PlanAlyzer

Online experiments are an integral part of the design and evaluation of software infrastructure at Internet firms. To handle the growing scale and complexity of these experiments, firms have developed software frameworks for their design and deployment. Ensuring that the results of experiments in these frameworks are trustworthy---referred to as internal validity ---can be difficult. Currently, verifying internal validity requires manual inspection by someone with substantial expertise in experimental design. We present the first approach for checking the internal validity of online experiments statically, that is, from code alone. We identify well-known problems that arise in experimental design and causal inference, which can take on unusual forms when expressed as computer programs: failures of randomization and treatment assignment, and causal sufficiency errors. Our analyses target PLANOUT, a popular framework that features a domain-specific language (DSL) to specify and run complex experiments. We have built PLANALYZER, a tool that checks PLANOUT programs for threats to internal validity, before automatically generating important data for the statistical analyses of a large class of experimental designs. We demonstrate PLANALYZER'S utility on a corpus of PLANOUT scripts deployed in production at Facebook, and we evaluate its ability to identify threats on a mutated subset of this corpus. PLANALYZER has both precision and recall of 92% on the mutated corpus, and 82% of the contrasts it generates match hand-specified data.

Regulating the Information Society

Ireland has become a global hub for personal information, with internet firms headquartered there holding information on billions of users. But has Ireland been a responsible regulator? This chapter examines the approach of the Irish state, tracing the evolution of data protection governance and its application to the internet industry. It outlines the legal and policy context, and argues that regulation has been hampered by a weak legislative framework and significant under-resourcing of the data protection supervisory authority. Using Facebook as a case study, it examines how this has prompted international pressure for stronger regulation and evaluates the Irish response. It concludes by arguing that Ireland has yet to properly engage with the wider issues presented by its new role as a key jurisdiction for the internet industry, with data protection being just one of many aspects that need more attention as Irish regulation increasingly has spillover effects elsewhere.

Satellite internet firms face tough path to viability

Headline INT: Satellite internet firms face tough growth path

PERCEPTIONS OF ALGORITHMIC PROFILING ON FACEBOOK AND THEIR SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

With every digital interaction, individuals are increasingly subject to algorithmic profiling, understood as the systematic and purposeful recording and classification of data related to individuals. Large Internet firms, such as Facebook and Google/Alphabet, as well as third-party data brokers collect and combine detailed personal data to create sophisticated profiles for predictive purposes. Research has started to look into people’s perception and engagement of algorithms, showing that many users are unaware of the existence of algorithms, for example those which curate news feeds, and that a majority feels uncomfortable with algorithmic profiling on Facebook. In our research, we investigate perceptions of algorithmic profiling on Facebook by addressing the following questions: What user narratives of profiling on Facebook exist? What reactions do users have when confronted with Facebook’s inferred profiles? What are the social implications of user perceptions of profiling? Drawing on rich and recent survey data from 292 US-based Facebook users, we identified four overarching themes relating to Facebook's profiling activities: uncertainty, naiveté, realism, and fatalism. While the third theme is the most prevalent, Facebook is perceived as very powerful when it comes to algorithmic profiling. However, when confronted with their own profiles through the "My interests" and "My categories" sections in the Facebook Ad preferences menu, many users indicated surprise at how imprecise or even wrong some of the inferred interests and categories were. We discuss the social implications of our findings with regards social exclusion and social justice.

Innovation process in the business ecosystem: the four cooperations practices in the media platform

PurposeThe main purpose of this research is to construct a generalized set of innovation processes that occur at the ecosystem level based on the academic research. The study analyzes the cultural and creativity-driven over-the-top (OTT) platform that encompasses diverse network of ecosystem members by utilizing the four cooperation practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study begins with the literature review that discusses various topics related to ecosystem (e.g. service innovation, innovative ecosystem). Then, this study introduces a new conceptual framework that describes how cooperations occur in the ecosystem. Finally, a qualitative and explorative case study of the OTT platforms in the global context is conducted.FindingsThe application of the framework reveals how co-innovative business ecosystems demonstrate co-evolution through different structures and directions. An ecosystem can evolve by incorporating other industries (i.e. horizontal growth or broadening strategy) to deepen and broaden the industry integration.Originality/valueAs an explorative approach that opens the discussion on how co-innovation and co-evolution occur at the ecosystem level, particularly in the culture and creativity-driven industry, the value of this research extends to other similar industries where diverse actors such as technology firms, Internet firms, direct consumers, government and even the society impact the type of product and service and shape the evolution of the entire ecosystem.

