Ana Viseu | Universidade Europeia (original) (raw)
Papers by Ana Viseu
cognitive dimensions of digitization
One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with ... more One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with extending scientific practice to include a role for “society”. Recently, this has led to legislative calls for the integration of the social sciences and humanities in publicly funded research and development initiatives. In nanotechnology—integration’s primary field site—this policy has institutionalized the practice of hiring social scientists in technical facilities. Increasingly mainstream, the workings and results of this integration mechanism remain understudied. In this chapter, I build upon my three-year experience as the in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Facility and the United States’ National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network to engage empirically and conceptually with this mode of governance in nanotechnology. From the vantage point of the integrated social scientist, I argue that in its current enactment, integration emerges as a traditional and conserva...
Social Studies of Science, 2015
One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with ... more One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with extending scientific practice to include a role for ‘society’. Recently, this has led to legislative calls for the integration of the social sciences and humanities in publicly funded research and development initiatives. In nanotechnology – integration’s primary field site – this policy has institutionalized the practice of hiring social scientists in technical facilities. Increasingly mainstream, the workings and results of this integration mechanism remain understudied. In this article, I build upon my three-year experience as the in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Facility and the United States’ National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network to engage empirically and conceptually with this mode of governance in nanotechnology. From the vantage point of the integrated social scientist, I argue that in its current enactment, integration emerges as a particular kind of c...
Nature, 2015
F unders and institutions increasingly prioritize research that addresses the challenges and oppo... more F unders and institutions increasingly prioritize research that addresses the challenges and opportunities of an inherently interdisciplinary world. Policymakers and influential voices in science-including Nature-have also warned of a worrying disconnect between research and the needs and concerns of the public. One proposed solution is the integration of social scientists such as myself into publicly funded research initiatives. This is expected to contribute to the production of 'better' science. Not in my experience. I spent three years as an in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility in Ithaca, New York, and the US National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, and it was a futile and frustrating time. I left a decade ago, but friends and colleagues who have since worked on similar projects tell me that the problem is widespread and that little has changed. Too many in the physical and life sciences dismiss social sciences as having a 'service' role, being allowed to observe what they do but not disturb it. In its current model, integration is fuelled by the assumption that projects bring in the social sciences to carve a place for 'society.' This is expected to maximize the benefits of research while reducing negative impacts and public controversy. In other words, rather than being scientists in our own right, we are brought along as silent partners whose job it is to care for science. Rather than blurring boundaries and labour divisions, integration works to reify them. Thus, the questions that social scientists ask and the expertise we can contribute are muted or made invisible because we remain outside 'proper' science. Integration is also deeply asymmetrical. The social sciences (often a single social scientist) are typically brought in after the project has taken shape. This asymmetry is present in every aspect of integration-from power to personnel numbers, funding, knowledge production and, ultimately, independence-but remains hidden in mundane interactions that dictate what counts as a valid social-science activity and who gets to define it. This is not genuine integration. It pays lip service to the idea and is a waste of everyone's time and the public money that supports it. When I began my work alongside the nanotechnology scientists, I naively expected that my expertise as an ethnographer would be useful. I was prepared to study the culture of a laboratory and to probe its interaction with wider society. I thought that this would be helpful, given the frequent statements made by nanotechnology experts about how they wanted to engage and talk about the risks and benefits of their work. Instead, the other scientists seemed to view my role as one of managing a narrow list of possible
Rather than discuss issues of “artificial intelligence ” or “artificial life”, in this article I ... more Rather than discuss issues of “artificial intelligence ” or “artificial life”, in this article I propose to discuss the relationship between digital and physical, people and artefacts, by addressing the augmentation of the physical through the digital. In doing this, I reverse the reasoning traditionally applied to the “artificial, ” that states as the final objective the “virtual ” simulation of the “natural ” and instead examine issues surround what some define as “cyborgised humans ” and I prefer to call augmented bodies.1 The reflections presented here are based on my doctoral studies on the visions and realities of this personal technology, which I am conducting within the context of Bell Canada, Canada’s largest telecoms company. We are currently witnessing an increase in the number of technoscience projects that focus on augmentation — of the body and environment — rather than simulation. The main difference between them is that while simulation is based on separation and rep...
Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as being key to understanding online beh... more Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as being key to understanding online behaviors and experiences. However, it is well recognised within privacy advocacy circles that “privacy ” is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this paper we view privacy as mediating individuals and their online activities and not standing above them, being constantly redefined in actual practice. As such it is necessary to ask what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. Based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, an ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada, we further propose that there are three organizing “moments ” of online privacy perceptions: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of the interactions with it, and the moment after the data has been released in “cyberspace”. We argue that while the third has been given much coverage, mainly through survei...
Although the field of wearable computing is experiencing a great boost at the level of design and... more Although the field of wearable computing is experiencing a great boost at the level of design and production, research on its social dimensions is still at a very early phase, and the literature on the subject is insufficient. This paper attempts to partially fill this gap by reviewing the current status of the field of wearable computing and the main issues that are starting to emerge from their development and implementation. The first part defines wearable computers and assesses its technical and conceptual origins and developments. Examples of current wearable computing products being prototyped and/or produced are provided. The second part reviews the issues that are most frequently cited as possible social outcomes, especially as these relate to the related issues of control and surveillance. It concludes by suggesting a future research direction for the study of the social dimensions of wearable computing that recognizes the social character of technologies and their situated...
Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behav... more Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behaviors and experiences. However, it is well recognized within privacy advocacy circles that “privacy ” is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this paper we view privacy as mediating between individuals and their online activities and not standing above them; as being constantly redefined in actual practice. It is necessary to ask, therefore, what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. This paper is based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, a neighborhood based ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada that investigates how people integrate online services in their daily lives. We further propose that there are three organizing “moments ” of online privacy perceptions: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of the interactions with it, and the moment after the ...
The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adop... more The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adopted by governments in addressing ‘digital divide ’ issues. The lack of plans for ongoing funding, in North America at least, suggests that this mode is regarded mainly as transitional, with private, home-based access being perceived as superior. The assumption apparently is that as domestic internet penetration rates rise, public access facilities will no longer be needed. Central to this issue are the varied characteristics of publicly provided and privately owned access sites and their implications for non-employment internet activities. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two access modes? More fundamentally, how do people conceptualize public and private spaces and how does this perception influence their online activities? Finally, why do people choose one over the other, and how do they navigate between the two? This article attempts to answer these question...
In July 2002 Bell Canada’s Wired and Wireless Center 1 (WCC) conducted a field trial implementati... more In July 2002 Bell Canada’s Wired and Wireless Center 1 (WCC) conducted a field trial implementation of Panasonic’s latest wearable computer, the CF-07. This pilot was part of Bell’s larger wearable computing initiative that had as a motto the creation of a ‘mobile, wireless and wearable’ workforce. From the WWC’s perspective this pilot was a fairly straightforward procedure. It involved a mere ‘technological replacement’—from the old laptop to a new wearable. For Bell managers, this was a minor change, a change in form not function, since the functionality of the previous laptop computing device had remained the same. Technicians were simply being given a more appropriate tool to perform their jobs. However, as this paper will demonstrate, the process was far more complicated. It involved the transformation of a stable network of identities, that of Bell’s field technicians into a new hybrid entity: augmented field technicians. In the course of this project, actors that the WWC had ...
2020 19th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames), 2020
Drawings have been used for thousands of years as a visual complement to oral and written storyte... more Drawings have been used for thousands of years as a visual complement to oral and written storytelling. The evolution of technology and the advent of interactive narratives brings the possibility of exploring drawings and storytelling in new ways. This paper presents a new sketch-based interaction method for planning-based interactive storytelling systems, which uses a deep learning model based on a Convolutional Neural Network to recognize digital hand-drawn sketches. By combining real time sketch recognition with a planning-based plot generation algorithm, the proposed system allows users to interact with narratives by sketching objects on smartphones or tablet computers, which are then recognized by the system and converted into virtual objects in the story world, thereby affecting the plot of the narrative. Preliminary results show that the sketch recognition model has a remarkable accuracy for small sets of sketch classes (accuracy of 95.1 % for 14 classes), which are sufficien...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 1369118042000208924, Feb 17, 2007
Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science, 2009
Canadian Journal of Communication, 2001
cognitive dimensions of digitization
One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with ... more One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with extending scientific practice to include a role for “society”. Recently, this has led to legislative calls for the integration of the social sciences and humanities in publicly funded research and development initiatives. In nanotechnology—integration’s primary field site—this policy has institutionalized the practice of hiring social scientists in technical facilities. Increasingly mainstream, the workings and results of this integration mechanism remain understudied. In this chapter, I build upon my three-year experience as the in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Facility and the United States’ National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network to engage empirically and conceptually with this mode of governance in nanotechnology. From the vantage point of the integrated social scientist, I argue that in its current enactment, integration emerges as a traditional and conserva...
