UCL Digital Ethics Forum: Materialising the invisible labour of the data chain
21st November, 9:15 am -12.30 pm
Hosted by: Dr. Jenny Bunn (UCL Information Studies)
We live in an increasingly data-driven society, where data is becoming a global asset at the same time as the labour involved in its creation, processing and exchange is being disappeared. Data is seen as just there – a natural by-product waiting to be used – and much of the work in its management is downgraded and forgotten as unskilled, unremarkable and unremunerated.
This event will seek to materialise the invisible labour of the data chain. What is it? Who or what does it? How can or should the benefits brought to society by data work be fairly acknowledged? Can or should a connection be maintained between the value derived from data and the work put into it? Negotiating such questions will be a key ethical challenge for the future, one with serious implications for individuals and nations alike. Are you willing to take it on?
The event will be hosted by the Department of Information Studies, home to a wide variety of workers on the data chain, including archivists, records managers, librarians, information scientists and publishers.