Data witnessing: attending to injustice with data in Amnesty International’s Decoders project

ABSTRACT

The concept of witnessing has been used to explore the construction of evidence and experience in settings of law, religion, atrocity, media, history and science. Recent research has examined how digital technologies may multiply the involvement of remote, non-present and unanticipated actors in the witnessing of events. This paper examines what digital data practices at Amnesty International’s Decoders initiative can add to the understanding of witnessing. It introduces the notion of ‘data witnessing’ with reference to four projects on (i) witnessing historical abuses with structured data from digitised documents; (ii) witnessing the destruction of villages with satellite imagery and machine learning; (iii) witnessing environmental injustice with company reports and photographs; and (iv) witnessing online abuse through the classification of Twitter data. These projects illustrate the configuration of experimental apparatuses for witnessing injustices with data. In contrast to accounts which emphasise the presence of an individual human witness at the scene, Amnesty’s data practices are conspicuously collective and distributed, rendering the systemic scale of injustices at a distance, across space and time. Such practices may contribute to research on both (new) media witnessing and data politics, suggesting ways in which care, concern and solidarity may be constructed, structured, extended and delimited by means of digital data.     

视频会议应用与工作的“媒介化”

视频会议作为一种新媒介,推动了工作的"媒介化"。它导致原有的工作场景边界被打破,带来各种场景的混融,人们的行为模式因此而发生变化。在一定意义上,人们的工作行为变成一种基于屏幕的表演,这种表演时时受到来自他人和自我的审视,与此同时,人们在交流中获得的来自他人的反馈却可能减少。视频会议系统支持下的会议,削弱了仪式感和社交感。但因其成本相对较低,反而可能进一步盛行。屏幕上的劳动也是一种数字劳动,视频会议使得人们的劳动变成了多线程与永远在线的状态,劳动强度在无形中加大,组织或行业的内卷现象也可能进一步加剧。     

Crisis and public intellectuals: From the transnational intellectual field to the digital global public circuit

We examine the modes of intervention of global public intellectuals at times of crisis. In critical situations, public intellectuals take positions on matters that affect the societies they inhabit and, eventually, all humanity. To this end, they take advantage of the opportunities afforded by new communications technologies, establishing an important distinction between the “analog” intellectual (who relies on the slow time of books, opinion columns, and bookstores) and the “digital” intellectual who uses modern information and communications technologies. To study the activities of global public intellectuals and their political influence, we propose to leave aside the notion of “transnational intellectual field” in favor of an understanding of a transnational intellectual stage peopled by a certain type of intellectual agent whose symbolic and cultural production is disseminated through a digital global public circuit. To illustrate the functioning of a circuit of this type, we take the example of the Project Syndicate platform.     

数字出版环境下著作权默示许可制度的构建

在数字出版环境下,传统的著作权授权模式已经不能适应数字出版对作品海量来源的需求,其高成本和低效率的运作方式,不能化解数字出版海量授权的矛盾,制约了作品的传播和利用.而默示许可授权机制,则可以有效地解决这一问题,以实现作品的充分利用和价值最大化,有利于实现著作权人与数字出版商、网站经营者以及社会公共利益之间的利益平衡.     

Book-a-Book: Facilitating Access to Learning Materials for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Until 2019, each higher education institution in Flanders had to develop their own workflows to handle requests for digital study materials for students with disabilities. At KU Leuven these requests are processed by KU Leuven Libraries Central Services. This unit, among other things, supports the core tasks of KU Leuven Libraries in the area of acquisitions and licensing negotiations with publishers. This article will focus on the creation and development of Book-a-Book, which has its origin in the service the KU Leuven Libraries Central Services has been providing for students with disabilities for KU Leuven students since 2011. Book-a-Book is a web application that facilitates access to learning materials for students with disabilities enrolled in Flemish higher education institutions. It is the first online tool to serve all higher education students with disabilities in Flanders and is the result of a collaboration between The Support Center for Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO), KU Leuven Libraries, and LIBIS (Leuven Integrated Library and Information System). SIHO is as a collaboration between the associations of the Flemish universities and colleges on the one side, and the Flemish government on the other side. The core responsibility of the SIHO lies in the support of all higher education institutions in realizing inclusive higher education for students with a disability. On September 12, 2019, Book-a-Book was launched on the international conference “Enhancing Student Experience: Innovative Support Tools for Students with Disabilities” in Brussels, Belgium.     

SPECIAL ISSUE： ONLINE LITERATURE IN CHINA： PRESENT SITUATION AND THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS Chinese Literature＇s Transformation and Digital Existence in the New Century

数字化传媒的革故鼎新已成为推动中国文学世纪转型的强大引擎。网络文学的市场化崛起打破了传统文学的原有平衡,让当今文学的整体格局遭遇数字技术的创生性重整。第四媒体不可抗拒的技术力量导致文学大范围转向“数字化生存”,从存在方式和表意体制上改写了文学惯例。这需要我们厘清数字化媒体在文学转型中“消解”与“建构”的双重功能,以便从不同的学理维度上为文论拓新建构数字化生存时代的文学观念,使数字媒介对传统的挑战变成未来文学别创新声的契机,让新媒介成为新世纪中国文学的强劲动力和有效资源。     

基于VC＋＋的减速箱传动系统的数字化设计平台的研究

采用数字化技术进行设计不仅可以提高设计质量,更可以节省设计周期和降低设计成本,因此具有十分明显的应用价值.该文以减速箱的传动系统为研究对象,结合VC＋＋开发环境,建立了对单级和二级圆柱齿轮传动减速箱的传动系统的数字化设计平台.通过一组运算实例验证了该数字化设计平台的有效性.     

数字电子证据的定性与归类

数字电子证据的出现和普遍地被适用几乎颠覆了人们关于司法证据系统整体性的传统认识。现阶段,人们惯常地将数字电子证据纳入传统的视听资料证据类型中加以规制和判定,这显然既不符合逻辑也有悖于事实,直接导致我国现阶段数字电子证据类型化实践中的混乱和无序状态,客观上阻碍了我国整个证据法律体系的健全和完善。为此,必须认真地甄别数字电子证据与视听资料以及电子证据之间的内在关联性和本质差异性,其中首先亟需解决的问题就是科学合理的界定数字电子证据本身的属性并对其进行合理的归类。在法理和逻辑上,数字电子证据与视听资料应并列隶属于电子证据。作为一种新型和独立的证据类别,电子证据宜成为我国法定证据类型中的“第七类”,亟待立法予以规定或确认。     

数字技术在复杂建筑设计中的应用

当代建筑中,大量的自由形体创作作品几乎成等比数列增长,一些新名词不断涌现：参数化设计、数字模型、协同设计、集成信息模型、数控制造等。越来越复杂的建筑设计所带来的设计思维的更新与数字技术结下了不解之缘。数字技术改变了传统的建筑表现方法与手段,解放了建筑师对空间与形态的认知。     

故事与游戏:走向数字叙事学

数字叙事只能在计算机环境下存在和体验,主要表现为互动小说、超文本小说、虚拟现实叙事以及具有叙事性的电子游戏.数字叙事学是对数字叙事的诗学描写,首先要处理故事和游戏的关系.故事和游戏可视为建构虚拟世界的两种不同但互补的模式,背后的符号意指过程分别是表征和模拟;其中故事呈现为游戏的脚本,而游戏则是潜在的故事.叙述和互动作为虚拟世界的体验方式,可以经过重构达到恰当的结合.故事的空间化逻辑为数字游戏实现叙事潜力提供了可能,叙事学的人物观可以成为计算机人物创作的灵感源泉.