The "Editing" Question - updated

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 21, 2018 | permalink |  |  

Various internet-based companies are protected from liability for the “content” they deliver to their customers based on the idea that they aren’t editing or producing that material. However, the question that algorithmic-based delivery and sorting should be raising is whether that activity does constitute editing: it selects what and when to show things and to whom, not based on a user-originated request or a “blank” selection such as chronology (putting the most recent things first, regardless of who they are from), but based on some unknown metric that only the company really controls: conceptually this action sounds like an autonomous version of an Editor (even if it is one generated by using pervasive monitoring to watch the customer).

minor update:

Censorship by online companies such as Facebook or any other "distribution platform" should be recognized for what it is: a tacit and explicit admission of their editorial decisions and activities. If they are to be regarded as merely conveyors of information, useful and interesting, to an audience that is also in the business of posting and creating that same information. For the company to then interpose itself as more than simply a disinterested platform, then why are they concerned with what the material posted by their audiences is? If they are not engaged in editorial decisions, as they consistently claim, then there should be no issues around censorship or other content-based selections at all.

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 21, 2018 | permalink |  |  

What is the most surprising and shocking part of the #deletefacebook debacle is that anyone is surprised by the hoarding and misuse of customer data, regardless of whatever "privacy" provisions might be in place. Social media (in fact, all digital companies) depend on accessing and collecting as much personal data about their users as possible (this is true of all digital companies, not just Facebook, but data acquired from Google searches as well as any use of any website that collects and saves data) because that data is the company's primary asset. This leads to ever expanding and more intrusive data collection and gives the company in question a motive to periodically reset their customer's privacy selections to the most permissive options. Just as with automated editing that selects and presents customized information to a single audience member, the presentation of ads also demands the same monitoring and collection of data.

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 20, 2018 | permalink |  |  

Jetzt im Verkauf: 29.95 € bestellen Sie Ihre Kopie direkt beim Verlag

Aus dem Engl. von Manfred Weltecke
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Die größten, erfolgreichsten und mächtigsten Unternehmen unserer Zeit sind längst nicht mehr nur im klassischen produzierenden Gewerbe zu finden. Der atemberaubende Erfolg von Firmen wie Facebook oder Google beruht auf der Bereitstellung immaterieller Dienstleitungen, insbesondere aber auf der Sammlung von Daten.

Mit seiner ›Kritik des digitalen Kapitalismus‹ legt Michael Betancourt eine scharfe Analyse dieser neuen ökonomischen Verhältnisse vor und beleuchtet deren Eigenschaften und Probleme. Von der vermeintlichen Demokratisierung der Gesellschaft durch die freie Verfügbarkeit von Informationen über die Illusion der kostenfreien, weil nicht physischen Herstellung digitaler Produkte bis zur Neudefinition des Verhältnisses materieller und immaterieller Güter: Betancourt setzt sich mit den Begleiterscheinungen der digitalen Wirtschaft auseinander, die schon längst unser Leben bestimmen und prägen.

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 6, 2018 | permalink |  |  

Going Somewhere: The Role Playing Game is a table top role playing game adapted from movie maker Michael Betancourt's avant-garde serial. Containing all the rules needed to play, this rule book is designed to provide hours of fun. Designed to simplify the complexity of RPGs to speed game play, these rules can be used for either SCI-FI or Fantasy campaigns.

Download it for Free or Buy a book from Amazon.com

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story © Michael Betancourt | published February 17, 2018 | permalink |  |  

WBG has an interview about my work in The Critique of Digital Capitalism titled Gerechtigkeit in Zeiten der Digitalisierung available on their website in German:

1. Haben Kryptowährungen wie Bitcoin nach Ihrer Meinung auf längere Sicht eine Zukunft?
Die sich in Bitcoin und anderen Kryptowährungen darstellende Technologie wird vielleicht – neben ihrer Funktion, eine virtuelle Ware zu sein – in der internationalen Bankindustrie zur Anwendung kommen. Es gibt einige Experimente in diese Richtung, aber für die allgemeine Öffentlichkeit erwarte ich, dass es zu einem Zusammenbruch kommen wird, sobald alle Bitcoins „geschürft“ sind. Das Verständnis dieser Entwicklung hängt von mehreren Eigenschaften der Technologie selbst ab: dass das „Schürfen“ von Bitcoins ein Nebenprodukt der Berechnungen ist, die für einzelne Transaktionen erforderlich sind, ist weithin bekannt. . . .

Here are my answers in English:

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