«Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor», Virginia Eubanks (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

In October 2115, a week after I started writing this book, my kind and brilliant partner of 13 years, Jason, got jumped by four guys while walking home from the corner store on our block in Troy, New York. He remembers someone asking him for a cigarette before he was hit the first time. He recalls just flashes after that: waking up on a folding chair in the bodega, the proprietor telling him to hold on, police officers asking questions, a jagged moment of light and sound during the ambulance ride.

It’s probably good that he doesn’t remember. His attackers broke his jaw in half a dozen places, both his eye sockets, and one of his cheekbones before making off with the $35 he had in his wallet. By the time he got out of the hospital, his head looked like a misshapen, rotten pumpkin. We had to wait two weeks for the swelling to go down enough for facial reconstruction surgery. On October 23, a plastic surgeon spent six hours repairing the damage, rebuilding Jason’s skull with titanium plates and tiny bone screws, and wiring his jaw shut.

We marveled that Jason’s eyesight and hearing hadn’t been damaged. He was in a lot of pain but relatively good spirits. He lost only one tooth. Our community rallied around us, delivering an almost constant stream of soup and smoothies to our door. Friends planned a fundraiser to help with insurance co-pays, lost wages, and the other unexpected expenses of trauma and healing. Despite the horror and fear of those first few weeks, we felt lucky.

Then, a few days after his surgery, I went to the drugstore to pick up his painkillers. The pharmacist informed me that the prescription had been canceled. Their system showed that we did not have health insurance.

In a panic, I called our insurance provider. After navigating through their voice-mail system and waiting on hold, I reached a customer service representative. I explained that our prescription coverage had been denied. Friendly and concerned, she said that the computer system didn’t have a “start date” for our coverage. That’s strange, I replied, because the claims for Jason’s trip to the emergency room had been paid. We must have had a start date at that point. What had happened to our coverage since?

She assured me that it was just a mistake, a technical glitch. She did some back-end database magic and reinstated our prescription coverage. I picked up Jason’s pain meds later that day. But the disappearance of our policy weighed heavily on my mind. We had received insurance cards in September. The insurance company paid the emergency room doctors and the radiologist for services rendered on October 8. How could we be missing a start date?

I looked up our claims history on the insurance company’s website, stomach twisting. Our claims before October 16 had been paid. But all the charges for the surgery a week later—more than $62,000—had been denied. I called my insurance company again. I navigated the voice-mail system and waited on hold. This time I was not just panicked; I was angry. The customer service representative kept repeating that “the system said” our insurance had not yet started, so we were not covered. Any claims received while we lacked coverage would be denied.

I developed a sinking feeling as I thought it through. I had started a new job just days before the attack; we switched insurance providers. Jason and I aren’t married; he is insured as my domestic partner. We had the new insurance for a week and then submitted tens of thousands of dollars worth of claims. It was possible that the missing start date was the result of an errant keystroke in a call center. But my instinct was that an algorithm had singled us out for a fraud investigation, and the insurance company had suspended our benefits until their inquiry was complete. My family had been red-flagged.

* * *

Since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health, and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Forty years ago, nearly all of the major decisions that shape our lives—whether or not we are offered employment, a mortgage, insurance, credit, or a government service—were made by human beings. They often used actuarial processes that made them think more like computers than people, but human discretion still ruled the day. Today, we have ceded much of that decision-making power to sophisticated machines. Automated eligibility systems, ranking algorithms, and predictive risk models control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, who is short-listed for employment, and who is investigated for fraud.

Health-care fraud is a real problem. According to the FBI, it costs employers, policy holders, and taxpayers nearly $30 billion a year, though the great majority of it is committed by providers, not consumers. I don’t fault insurance companies for using the tools at their disposal to identify fraudulent claims, or even for trying to predict them. But the human impacts of red-flagging, especially when it leads to the loss of crucial life-saving services, can be catastrophic. Being cut off from health insurance at a time when you feel most vulnerable, when someone you love is in debilitating pain, leaves you feeling cornered and desperate.

