scholarly journals DESIGN CHOICES: MECHANISM DESIGN AND PLATFORM CAPITALISM

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Goldenfein ◽  
Salomé Viljoen ◽  
Lee McGuigan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Market Rules ◽  
Work Mechanism

Mechanism design is a form of optimization developed in economic theory. It casts economists as institutional engineers, choosing a outcome and then arranging a set of market rules and conditions to achieve it. The toolkit from mechanism design is widely used in economics, policymaking, and now in building and managing online environments. Mechanism design has become one of the most pervasive yet inconspicuous influences on the digital mediation of social life. Its optimizing schemes structure online advertising markets and other multi-sided platform businesses. Whatever normative rationales mechanism design might draw on in its economic origins, as its influence has grown and its applications have become more computational, we suggest those justifications for using mechanism design to orchestrate and optimize human interaction are losing traction. In this article, we ask what ideological work mechanism design is doing in economics, computer science, and its applications to the governance of digital platforms. Observing mechanism design in action in algorithmic environments, we argue it has become a tool for producing information domination, distributing social costs in ways that benefit designers, and controlling and coordinating participants in multi-sided platforms.

scholarly journals Design choices: Mechanism design and platform capitalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395172110343
Author(s):  
Salomé Viljoen ◽  
Jake Goldenfein ◽  
Lee McGuigan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
Social Costs ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Market Rules ◽  
Work Mechanism

Mechanism design is a form of optimization developed in economic theory. It casts economists as institutional engineers, choosing an outcome and then arranging a set of market rules and conditions to achieve it. The toolkit from mechanism design is widely used in economics, policymaking, and now in building and managing online environments. Mechanism design has become one of the most pervasive yet inconspicuous influences on the digital mediation of social life. Its optimizing schemes structure online advertising markets and other multi-sided platform businesses. Whatever normative rationales mechanism design might draw on in its economic origins, as its influence has grown and its applications have become more computational, we suggest those justifications for using mechanism design to orchestrate and optimize human interaction are losing traction. In this article, we ask what ideological work mechanism design is doing in economics, computer science, and its applications to the governance of digital platforms. Observing mechanism design in action in algorithmic environments, we argue it has become a tool for producing information domination, distributing social costs in ways that benefit designers, and controlling and coordinating participants in multi-sided platforms.

Principles of a Successful Social Life, In The Light of Islamic Teachings

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Muhammad Suleman Nasir
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The People ◽  
Analytical Research ◽  
Sound Foundation ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
Islamic Society

Society means a group of people who are living together. People need society from birth to death. Without a collective life, man's deeds, intentions, and habits have no value. Islamic society is the name of a balanced and moderate life in which human intellect, customs, and social etiquette are determined in the light of divine revelation. This system is so comprehensive and all-encompassing that it covers all aspects and activities of life. Islam is a comprehensive, universal, complete code of conduct, and an ideal way of life It not only recognizes the collectiveness of human interaction. Rather, it helps in the development of the community and gives it natural principles that strengthen the community and provides good foundations for it and eliminates the factors that spoil it or make it limited and useless. The Principles of a successful social life in Islamic society seem to reflect the Islamic code of conduct and human nature. Islam is the only religion that advocates goodness and guarantees well-being. Islam gives us self-sacrifice, generosity, trust and honesty, service to the people, justice and fairness, forgiveness and kindness, good society and economy, good deeds, mutual unity, harmony, and brotherhood. Only by practicing the pure thoughts, beliefs, and unparalleled ideas of the religion of Islam, can a person live a prosperous life and he can feel real peace and lasting contentment in the moments of his life. A descriptive and analytical research methodology will be used in this study. It is concluded that for a prosperous social life it is necessary to abide by the injunction of Islamic principles, which provides a sound foundation for a successful social life here in the world and hereafter.

scholarly journals Twelve Agendas on Interacting with Information: A Human-Engaged Computing Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 191-199
Author(s):  
Chen Wang ◽  
Xiaojun (Jenny) Yuan ◽  
Xiangshi Ren
Keyword(s):  
Personal Development ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Symbiotic Relationships ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Information Interaction ◽  
The Many ◽  
Current Paradigm

