Mailing list

Visit

https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cse590so

to sign up for the course mailing list. You will need a UW NetID. Contact Keunwoo if you have any difficulty signing up.

Administrative info

Course grading and credit-load policies: Subject to change, but variable credits are available to meet differing levels of participation:

  • Sign up for 1 credit if you plan to attend, do the readings, and participate in discussions.
  • Sign up for 2 credits if you wish to lead a discussion/present, OR write a short paper.
  • Sign up for 3 credits if you wish to either (a) lead a discussion/present, AND write a short paper, or (b) write one long paper. (Note: you must contact the course organizers in advance if you plan to take this course for 3 credits.)

Past seminars

Other Relevant Class Pages