As I battled the insurance company, I also cared for Jason, whose eyes were swollen shut and whose reconstructed jaw and eye sockets burned with pain. I crushed his pills—painkiller, antibiotic, anti-anxiety medications—and mixed them into his smoothies. I helped him to the bathroom. I found the clothes he was wearing the night of the attack and steeled myself to go through his blood-caked pockets. I comforted him when he awoke with flashbacks. With equal measures of gratitude and exhaustion, I managed the outpouring of support from our friends and family.

I called the customer service number again and again. I asked to speak to supervisors, but call center workers told me that only my employer could speak to their bosses. When I finally reached out to the human resources staff at my job for help, they snapped into action. Within days, our insurance coverage had been “reinstated.” It was an enormous relief, and we were able to keep follow-up medical appointments and schedule therapy without fear of bankruptcy. But the claims that had gone through during the month we mysteriously lacked coverage were still denied. I had to tackle correcting them, laboriously, one by one. Many of the bills went into collections. Each dreadful pink envelope we received meant I had to start the process all over again: call the doctor, the insurance company, the collections agency. Correcting the consequences of a single missing date took a year.

I’ll never know if my family’s battle with the insurance company was the unlucky result of human error. But there is good reason to believe that we were targeted for investigation by an algorithm that detects health-care fraud. We presented some of the most common indicators of medical malfeasance: our claims were incurred shortly after the inception of a new policy; many were filed for services rendered late at night; Jason’s prescriptions included controlled substances, such as the oxycodone that helped him manage his pain; we were in an untraditional relationship that could call his status as my dependent into question.

The insurance company repeatedly told me that the problem was the result of a technical error, a few missing digits in a database. But that’s the thing about being targeted by an algorithm: you get a sense of a pattern in the digital noise, an electronic eye turned toward you, but you can’t put your finger on exactly what’s amiss. There is no requirement that you be notified when you are red-flagged. There is no sunshine law that compels companies to release the inner details of their digital fraud detection systems. With the notable exception of credit reporting, we have remarkably limited access to the equations, algorithms, and models that shape our life chances.

«La revolución electrónica», VILLAR, Eugenio (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

Este libro parte de un hecho mayoritariamente aceptado; La electrónica ha cambiado nuestra forma de vivir. La utilización de dispositivos electrónicos como el ordenador, el teléfono móvil o la tableta para comunicarnos por voz o mediante mensajes, intercambiar opiniones o mostrarnos a través de redes sociales, acceder a toda la información que necesitamos, ejecutar los programas que aumentan nuestra productividad en el trabajo, jugar, ver vídeos o escuchar música, etc., nos parece algo natural, inevitable. Sin estos dispositivos nos costaría mucho volver a adaptarnos a la forma de vida que llevábamos no hace tanto tiempo. Sin embargo, las razones por las que la electrónica es tan omnipresente en nuestros días, como ha llegado a serlo y, sobre todo, cuál puede ser su evolución en el futuro, no son tan obvias y requieren de cierta reflexión.

El propósito de este libro es profundizar en el hecho de cómo la electrónica ha modificado nuestra forma de ver y entender el mundo; una reflexión para ver en qué medida la electrónica es importante en la actualidad y porqué. Haremos un recorrido rápido al desarrollo que esta ingeniería ha tenido desde sus orígenes a principios del siglo XX, que nos permita comprender mejor la situación actual. En esa evolución histórica comprobaremos que la influencia de la electrónica va mucho más allá de los productos que ha ido ofreciendo a la sociedad ya que estos mismos productos han tenido un impacto sin el que es imposible entender el siglo XX y el modo en el que se han resuelto sus conflictos. De la misma forma, sin la electrónica y sus aplicaciones no podemos entender el fin de siglo y los retos que la humanidad afronta en el siglo XXI. Comentaré también el fin de la electrónica como tecnología en desarrollo exponencial y analizaré brevemente los cambios en el modelo de negocio que este hecho puede tener. Finalmente, haré un recorrido por los principales desarrollos tecnológicos que la electrónica va a posibilitar en el siglo XXI, el siglo de la electrónica y la posible influencia que este desarrollo puede seguir teniendo en nuestras vidas. Una reflexión personal que solo pretende invitar al lector a que realice por sí mismo una reflexión similar. Al fin y al cabo, el futuro ya está aquí y en gran medida, va a depender de las decisiones que tomemos.

