commodify.us: Data Commodification

commodify.us: Data Commodification

Date: 
01.02.2015 15:00
Edition: 
2015
Format: 
Workshop
Location: 
HKW
HKW - Foyer

Open Workshop. This workshop aims to put some of the server-side tools employed by the project back into users’ hands.

Open Workshop
At Foyer Hub 2

Departing from the recent Commodify.us web application (an artist-run Internet startup producing projects to help individuals capitalise on their online monetary potential) this workshop aims to put some of the server-side tools employed by the project back into users’ hands. Participants will have the possibility experiment with personal and/or open Facebook or Google+ profile datasets, quantify and visualise relational data and essentially establish a currency conversion of their online presence, potentially viable for further marketing or for use as creative material and critical reflection.

Topics covered in the workshop include:
- an examination of the profile download formats provided by Facebook and Google to its users
- investigation of discrepancies between download formats related to, for example, download time or geographical location
- what is useful data for Facebook and Google vs. what is useful data for a user
- what is ‘forgotten’, or not shared in the downloaded archives
- possible ways of reconstructing identity from anonymised datasets
- using scripts to extrapolate and visualise relational data across profile datasets
Participants can bring their own downloaded Facebook or Google+ profile datasets for use in the workshop (instructions linked below), or use some of the open datasets from Commodify.us. The workshop is open to anyone with a healthy dose of curiosity, creativity and paranoia. No prior technical experience is required, however it is advised to bring your own laptop – preferably with a Unix-based (Linux or OSX) operating system, to be able to use the scripts provided in the workshop.

from Commodify.us:
Currently our online personal information, our friends, likes, stories and photos are sold without our knowledge or consent. If Facebook allows us to download our profile data, we should be able to have a space to upload it, and monetise this data ourselves. We should be able to commodify our immaterial labour.
"I created my interior thoughts as a means of production for the corporation that owned the board i was posting to, and that commodity was being sold to other commodity/consumer entities as entertainment. That means that I sold my soul like a tennis shoe and I derived no profit from the sale of my soul."
— Carmen Hermosillo aka humdog, 1994

relevant links:
> https://commodify.us/#howto
> https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en
> http://www.furtherfield.org/features/reviews/commodify-us-our-data-our-terms

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