Data and Discrimination: Converting Critical Concerns into Productive Inquiry

From popular discourse to policy declarations, questions of discrimination have begun to shape how we understand and confront our data-drenched society.

The Open Technology Institute is convening a group of academics to grapple with some of the most complex and pressing public problems related to data and discrimination. From biometric databases of political refugees to in-store tracking and personalization, researchers will cover a range of experiences and examples and discuss unintended and intended consequences of data collection, use, analysis, storage, and sharing. The meeting promises to surface historical, methodological, moral, and ethical issues in algorithmic and aggregative processes that govern public and private decision making today.

The event—a preconference of the International CommunicationAssociation’s annual meeting—will take place in Seattle, Washington. A short summary of the event will be made available at its conclusion.

Participants