«La ingeniería del Big Data. Cómo trabajar con datos», LÓPEZ MURPHY, Juan José; ZARZA, Gonzalo (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

Big data es más que una propiedad de una masa de datos o un conjunto de tecnologías. Utilizado efectivamente es el vehículo para implementar un paradigma data driven, tal vez el mayor desafío y salto de calidad al que pueden aspirar las organizaciones actualmente, y una necesidad estratégica para ser competitivos en el futuro. Este libro recorre los estadios necesarios para ejecutar eficazmente estas iniciativas: un entendimiento de los datos y la información, los tipos de tecnologías, cómo comenzar un proyecto desde cero, errores de novatos, alcanzando la madurez y perspectivas sobre el futuro.

«Ojos y espías. Cómo nos vigilan y por qué deberíamos saberlo», LLOYD KYI, Tanya (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

¿QUIÉN NOS VIGILA… Y POR QUÉ? Subimos a Instagram cada momento de nuestra vida, compartimos nuestros pensamientos íntimos en Facebook y vamos dejando nuestros datos personales cuando navegamos en internet. Cada vez que hacemos clic, escribimos, damos un «me gusta», aceptamos una solicitud de amistad, compramos, o incluso cuando vamos andando por la calle, ¡nos vigilan más ojos de los que podemos imaginar! Dentro y fuera de internet, las empresas, los gobiernos y las fuerzas de seguridad van recopilando información sobre nosotros. Dicen que así estamos más seguros, o que eso nos facilita la vida. Pero ¿dónde está la línea que separa la seguridad de la intimidad? ¿Y a quién le corresponde trazarla? Con diversos ejemplos de la vida real, la autora descifra en este libro el controvertido mundo de la vigilancia y explora temas tan candentes como la tecnología de reconocimiento facial, las cámaras de seguridad, el ciberacoso y el control de los alumnos en los colegios, entre otros.

«La concentración infocomunicacional en América Latina (2000-2015). Nuevos medios y tecnologías, menos actores», MASTRINI, Guillermo; BECERRA, Martín (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

La concentración infocomunicacional en América Latina (2000-2015) es una coedición, de descarga gratuita, entre la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes y Observacom (Observatorio Latinoamericano de Regulación, Medios y Convergencia).

En los primeros 15 años del siglo XXI, nuevos medios y nuevas tecnologías cambiaron radicalmente el modo en que América Latina se informa, se entretiene y se comunica. La revolución digital estuvo acompañada de expectativas de apertura de las comunicaciones a nuevos actores y de mayor diversidad de flujos y contenidos. No obstante, los niveles de concentración de las actividades infocomunicacionales han crecido en este lapso, como documenta y analiza la presente investigación.

Los procesos de concentración, extranjerización, conglomerización, convergencia y regulaciones intensivamente modificadas por parte de los Estados en la región, se combinan en un escenario que acerca de modo inédito al sector de medios audiovisuales y al de telecomunicaciones, con internet como bisagra.

Las novedades principales de la estructuración de un sector medular para la convivencia democrática, para la circulación de la cultura, para la socialización y para la nueva economía son detalladas en el presente libro, que se suma a la serie histórica de estudios previos que los autores –doctores en comunicación, profesores universitarios e investigadores del Conicet– realizaron en este caso en el marco de la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes y de Observacom.

