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On 03/10/2014 09:19 PM, Adam Peake wrote:<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Hi Guru,<br>
> <br>
> On Mar 10, 2014, at 7:26 PM, Guru गुरु wrote:<br>
>> Dear all,<br>
>> <br>
>> Not clear, how in Multistakeholderism, where the private
sector has<br>
>> an equal footing in public policy making, we will get
Google to<br>
>> agree that its search algorithm, as the key factor
organising the<br>
>> worlds information/knowledge for all of us, needs to be
public<br>
>> knowledge, not a commercial secret.<br>
</span><br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Are you sure about this? If
the algorithm's public then it will be<br>
> gamed. Logical extension of this is searches will no return
accurate<br>
> results, no longer be trusted, and a very useful resource
will be<br>
> pretty much be made useless. Is this your intention?</span><br>
<br>
Good point, Adam.<br>
<br>
If the algorithm is public, then it has a high probability of being
<br>
gamed. But is it not already the case that people/entities try to
game <br>
the search, based on their rough understanding of how search is
working?<br>
So I would argue that we would need to research ways by which gaming
<br>
could be identified and that knowledge should also be available and
used <br>
as a part of the search processes. I understand this is pretty much
a <br>
cat and mouse game between attempts at gaming and attempt at
unearthing <br>
gaming... but such games are already common in the development of
virus <br>
and anti-virus algorithms/ spam and anti-spam algorithms ....<br>
<br>
So I would argue that more transparency, not less on both counts.<br>
<br>
Would you agree that google's search algorithm being proprietary, we
<br>
have NO idea if google is using it to capture information every time
we <br>
invoke it, and using it for its commercial (legal as well as
illegal) <br>
purposes (and also for purposes beyond its immediate commercial
goals, <br>
such as the political goals of the US Government, in whose
jurisdiction, <br>
it falls, as Snowden revealed). While this possibility of
manipulation <br>
is true for any proprietary software, the search algorithm is
perhaps <br>
the worlds-most_popular_on-line_proprietary_algorithm which makes
the <br>
danger of being manipulated for the political-economic gains of
certain <br>
entities far far higher... something that should scare everyone
else.<br>
<br>
Any advocates working on privacy / surveillance issues should
strongly <br>
support my proposal to have Google make and keep its algorithms
public. <br>
And of course so should anyone working towards open ICTD (open
source, <br>
open resources) paradigms.... And of course anyone who believes in
the <br>
WSIS 2003 Declaration of Principles, of .. "... our common desire
and <br>
commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and
development-oriented <br>
Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and
<br>
share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities
and <br>
peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their
sustainable <br>
development and improving their quality of life..." this is not
possible <br>
if we are suffering from global lobotomy (see Eli Pariser article in
the <br>
response to CA).<br>
<br>
regards,<br>
Guru<br>
<span style="white-space: pre;">> Best,<br>
> <br>
> Adam<br>
</span><br>
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