Digital Work and Collaboration

2014 ◽  
pp. 113-131
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Morabito
Keyword(s):  
Digital Work

Humans as a Service

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremias Prassl
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Disruptive Innovation ◽  
Level Playing Field ◽  
Employment Relationships ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Gig Economy ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Stable Employment

The rise of the gig economy is disrupting business models across the globe. Platforms’ digital work intermediation has had a profound impact on traditional conceptions of the employment relationship. The completion of ‘tasks’, ‘gigs’, or ‘rides’ in the (digital) crowd fundamentally challenges our understanding of work in modern labour markets: gone are the stable employment relationships between firms and workers, replaced by a world in which everybody can be ‘their own boss’ and enjoy the rewards—and face the risks—of independent businesses. Is this the future of work? What are the benefits and challenges of crowdsourced work? How can we protect consumers and workers without stifling innovation? Humans as a Service provides a detailed account of the growth and operation of gig-economy platforms, and develops a blueprint for solutions to the problems facing on-demand workers, platforms, and their customers. Following a brief introduction to the growth and operation of on-demand platforms across the world, the book scrutinizes competing narratives about ‘gig’ work. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, it explores how claims of ‘disruptive innovation’ and ‘micro-entrepreneurship’ often obscure the realities of precarious work under strict algorithmic surveillance, and the return to a business model that has existed for centuries. Humans as a Service shows how employment law can address many of these problems: gigs, tasks, and rides are work—and should be regulated as such. A concluding chapter demonstrates the broader benefits of a level playing field for consumers, taxpayers, and innovative entrepreneurs.

scholarly journals Towards a Digital Workerism: Workers’ Inquiry, Methods, and Technologies

NanoEthics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Woodcock
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technology ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Call Centres ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Digital Work

AbstractDigital technology is playing an increasingly visible role in the organisation of many people’s work—as well as large parts of their lives more broadly. The concerns of emancipatory technology studies, or other critical accounts of technology, are often focused on finding alternative uses of technology. In many workplace contexts—from call centres to platform work—the imperatives of capital are deeply written into these technologies. Yet at the same time, many capitalist technologies are playing a key role facilitating emerging workers’ struggles. For example, in the case study examined here, Deliveroo drivers rely on communication technologies like WhatsApp to organise against algorithmic management. Drawing on an ongoing workers’ inquiry, this paper seeks to consider what a workerist approach to digital technology can add to these debates. The paper outlines the challenges and opportunities for a “digital workers’ inquiry,” considering how this approach combines research with organising. The argument is divided into two main parts: first, the need for inquiries in digital work and the importance of these and second, how the process of inquiry and co-research (and the methods these involve) can be adapted and refined with digital technology. By starting the critique of technology from the workplace, this paper proposes a workerist account of how technologies can be destroyed or re-appropriated, starting from a reading of workers’ struggle.

Archiving in the networked world: authenticity and integrity

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-552
Author(s):  
Michael Seadle
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Mathematical Algorithms ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Technical Sense

PurposeThis article aims to discuss how concepts from the analog world apply to a purely digital environment, and look in particular at how authenticity needs to be viewed in the digital world in order to make some form of validation possible.Design/methodology/approachThe article describes authenticity and integrity in the analog world and looks at how to measure it in a digital environment.FindingsAuthenticity in the digital world generally means, in a purely technical sense, that a document's integrity has been checked using mathematical algorithms against other copies on independently managed servers, and that provenance records show that the document has a clearly established succession from a clearly defined original. Readers should recognize that this is different than how one defines authenticity and integrity in the analog world.Originality/valueMost of the key issues surrounding digital authenticity have not yet been tested, but they will be when the economic value of an authentic digital work reaches the courts.

How Digitization is Empowering Vietnamese Cultural Professionals to Preserve, Present, and Promote Art and Culture Online: Navigating Challenges whilst Harnessing Opportunities to Create a Digital Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-49
Author(s):  
Emma Duester
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Cultural Preservation ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Cultural Sector ◽  
Cultural Colonialism ◽  
Free Open Source