Regulating the Information Society: Data Protection and Ireland's Internet Industry

Ireland has become a global hub for personal information with internet firms headquartered in Dublin collectively holding information on billions of users. But has Ireland been a responsible regulator of the way in which these firms use that data? In this chapter I examine the approach taken by the Irish state, tracing the evolution of data protection governance and its application to the internet industry.

Closing the Digital Entrepreneurship Gap the Case of Returnee Entrepreneurs in Morocco

Despite the growing rates of Internet penetration and inflows of returnee entrepreneurs (REs) from Silicon Valley, there are still few examples of successful digital entrepreneurship ventures from emerging markets reaching international markets. Positioning itself at the intersection of returnee entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship and internationalization, this article is based on the case studies of the REs starting up digital ventures in Morocco. The results show that Moroccan digital entrepreneurship is driven by well-educated REs with working experience from the United States and Europe. These entrepreneurs play a dominant role in fostering the local digital entrepreneurship scene, and they have an international ambition in their ventures from the outset. The dominance of the REs also reveals vulnerability in the local digital ecosystem—reluctance of the indigenous business community to engage in the digital sector and a lack of domestic investors, programmers and start-up clusters. However, Moroccan digital start-ups struggle with the fierce competition among the global Internet firms, which benefit from an underdeveloped policy framework. This article contributes new insights to the complexity of the returnee and digital entrepreneurship and demonstrates the pivotal role of Moroccan REs in the country’s trajectory towards closing the extant digital entrepreneurship gap vis-à-vis developed markets.

Several Contemporary Economy Features, Consequences of Internet Expansion and I.C.T. Innovations in the World

The Internet has reach half of the population of the planet and in the latest three years more than 700 millions users came on line from the emerging world. Most of them are coming now from the poorer population. This it may be a turning point for their economic development. This paper attempts to outline some possible future developments of the contemporary economy within the new digital transformation and development of internet firms in emerging markets, some of the pluses and minuses, some of the opportunities and threats brought by the expansion of the Internet and information and communication technologies at different levels. We will present some significant aspects about this impact for individuals and for companies especially in Eastern Europe but also around the world. The study intends to deliver also analysis at the level of governmental reactions. Governments have gone through different sentiments that have led to different responses to these technologies. A new revolution that is about to begin it will be grounded on blockchain the technologies that cryptocurrencies are based on. What was initially translated as a threat to governments and central banks can become a solution if it’s deal cautiously.

Regional capability emergence in an entrepreneurial ecosystem

Purpose Entrepreneurial ecosystems offer an approach to analyse the evolution and resilience of a region by placing the emphasis on the interactions that occur between entrepreneurs and the supporting regional resources. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the transformation of a region with high-growth firms to identify the coordinating structures that evolve in response to entrepreneurial recycling of resources. Design/methodology/approach This study uses network analysis to explore the scaling capability network of leaders in Dublin’s high-growth IT firms over a 15-year period. Findings After a gestation period of 10 years, leaders displayed prior experience from an initial entrant. Towards the end of the study period, numerous well-connected internet firms arose providing a structure resilient to exogenous and endogenous shocks. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that the region’s structure changed from a satellite platform to a “hub and spoke” type district, and is showing signs of becoming a Marshallian type district, although the analysis is limited to regional knowledge capital through leadership mobility and does not consider the financial, social or institutional capital described in the entrepreneurial ecosystems literature. Practical implications Policy that aims to create regional resilience but minimise the scope of intervention needed can encourage the introduction of an anchor firm to a region and can complement this initiative with regional capability accumulation through labour policies that encourage resource recycling and minimise human capital leakage. Originality/value This contributes to an understanding of how entrepreneurial ecosystems evolve and the structure of the supporting resources that lead to increased regional resilience.