Social Studies of Science, 2015
One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with ... more One of the most significant shifts in science policy of the past three decades is a concern with extending scientific practice to include a role for ‘society’. Recently, this has led to legislative calls for the integration of the social sciences and humanities in publicly funded research and development initiatives. In nanotechnology – integration’s primary field site – this policy has institutionalized the practice of hiring social scientists in technical facilities. Increasingly mainstream, the workings and results of this integration mechanism remain understudied. In this article, I build upon my three-year experience as the in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Facility and the United States’ National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network to engage empirically and conceptually with this mode of governance in nanotechnology. From the vantage point of the integrated social scientist, I argue that in its current enactment, integration emerges as a particular kind of c...
Nature, 2015
F unders and institutions increasingly prioritize research that addresses the challenges and oppo... more F unders and institutions increasingly prioritize research that addresses the challenges and opportunities of an inherently interdisciplinary world. Policymakers and influential voices in science-including Nature-have also warned of a worrying disconnect between research and the needs and concerns of the public. One proposed solution is the integration of social scientists such as myself into publicly funded research initiatives. This is expected to contribute to the production of 'better' science. Not in my experience. I spent three years as an in-house social scientist at the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility in Ithaca, New York, and the US National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network, and it was a futile and frustrating time. I left a decade ago, but friends and colleagues who have since worked on similar projects tell me that the problem is widespread and that little has changed. Too many in the physical and life sciences dismiss social sciences as having a 'service' role, being allowed to observe what they do but not disturb it. In its current model, integration is fuelled by the assumption that projects bring in the social sciences to carve a place for 'society.' This is expected to maximize the benefits of research while reducing negative impacts and public controversy. In other words, rather than being scientists in our own right, we are brought along as silent partners whose job it is to care for science. Rather than blurring boundaries and labour divisions, integration works to reify them. Thus, the questions that social scientists ask and the expertise we can contribute are muted or made invisible because we remain outside 'proper' science. Integration is also deeply asymmetrical. The social sciences (often a single social scientist) are typically brought in after the project has taken shape. This asymmetry is present in every aspect of integration-from power to personnel numbers, funding, knowledge production and, ultimately, independence-but remains hidden in mundane interactions that dictate what counts as a valid social-science activity and who gets to define it. This is not genuine integration. It pays lip service to the idea and is a waste of everyone's time and the public money that supports it. When I began my work alongside the nanotechnology scientists, I naively expected that my expertise as an ethnographer would be useful. I was prepared to study the culture of a laboratory and to probe its interaction with wider society. I thought that this would be helpful, given the frequent statements made by nanotechnology experts about how they wanted to engage and talk about the risks and benefits of their work. Instead, the other scientists seemed to view my role as one of managing a narrow list of possible
Rather than discuss issues of “artificial intelligence ” or “artificial life”, in this article I ... more Rather than discuss issues of “artificial intelligence ” or “artificial life”, in this article I propose to discuss the relationship between digital and physical, people and artefacts, by addressing the augmentation of the physical through the digital. In doing this, I reverse the reasoning traditionally applied to the “artificial, ” that states as the final objective the “virtual ” simulation of the “natural ” and instead examine issues surround what some define as “cyborgised humans ” and I prefer to call augmented bodies.1 The reflections presented here are based on my doctoral studies on the visions and realities of this personal technology, which I am conducting within the context of Bell Canada, Canada’s largest telecoms company. We are currently witnessing an increase in the number of technoscience projects that focus on augmentation — of the body and environment — rather than simulation. The main difference between them is that while simulation is based on separation and rep...
Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as being key to understanding online beh... more Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as being key to understanding online behaviors and experiences. However, it is well recognised within privacy advocacy circles that “privacy ” is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this paper we view privacy as mediating individuals and their online activities and not standing above them, being constantly redefined in actual practice. As such it is necessary to ask what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. Based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, an ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada, we further propose that there are three organizing “moments ” of online privacy perceptions: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of the interactions with it, and the moment after the data has been released in “cyberspace”. We argue that while the third has been given much coverage, mainly through survei...