Abstract The ability to publish and provide access to cultural resources via free, open source digital platforms is empowering Vietnamese cultural professionals to promote their culture to local and international audiences. Digitization projects now include the use of 3D, VR, and AR digital technologies for the purpose of being published on digital platforms. This is creating an emergent digital culture in Vietnam, with an increasing amount of available resources online. Digitization projects are now used to preserve cultural heritage as well as to present and promote contemporary art and culture. This reflects a change in practices amongst cultural professionals in Hanoi, in terms of how digital technologies are used and the value placed on making cultural resources publicly accessible online. However, as new content, knowledge, and voices are able to participate in the online discourse on art and culture, the question remains as to whether this digital transition is creating greater equality and inclusion in the cultural sector or if it is exacerbating already existing forms of digital cultural colonialism. This paper presents findings from 50 interviews with cultural professionals working in the cultural sector in Hanoi about their digitization projects and digital work practices, the developments in digitization in Hanoi’s cultural sector over the past five years, how cultural professionals are utilizing the opportunities afforded by digital technologies for cultural preservation and promotion, as well as the challenges they face in carrying out digitization projects.

scholarly journals Mitra Pengemudi Gojek dalam Jeratan Ekonomi Berbagi Melalui Platform

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Anggalih Bayu Muh. Kamim ◽  
M. Rusmul Khandiq
Keyword(s):  
Business Management ◽  
Business Relationship ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Severance Pay ◽  
Work Relations ◽  
Hours Of Work ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Partner Relations ◽  
Collection Methods

This study will examine digital work relations that occur between driver partners with PT. Gojek Indonesia which happened because of business management based on digital platforms in the form of applications. The use of this platform has caused a change to existing work relations, especially in terms of existing contracts and wage systems. Gojek as a platform-based business is in great demand by the younger generation of workers because it's working hour's flexibility, higher wages, and bonuses offered. However, in fact, there are many workers' rights that are not fulfilled by Gojek to their driving partners. By using data collection methods in the form of documentation studies and data analysis carried out through the stages of reduction, presentation, verification, and conclusion, it was found that Gojek partners experienced vulnerabilities due to the use of a partner system that eliminated some workers' rights such as social security, overtime salaries, absence of severance pay, and partner relations patterns that were more subordinated. In addition, the welfare promised, in the end, is only an illusion because partners must experience exploitation in the form of unreasonable hours of work, incompatibility with income as promised, and business relationship gaps. 

scholarly journals What Is Digital Labour? What Is Digital Work? What’s their Difference? And Why Do These Questions Matter for Understanding Social Media?

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fuchs ◽  
Sebastian Sevignani
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Marxist Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Work Process ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Productive Labour ◽  
The One ◽  
General Work

This paper deals with the questions: What is digital labour? What is digital work? Based on Marx’s theory, we distinguish between work and labour as anthropological and historical forms of human activity. The notion of alienated labour is grounded in a general model of the work process that is conceptualized based on a dialectic of subject and object in the economy that we present in the form of a model, the Hegelian-Marxist dialectical triangle of the work process. Various aspects of a Marxist theory of work and labour, such as the notions of abstract and concrete labour, double-free labour, productive labour, the collective worker and general work are presented. Labour is based on a fourfold alienation of the human being. After these concepts are introduced, they are used for discussing the notions of digital labour and digital work. The presentation is on the one hand general and on the other hand uses Facebook as a concrete case for explaining how digital labour functions. Digital work is the organisation of human experiences with the help of the human brain, digital media and speech in such a way that new products are created. Digital labour is the valorisation dimension of digital work. We conclude that we require the transformation of digital labour into digital work, a true social media revolution that makes “social media” truly and fully social. We also argue why in our view work is not the same as labour by discussing the concept of playful work and pointing out limits of concepts such as antiwork, postwork and zerowork.

The Global Medieval Sourcebook: Creating a Sustainable Digital Anthology of Medieval Texts and Translations

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-216
Author(s):  
Mae Velloso-Lyons ◽  
Quinn Dombrowski ◽  
Kathryn Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Online Publication ◽  
Open Network ◽  
Digital Curation ◽  
Digital Work ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Two Phases

This paper introduces the Global Medieval Sourcebook (GMS), an online repository of medieval texts and translations with an open network of contributors. Drawing on our experience developing and building this project in two phases over six years, we reflect on questions regarding editorial, curatorial, and translation practices, and on technical issues involved in the preparation, display, and preservation of texts for online publication. As an example of a scholar-led digital project, the trajectory of the GMS has broad relevance for scholars planning digital curation work of their own. In particular, it offers a salutary example of the infrastructural barriers to sustaining collaborative digital work and a possible model for preserving a concluded project.

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