Digital enlightenment yearbook 2014: social networks and social machines, surveillance and empowerment

Abstract

This is the third Digital Enlightenment Yearbook, part of an annual series which began in 2012 under the auspices of the Digital Enlightenment Forum (http://www.digitalenlightenment.org/). This aims to shed light on today’s rapid technological changes and their impact on society and its governance, taking inspiration from Enlightenment thought as well as from the many transformations and evolutions that have taken place since. It examines digital technologies and their application openly with essential societal values in mind. Such values might assume novel forms, taking advantage of both the knowledge and unprecedented access to information which exist today.

The aim of the Yearbook is to track the evolution of digital technology – which sometimes happens so fast that even an annual publication occasionally seems inadequate. The 2012 yearbook focused on trust, privacy and the defence of the values of the World Wide Web. In 2013, the main topic was the value of personal data, to ourselves and to the commercial world, with contributions from academics, technologists and entrepreneurs.

This year, the focus has shifted from individuals to their relationships with their networks, as we explore “Social networks and social machines, surveillance and empowerment.” In what is now the well-established tradition of the Yearbooks, different stakeholders in society and various disciplinary communities (technology, law, philosophy, sociology, economics, policymaking) bring their very different opinions and perspectives to bear on this topic, forming a basis for inspiring and constructive cross-disciplinary discussions

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Identifiers

ORCID for Kieron O'Hara: orcid.org/0000-0002-9051-4456

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