Although the field of wearable computing is experiencing a great boost at the level of design and... more Although the field of wearable computing is experiencing a great boost at the level of design and production, research on its social dimensions is still at a very early phase, and the literature on the subject is insufficient. This paper attempts to partially fill this gap by reviewing the current status of the field of wearable computing and the main issues that are starting to emerge from their development and implementation. The first part defines wearable computers and assesses its technical and conceptual origins and developments. Examples of current wearable computing products being prototyped and/or produced are provided. The second part reviews the issues that are most frequently cited as possible social outcomes, especially as these relate to the related issues of control and surveillance. It concludes by suggesting a future research direction for the study of the social dimensions of wearable computing that recognizes the social character of technologies and their situated...
Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behav... more Media and research reports point to the issue of privacy as the key to understanding online behaviors and experiences. However, it is well recognized within privacy advocacy circles that “privacy ” is a loose concept encompassing a variety of meanings. In this paper we view privacy as mediating between individuals and their online activities and not standing above them; as being constantly redefined in actual practice. It is necessary to ask, therefore, what individuals are reacting to when asked about online privacy and how it affects their online experience. This paper is based on data generated in the Everyday Internet study, a neighborhood based ethnographic project being conducted in Toronto, Canada that investigates how people integrate online services in their daily lives. We further propose that there are three organizing “moments ” of online privacy perceptions: the moment of sitting in front of the computer, the moment of the interactions with it, and the moment after the ...
The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adop... more The creation of public internet access facilities is one of the principal policy instruments adopted by governments in addressing ‘digital divide ’ issues. The lack of plans for ongoing funding, in North America at least, suggests that this mode is regarded mainly as transitional, with private, home-based access being perceived as superior. The assumption apparently is that as domestic internet penetration rates rise, public access facilities will no longer be needed. Central to this issue are the varied characteristics of publicly provided and privately owned access sites and their implications for non-employment internet activities. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of these two access modes? More fundamentally, how do people conceptualize public and private spaces and how does this perception influence their online activities? Finally, why do people choose one over the other, and how do they navigate between the two? This article attempts to answer these question...
In July 2002 Bell Canada’s Wired and Wireless Center 1 (WCC) conducted a field trial implementati... more In July 2002 Bell Canada’s Wired and Wireless Center 1 (WCC) conducted a field trial implementation of Panasonic’s latest wearable computer, the CF-07. This pilot was part of Bell’s larger wearable computing initiative that had as a motto the creation of a ‘mobile, wireless and wearable’ workforce. From the WWC’s perspective this pilot was a fairly straightforward procedure. It involved a mere ‘technological replacement’—from the old laptop to a new wearable. For Bell managers, this was a minor change, a change in form not function, since the functionality of the previous laptop computing device had remained the same. Technicians were simply being given a more appropriate tool to perform their jobs. However, as this paper will demonstrate, the process was far more complicated. It involved the transformation of a stable network of identities, that of Bell’s field technicians into a new hybrid entity: augmented field technicians. In the course of this project, actors that the WWC had ...
2020 19th Brazilian Symposium on Computer Games and Digital Entertainment (SBGames), 2020
Drawings have been used for thousands of years as a visual complement to oral and written storyte... more Drawings have been used for thousands of years as a visual complement to oral and written storytelling. The evolution of technology and the advent of interactive narratives brings the possibility of exploring drawings and storytelling in new ways. This paper presents a new sketch-based interaction method for planning-based interactive storytelling systems, which uses a deep learning model based on a Convolutional Neural Network to recognize digital hand-drawn sketches. By combining real time sketch recognition with a planning-based plot generation algorithm, the proposed system allows users to interact with narratives by sketching objects on smartphones or tablet computers, which are then recognized by the system and converted into virtual objects in the story world, thereby affecting the plot of the narrative. Preliminary results show that the sketch recognition model has a remarkable accuracy for small sets of sketch classes (accuracy of 95.1 % for 14 classes), which are sufficien...
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 1369118042000208924, Feb 17, 2007
Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science, 2009
Canadian Journal of Communication, 2001