User:Andre Castro/FactoryReset/1.3/DataFactory Transmedial

Call text

The exhibition programme is particularly oriented towards artworks that explore ambiguous and problematic relationships to technology and challenge common perceptions of it as a rational or creative tool.

• artworks exploring problematic relationships to technologies
• that challange techonolgies' perception as rational or creative tools

we are looking for works that interrogate processes of techno-cultural displacement: outsourcing, digital labor, user-generated content and prod-usage as phenomena that work to redefine cultural production.

when networked collaboration and participation have become compulsory components of a new cultural industry, what are the critical technological practices?

We recognise the user as a highly inventive figure occupying this techno-cultural landscape with all sorts of unruly and irritated behaviour,

sum up of idea

I began to work on the Data-Factory proposal for Transmedial. I found some parts of the call's text quite relevant for the my proposal, namely: 'when networked collaboration and participation have become compulsory components of a new cultural industry, what are the critical technological practices?' and 'We recognise the user as a highly inventive figure occupying this techno-cultural landscape with all sorts of unruly and irritated behaviour'.

I started to create a small fiction whereby the figure of the user is conceived as pro-active, that determines what data is hold about him/her, and is aware of who possesses that data.

The phone calls are put-forward as research to how direct marketing companies have so far responded to the idea.

I have briefly sketched some ideas for the proposal, and an online consumer manifesto.

At this point I am not yet sure if all this makes sense at all, but feel that it can make it a richer project and feed future developments (it could be turned into a service for user to define their database, which eventually I will try to sell to companies and inform user on who possess their data).

It would be great if you could tell what you you think about it.

A sketch of the proposal and the manifesto follows. Please excuse any typos, or incongruities, it's still just an idea.

PROPOSAL

Synopsis

Data is one of the main products resulting from the user's online life. Gathered from their profile choices (gender, relationships and family, current location, hometown, work and education, religious views, etc) and activity (search queries, contacts made, what events they attend to, what they seem to appreciate, where from and at what times do they login, etc). . [Try to describe briefly the complete profile, of data gathering to user targeting .. Such data is essential for the creation the user's data profile, ... which is then used supposedly target users speificly according to their profile (interest and choices).

Data generating labor is not only imaterial, but also invisible to those who generates it. Mechanisms are devised in such a way that allow an easy access to the user's data production, circumvention his/her awareness of exact information which is accessed, the moments when is being accessed, its destination, and the profit resulting from its commodification. What if users would willingly provide their own data to direct marketing companies and web2.0 platforms? In that way users will know what information companies hold on them, but also allow such companies to target users more effectively, according to their actual interests and particularities, while sparing users from being spammed with random ads, and consequently consider all online ads as rubbish.

In order to assess the viability of such idea within the e-marketing industry I decided to call a few direct marketing companies and attempted to sell them, or in case when money is a problem, to offer them my own consumer data. The reactions to such proposal were recorded and gathered under the Data Factory archival webpage. Although not exactly enthusiastic, I believe companies are not yet able to forseen possibility of such enterprise. Nontheless am confident about the advantages from both sides of entrusting a more pro-active and concious role the user-consumer, therefore I will not give up on its development.

For Transmedial2013 exhibition I propose to present the Data Factory archival webpage, containg all the reactions received until the date of the festival.

Data sources

[note relevant for application]
personal registration information, 
cookies that store “user preferences”, 
log information (requests, interactions with a service, IP address, browser type, browser language, date and time of requests, cookies that uniquely identify a user), 
user communications, 
location data
search history

leftovers

My proposal for Transmedial2013 exhibition constitutes an archive of the reactions which I experience so far. Although not exactly positive, I am confident about a pro-active and aware consumer data management model and will not give up on its development.

Online Consumer Manifesto

We users acknowledge the function of online advertising. We users appreciate online platforms offer us contents and service free-from-charge. We users would like them to remain that way. We users understand that those running them must have a source of income. We users are sympathetic towards online advertising if it allows platforms to remain free of charge.

HOWEVER

We users want to see only specific/personalized ads, meaningful and relevant to each one of us. We users want not to receive meaningless, ugly and random ads. We users want be in charge of providing the data that will form our online consumer's profile. We users want not our information to be collected through hidden and dissimulated processes. We users want to be able to consult and change our online consumer's profile. We users want to be notified every time information on ourselves is collected. We users want to know who holds and uses our data. We users want each one of use to be significant, an individual, a person, and not simply a list of data stored in a database.

WE ARE DATA PRODUCERS WE WANT TO BE IN CONTROL OF OUR OWN PRODUCTION