INDEPENDENT AUTHORS’ DEPENDENCE ON BIG TECH: CATEGORIZATION AND GOVERNANCE OF AUTHORS OF COLOR ON AMAZON

Digital book publishing platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP are often lauded for enabling independent authors unconnected to established publishers to enter the book industry. Despite the appellation, independent authors are not completely autonomous. Book publishing on digital platforms is intensely mediated by the technology companies on which authors rely to publish and disseminate their work. This paper explores the ways in which Amazon KDP undermines the independence of Black authors through its categorization and content moderation systems. The critical framework for this research combines media and platform studies with publishing studies through the application of an ecology model that analyses the technological, economic and socio-cultural contexts in which books and authors circulate online. (van Dijck, 2013). This paper uses a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews with authors of color and website analysis that collected metadata from Amazon’s Web API. This paper argues that Amazon perpetuates the discrimination Black authors face within the traditional publishing industry through its technological systems. Amazon’s categorisation system uses profile data that has a tendency to sort books by Black authors into categories defined by race regardless of the categories chosen by independent authors. The visibility of books is also impacted by outcomes of Amazon’s content moderation system, Rekognition, which has been proven to be substantially less accurate in accurately identifying darker-skinned individuals (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018). Amazon acts as a powerful intermediary in the governance and organisation of content in its marketplace due to the increased datafication of books in this sphere.

Co-constructing ancestry through direct-to-consumer genetic testing

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic ancestry tests offered via the internet supposedly uncover the ancestry of those tested. While these tests might be seen as a means to find a biologically inscribed and fixed genealogy, this paper explores how companies and customers co-construct ancestry through genetic ancestry testing. The study draws on a review of relevant literature, qualitative interviews with experts and stakeholders, a website analysis, and an autoethnographic self-observation. It shows how DTC genetic testing companies create specific concepts of ancestry in their marketing, development of specific databases, and presentation of results, but also how users interpret and incorporate their results into their own genealogies and lives. Looking at the potential social impact of DTC ancestry testing, the paper questions its categorization as recreational activity or entertainment.

Website Analysis as a Media for Healthy Living Digital Campaign

A website is a collection of information or a collection of pages commonly accessed via the internet. One of them is the Healthy Living Campaign Website. This research aims to support the community in carrying out a healthy lifestyle by providing information to implement a healthy lifestyle. However, the source of information from the Healthy Living Campaign Website is said to be incomplete. For that, a maximum evaluation is needed. The research used descriptive and qualitative analysis methods. The results obtained indicate that the Healthy Living Campaign Website has advantages and disadvantages in terms of information. This result research is The Healthy Living Together Activity Website has several views in its design. It is due to several factors, such as the views that influence the design of the website. However, in general, the positive impact could be related to the information conveyed through the Healthy Living Campaign Website.

A mixed-method approach for modelling customer-centric mobile phone reverse logistics: application of social media data

Purpose Recently, reverse logistics (RL) has become more prominent due to growing environmental concerns, social responsibility, competitive advantage and high efficiency by customers because of the expansion of product selection and shorter product life cycle. However, effective implementation of RL results in some direct advantages, the most important of which is winning customer satisfaction that is vital to a firm’s success. Therefore, paying attention to customer feedback in supply chain and logistics processes has recently increased so that manufacturers have decided to transform their RL into customer-centric RL. Hence, this paper aims to identify the features of a mobile phone which affect consumer purchasing behaviour and to analyse the interrelationship among them to develop a framework for customer-centric RL. These features are studied based on website analysis of several mobile phone manufacturers. The special focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) in an attempt to help the decision-making process in RL through a big data analysis approach. Design/methodology/approach A portfolio of mobile phone features that affect consumer’s mobile phone purchasing decisions has been taken from website analysis by several mobile phone manufacturers to achieve this objective. Then, interrelationships between the identified features have been established by using big data supplemented with interpretive structural modelling (ISM). Apart from that, cross-impact matrix multiplication, applied to classification analysis, was carried out to graphically represent these features based on their driving power and dependence. Findings During the study, it has been observed from the ISM that the chip (F5) is the most significant feature that affects customer’s buying behaviour; therefore, mobile phone manufacturers realize that this is to be addressed first. Originality/value The focus of this paper is on social media data (Twitter) so that experts can understand the interaction between mobile phone features that affect consumer’s decisions on mobile phone purchasing by using the results.

Information and Communication Technologies in Networks of Non-Profit Organizations

This thesis explores the recursive interaction among technology, human action and institutional properties in three networks of nonprofit organizations. The aims of the research are two-fold: to make a theoretical contibution to literature on organizations and technology by applying concepts of institutionalism and the structurational model of technology to a unique organizational form; and, to make a practical contribution to the nonprofit sector by improving knowledge of how networks of nonprofit organizations interact with information and communication technologies. The research process involved 13 interviews, 44 qualitative surveys and copious document and website analysis. The findings indicate that technology is not institutionalized uniformly within the network structures but instead comes to assume different roles within different parts of the networks. This leads to an extension of the structurational model of technology and also highlights the importance of flexible technologies that can be adapted to the variable circumstances of a single network structure.

Information and Communication Technologies in Networks of Non-Profit Organizations

This thesis explores the recursive interaction among technology, human action and institutional properties in three networks of nonprofit organizations. The aims of the research are two-fold: to make a theoretical contibution to literature on organizations and technology by applying concepts of institutionalism and the structurational model of technology to a unique organizational form; and, to make a practical contribution to the nonprofit sector by improving knowledge of how networks of nonprofit organizations interact with information and communication technologies. The research process involved 13 interviews, 44 qualitative surveys and copious document and website analysis. The findings indicate that technology is not institutionalized uniformly within the network structures but instead comes to assume different roles within different parts of the networks. This leads to an extension of the structurational model of technology and also highlights the importance of flexible technologies that can be adapted to the variable circumstances of a single network structure.

Usability Evaluation of Encyclopedia Websites

Usability is an important aspect that every website should focus more. It tells us how well and success website will function with real users. Many people often think usability tests are expensive and time-consuming. It can be a cost-effective and time saver with usability testing instead of spending more time fixing an unusable website. This study evaluates the usability of encyclopedia websites by using automated usability testing tools and questionnaire methods. The questionnaire was developed based on a standard form called Website Analysis and Measurement Inventory (WAMMI) that identified 20 common usability questions divided into five categories. Each category deals with one aspect of usability. Simultaneously, the automated usability testing tools used in this study were Pingdom and GT Metrix to calculate and analyse the website performance of selected encyclopedia websites based on website components including page load time, media size and overall web performance grades. This study could help web designer, developer, and practitioners design better and more user-friendly encyclopedia websites.

Understanding the Value of Website Design and Analysis in a Comprehensive CALL Environment

Website design, analysis, and related critical thinking in a CALL context are rather unique. This chapter presents an in-depth exploration of how website analysis and design pedagogy could help support analytical thinking and English language production in an EFL context. The study investigated if students could analyze English websites and comprehend and produce responses in English for eight open-ended questions, divided into two sets of design and inference-based queries. Additionally, students answered a questionnaire on their own awareness about the use of metacognitive reading strategies during website analysis and questionnaire responses. Results have demonstrated the reasonable ability for students to answer most design and inference set queries. This chapter also introduces the idea of a project-based CALL environment. This was created through 3D-printing-related processes and in-class design, and manufacturing of digital prototypes of products, that culminated in procedural documentation in a computer-mediated collaborative environment and with related website production.