«The Appearance of Solidity: Media and Culture in the Electric Age», POMEROY, Barry (2017)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

This collection of essays connected by the thread of media influence is an attempt to trace the logical result of the Gutenberg Press experience through print, telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and internet technologies. Using Marshall McLuhan’s insights as an impetus, this meandering tale draws upon novels, radio and television shows, film, and trending internet platforms and gaming to discuss the influence of media in a world increasingly wrapped in the fibre optic cables of the technological age.
Technological advances have always had a clear effect on the possible expressions of culture, but those are best seen in retrospect. Now, with the advent of the internet through YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the world of gaming, the cultural shifts that are happening beneath our feet have become difficult to see. The stream of data has become a torrent, but its vacant noise obscures its exact shape. This idiosyncratic examination of those shifts is a commentary on the current of our times and an interrogation of the eddies and swirls of cultural influence and societal change.
New trends such as self-publishing have utterly transformed the established publishing industry, just as Netflix has transformed the reception of television, online piracy the notion of copyright, the cellphone the paper map and the camera, and YouTube the home movie. Like a skipping stone over the growing flood of the digital age, this study examines some of these trends more closely in terms of what we gain as a culture, as well as what the current leaves behind in its inexorable rush into the future.

«Calm Technology: Designing for Billions of Devices and the Internet of Things», CASE, Amber (2016)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

How can we use technology as tools instead of letting our technology use us? This practical book explores the concept of calm technology, a method for smoothly capturing the user’s attention only when necessary, while calmly remaining in the user’s periphery most of the time. You’ll learn how to design products that work well, launch well, are easy to support, easy to use, and don’t get in the way of a user’s life.

Old systems and bad interfaces will plague us if we don’t learn how to design for the long term. By writing code that’s small instead of large, and making simple systems rather than complex ones, we can begin to design technology that gets out of our way.

Discover principles that follow the human lifestyle and environment in mind, allowing technology to amplify humanness instead of taking it away
Delve into types of alerts, product launch, "calming" technology, and tech that smoothly enters people’s lives
Learn from a trained anthropologist and a technology hobbyist who sits on the edge between technology and how people use it

This book is ideal for anyone who actively builds or makes decisions about technology, including user experience designers, product designers, managers, creative directors, and developers.

«Telecare Technologies and the Transformation of Healthcare», OUDSHOORN, Nelly (2016)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

Winner of the British Sociological Association Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness Book Prize, 2112.

This book traces the changes in healthcare implicated in telecare technologies: information and communication technologies that enable care at a distance. What happens when healthcare moves from physical to virtual encounters between healthcare professionals and patients? What are the consequences for patients when they are expected to do things that used to be done by healthcare professionals? What actually happens when homes become electronically wired to healthcare organizations? These are urgent questions that are, however, largely absent in dominant discourses on telecare.

Drawing on insights from science, technology, and human geography, this work opens up novel accounts of the adoption and use of new technologies in healthcare. Nelly Oudshoorn shows how telecare technologies participate in redefining the responsibilities and identities of patients and healthcare professionals, introducing a new category of healthcare workers, and changing the kinds of care and spaces where healthcare is situated. This book intervenes critically into discourses that celebrate the independence of place and time by showing how places and physical contacts still matter in care at a distance.

«Cibernícolas: Vicios y virtudes de la vida veloz», DE LA GANDARA MARTIN, Jesús J. (2016)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

Reflexión original y provocadora sobre la obsesión actual por las nuevas tecnologías y las redes sociales, que no parte del rechazo de las mismas ni alerta sobre las consecuencias apocalípticas sobre su uso, sino que analiza sus vicios y sus virtudes para abogar por una nueva fase en el desarrollo humano, plenamente integra do con las herramientas tecnológicas utilizadas de manera mesurada, ética y coherente.

«Ethics for a Digital Age», VANACKER, Bastiaan; HEIDER, Don (Eds.) (2016)

 

LibrosTecnologías de la comunicación

Thematically organized around three of the most pressing ethical issues of the digital age (shifting of professional norms, moderating offensive content, and privacy), this volume offers a window into some of the hot-button ethical issues facing a society where digital has become the new normal. Straddling an applied ethical and theoretical approach, the research represented not only reflects on how our ethical frameworks have been changed and challenged by digital technology, but also provides insights for those confronted with specific ethical dilemmas related to digital technology. With contributions from established experts and up-and-coming scholars alike, this book cuts across disciplines and with appeal to communication scholars, philosophers, and anyone with an interest in ethics and technology.

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