User:Simon/Workshop Bodo Balasz
07.05.19 workshop with bodo balasz
Profile: https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/b/o/b.bodo/b.bodo.html
Reading: Bodó, Balázs (2019): The science of piracy, the piracy of science. Who are the science pirates and where do they come from Part I + Part II
Workshop with economist Bodo Balasz, whose research is on shadow libraries and the forces that drive them, taking the point of view that "if you do not understand the black market, you can not organize legality". Bodo's recent work is on the dataset of the biggest shadow libraries (which for certain reason, I won't name here). The most striking conclusions drawn from his analysis show that use of the shadow library has increased dramatically in the developing world, it is actually those in the privileged, richer countries that are using the service most, raising questions if cost competition is the driving factor of use of shadow libraries. Also examined are file formats, which reveals interesting facts about the duplication process involved in creating copies.
The process differs historically between Eastern and Western countries due to cultural and technological differences. In the East (particularly in Russia and eastern bloc countries) texts were initially re-typed. This follows the tradition established in samizdat publishing of duplicating texts by hand. The need to have developed systems of private distribution was higher in former Soviet countries. In the West, most texts were photocopied or scanned initially, due to cheaper access to the technology.
Bodo examines the dataset using a browser-based interactive python server. By running code on the csv file of the dataset, it is possible to establish trends and make inferences on the behaviour of the users of the shadow library. Certain problems may arise due to the metadata associated with each file - different character sets, errors, lack of information and "inaccurate" information can make some analyses difficult to pin down. Using interactive python, we did single variable analysis, and also two-dimensional analysis.
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