AbstractDuring the coronavirus global pandemic crisis, we have received information from authentic and inauthentic sources. Fake news, continuous rumors, and prejudiced opinions from digital platforms and social media have the capacity to disrupt social harmony, to stall personal development, and to undermine trust on all levels of human interaction. Despite the wide plurality of perspectives, the diversity of contents, the variety of voices, and the many often-conflicting reasons for publishing, our interactions with information on digital devices are progressively shaping such situations and affecting decisions on all levels. We look at the limitations of existing designs and guidelines in the current paradigm, and we ask to what extent researchers and developers can focus and contribute, through their innovations, to the reduction of uncertainty and cases of misdirection, how they can mitigate tensions between information and humans, and how they can contribute to the maintenance and enhancement of worthy human values. Human-engaged computing (HEC) calls for innate user capacities to be enhanced rather than displaced by digital technologies so that the human factor in interactions is fully exploited and truly efficient symbiotic relationships between humans and devices can be achieved. Under the framework of HEC, we propose 12 research agendas from the theoretical, principled, and practical aspects, in order to develop future synergized interactions between humans and information. The present crisis presents us with a good opportunity to reflect on the need to empower humans in relation to the tools they use and to consider the next paradigm shift for designing information interaction.

scholarly journals EFFECT OF DIGITAL FINANCIAL SERVICES ON THE GROWTH OF SMES IN KENYA

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Nandwa Nelly Awinja ◽  
Olanrewaju Isola Fatoki
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
New Business ◽  
The Government ◽  
Medium Enterprises

The digital economy is a new business environment that enables enterprises to operate and provide services via the Internet and digital platforms. The study was on the effect of economic digitisation on growth of SMEs in Nairobi CBD. The specific objectives were to determine the effect of digital financial services, digital content, digital values and skills and the effect of online advertising on the growth of small and medium enterprises. The sample size in this study was 1000 SMEs formally registered in the study area from where a sample of 300 was randomly selected. The questionnaire was employed for the purpose of data collection from which out of the 300 questionnaires distributed, 180 were returned representing a 60% response rate. Guided by the research objectives, the data collected through the questionnaire were sorted, coded and presented in graphical and tabular forms for the purpose of descriptive analysis. To determine the significance of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, a regression analysis was carried out using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The study established that digital financial services were significant factors in ensuring growth of SMEs in Kenya. The study concluded that Mobile payments have become a favorite means of making financial transactions.  The study also established that Applications available for mobile digital devices is expected to increase enormously.  Digital payment technology has increased over the last decade. From the findings, it was concluded that Consumers grow more familiar with the different payment systems available and encourage more transactions. The SMEs should explore the possibility of forming a management committee to streamline economic digitisation issues. It is recommended that the organization clearly spell out economic digitisation procedures and criteria. This can stir positive growth  among SMEs establishments and can result in effective management. The Government and the various agencies should also make provisions for training programs for SMEs  to empower them in terms of economic digitisation. The SMEs should not rely on external professionals to assist in digitisation as this may be expensive. It is also recommended that the SMEs should adopt digital financial services. E-commerce will ensure increased profitability for small and medium enterprises. They should also have Social networking sites, which have proved to be popular online activities in relation to time, spent. They should also adopt Innovation driven entrepreneurship as it contributes to increase in sales revenue, market share, efficiency, customers’ loyalty and firm profitability.

scholarly journals An Overview and Evaluation of the Cat Market Design Competition

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Miller ◽  
Jinzhong Niu ◽  
Martin Chapman ◽  
Peter McBurney
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Market Design ◽  
The State ◽  
Online Commerce ◽  
Competitive Environments ◽  
Online Marketplaces ◽  
Design Competition ◽  
History Of

The rise of online commerce has led to an emerging discipline at the intersection of economics and computer science, a discipline which studies the properties and dynamics of automated trading in online marketplaces. The CAT Market Design Tournament was created to promote research into the design and deployment of economic mechanisms for such online marketplaces, particularly mechanisms able to adapt automatically to dynamic competitive environments. This research competition, which ran from 2007 to 2011), was won by four different teams and had entrants from thirteen countries. This chapter describes the motivation and history of the tournament and presents research that has arisen from it. The winners were experimentally “played off” to evaluate whether the state of the art in automated mechanism design improved during the CAT competition. The results show a clear and consistent improvement, supporting the belief that the competition has encouraged research in the field.

Maximizing, Moralizing, and Dramatizing

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Crucial Element ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

This chapter describes a “dramatistic,” “dramatic,” or “dramaturgical” approach to the study of social interaction. It asks whether the dramaturgical model insists on the theatricality of social life merely in the sense of insisting that people fill roles just as persons act parts in a play. This is the question of whether the crucial element in the dramaturgical picture is that cluster of insights that goes under the general heading of “role distance.” The chapter considers the peculiarities of rational explanation and about the role of reconstructions of “the thing to do” other than the role of explaining an action or series of actions by focusing on voting behavior in the terms proposed by Anthony Downs's An Economic Theory of Democracy. It also examines some recent accounts of the phenomenon of suicide, along with the rationality principle, which Karl Popper calls “false but indispensable” to the social sciences.

Economic Imperialism in Education Research: A Conceptual Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 0013189X2110661
Author(s):  
Huriya Jabbar ◽  
Francine Menashy
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Education Research ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Economic Outcomes ◽  
Systematic Search ◽  
Education Reforms ◽  
Aims Of Education ◽  
Outcomes Of Education ◽  
Economic Imperialism

In this review, we explore economic imperialism, a concept that captures the phenomenon of a single discipline’s power over so many facets of social life and policy—including education. Through a systematic search, we examine how economic imperialism has been conceptualized and applied across fields. We uncovered three key, interconnected elements of economic imperialism that hold relevance for education research. First, economics has colonized other disciplines, narrowing the lens through which policymakers have designed education reforms. Second, an overreliance on economic rationales for human behavior neglects other explanations. Third, a focus on economic outcomes of education has subjugated other important aims of education. We share implications for researchers to use economic theory in ways that are interdisciplinary but not imperialist.

Trust and Accountability

2011 ◽  
pp. 363-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Ries
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Systems ◽  
Ubiquitous Computing ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
Networked Computers

Ubiquitous computing implies that literally any activity in everyday life can be assisted or accompanied by networked computers. Therefore, the concepts of everyday social life must be carefully reflected on when developing applications for ubiquitous computing. The present chapter focuses on the concepts of trust and accountability. First, both concepts are introduced with their everyday semantics. Second, we explain why trust is relevant for ubiquitous computing, and introduce the main issues for dealing with trust in computer science. Third, we show how accountability can be achieved in distributed systems using reputation and micropayment mechanisms. In both sections, we provide a short overview of the state-ofthe- art and give detailed examples for a deeper understanding. Finally, we provide a research outlook, again arguing for the integration of these concepts into future ubiquitous computing applications.

Transmitted Wounds

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Pinchevski
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Friedrich Kittler ◽  
The Face ◽  
Material Conditions ◽  
Human Failure ◽  
Bear Witness

In Transmitted Wounds, Amit Pinchevski explores the ways media technology and logic shape the social life of trauma both clinically and culturally. Bringing media theory to bear on trauma theory, Pinchevski reveals the technical operations that inform the conception and experience of traumatic impact and memory. He offers a bold thesis about the deep association of media and trauma: media bear witness to the human failure to bear witness, making the traumatic technologically transmissible and reproducible. Taking up a number of case studies--the radio broadcasts of the Eichmann trial; the videotaping of Holocaust testimonies; recent psychiatric debates about trauma through media following the 9/11 attacks; current controversy surrounding drone operators' post-trauma; and digital platforms of algorithmic-holographic witnessing and virtual reality exposure therapy for PTSD--Pinchevski demonstrates how the technological mediation of trauma feeds into the traumatic condition itself. The result is a novel understanding of media as constituting the material conditions for trauma to appear as something that cannot be fully approached and yet somehow must be. While drawing on contemporary materialist media theory, especially the work of Friedrich Kittler and his followers, Pinchevski goes beyond the anti-humanistic tendency characterizing the materialist approach, discovering media as bearing out the human vulnerability epitomized in trauma, and finding therein a basis for moral concern in the face of violence and atrocity. Transmitted Wounds unfolds the ethical and political stakes involved in the technological transmission of mental wounds across clinical, literary, and cultural contexts.

scholarly journals A Social Networks Approach to Viral Advertising: The Role of Primary, Contextual, and Low Influencers

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630511984751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itai Himelboim ◽  
Guy J. Golan
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Online Advertising ◽  
Peer To Peer ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Advertising Content ◽  
Viral Advertising

The diffusion of social networking platforms ushered in a new age of peer-to-peer distributed online advertising content, widely referred to as viral advertising. The current study proposes a social networks approach to the study of viral advertising and identifying influencers. Expanding beyond the conventional retweets metrics to include Twitter mentions as connection in the network, this study identifies three groups of influencers, based on their connectivity in their networks: Hubs, or highly retweeted users, are Primary Influencers; Bridges, or highly mentioned users who associate connect users who would otherwise be disconnected, are Contextual Influencers, and Isolates are the Low Influence users. Each of these users’ roles in viral advertising is discussed and illustrated through the Heineken’s Worlds Apart campaign as a case study. Providing a unique examination of viral advertising from a network paradigm, our study advances scholarship on social media influencers and their contribution to content virality on digital platforms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document