[governance] MEASURING the digital space - whose MEASURES apply, and whose do not
michael gurstein
gurstein at gmail.com
Wed Aug 31 15:56:18 EDT 2011
Very interesting Craig...
I understand you here as linking the question of Internet measurement into
the broader question of Internet identity i.e. as reflecting a shift away
from "national" statistics to "identity" based statistics but understood in
a global rather than a national context (to tie this discussion back into
the earlier one--where my position was that we need to be thinking of global
governance institutions and thus global measurements/measurement strategies,
rather than national ones (such as the SNA/GDP etc.
I'm not exactly sure where this goes from practically but I think
conceptually you are suggesting something quite valuable.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
Of Craig Simon
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:31 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] MEASURING the digital space - whose MEASURES
apply, and whose do not
Michael Gurstein's reflection on "what and whose measures apply in the
digital space" strikes me as very productive. Having been curious for
quite some time about the extent to which the advent of the Internet
compares to the advent of the movable type printing technology, I'll
offer this conjecture about the implications.
Key measures of human agency in the pre-Westphalian era in Europe
included concerns such as who could get into heaven and who could
legitimately be crowned king, queen, prince, etc. The socially accepted
chain of authority generally led up through officials of the Holy Roman
Empire as the effective gatekeepers of such things. (Keeping in mind
that any given Pope and his appointed agents claim to be acting as proxy
for a divine gatekeeper.)
The Gutenberg revolution facilitated the emergence of sovereign royals
-- and ultimately sovereign nation-states -- who were, among other
things, gatekeepers of national citizenship, contractual regimes, and
property rights within bounded territories.
In both cases, given this view of things, gatekeepers played an
essential role conferring agency within a social structure. Gatekeeping
roles will be no less important in the densely internetworked future.
That why there was such a big fight over DNS administration...
possessing one's "name" was once considered essential to having an
effective presence on the Web. Now we see battles between Facebook,
LinkedIn, Google, other private operators, and also various
state-controlled social networks, all vying to be the gatekeeper of
one's authentic presence on line.
In all of these spaces, pre-Westphalian, Westphalian, and
post-Westphalian, there's a consistent concerning with counting who is
an agent and measuring the relative powers of those agents.
Craig Simon
On 8/30/11 7:16 PM, michael gurstein wrote:
> To shift the argument a bit from the current interesting but now
> rather repititious issues...
>
> One of the basic understandings of the Philosophy/Sociology of Science
> is that we all tend to reduce our understanding of new phenomena down
> to a mode which is intelligible within our existing framework of
> understanding/knowledge. When it is no longer possible to do this
> then a new framework (paradigm) comes haltingly forward that allows us
> to explain those phenomena that remain
> inexplicable--incommensurable--with the attempts at imposing the
> existing framework and a new frammework/paradigm of understanding is
> born and very soon becomes the new orthodoxy and in turn becomes "that
> of which it is impossible to consider an alternative".
>
> I think these somewhat simple "truths" are reflected quite well in the
> current discussion.
>
> One of the core elements of these conceptual frameworks are the
> various systems of standards/definitions/measurements that allow us to
> order and "manage" our processes of knowing and thus our actions in
> the world.
>
> As examples, Paul's system of national legal frameworks is one such
> paradigm, McTim's system of IETF formulated and prescribed standards
> is another.
>
> In the economics (and thus to a considerable degree the policy) world
> one of the basic frameworks is the SNA--the System of National
> Accounts which presents a means for a consolidated measurement at the
> national level (and thus comparative at the global level) of "all
> significant economic activity".
>
> As we all know, much of current economic policy nationally (and
> globally) (within the competitive market/neo-liberal policy
> environment) is founded on/driven by these measures as outputted as
> GDP/GNP etc.
>
> Various waves of civil society interventions have subjected these
> measurement procedures/strategies to what might be called
> "paradigmatic" critiques--the consumer's movement critiqued the
> exclusive focus on production (and the absence of measurements
> concerned with consumption/consuming); the environmental movement
> critiqued on the basis of the absence of measures reflecting the
> lifecycle costs of goods and including impacts on the environment from
> resource depletion and contributions to environmental degradation and
> change); the women's movement critiqued on the basis of a failure to
> include measures reflecting women's contribution to domestic work; ;
> and as well there have been a number of critiques/alternatives
> proposed along the lines of the GPI--General Performance Index, and
> the recently widely noted "Happiness Index"--these latter being
> presented as more meaningful and significant from a "sustainablity"
> policy perspective.
>
> (As well, the SNA has a very strong bias away from the measurement of
> "social capital" related activities (and towards the measurement of
> production of physical goods). In many respects this area is perhaps
> the most damaging from the perspective of Less Developed Countries and
> the poor and marginalized in Developed countries since it tends to
> privilege (and give emphasis to) the production of consumer goods (and
> public policies supportive of this production) over for example,
> public investments in social capital related activities such as
> education, health and social
> support.)
>
> I'm wondering in this context whether there are areas of issues
> concerning measurement and indices specifically associated with the
> Internet that would be of particular interest to civil society that
> might (or might not) be of interest from the perspective of a
> "critique" of the SNA and broad measures such as the the GDP--parallel
> to the critiques related to the measurement of "women's work" and
> "environmental costing" for example.
>
> The obvious measurement(s) are of course related to the "digital
> divide" -- those who have access and (I would add) the capability of
> using the Internet and those who do not. But I'm also thinking that
> there may be an additional set of arguments that quite significantly
> link back to the earlier critiques and those have to do with the
> linkage of the Internet with social capital.
>
> Thus, it might be possible (and reasonable) to argue that the
> enhancement of social capital (internetworking, communication at a
> distance, speeding up of communications etc.etc.) while not unique to
> the Internet is so much accelerated and intensified by the Internet
> that "quantity" becomes "quality" that is, the Internet adds so much
> to these elements of social capital (and is so much a product of
> previous investments in social capital)
> that:
> 1. it would be impossible realistically to "measure" the economic
impact
> of the Internet without including measurements of the intensification of
> social capital--social capital is of the very "essence" of the impact
> (social, economic, cultural) of the Internet that one is trying to measure
> ("the Internet changes everything" effect). The Internet fundamentally
> changes the nature of economic (and of course other) relations and
> activities and the intensification of social capital being of the very
> essence of the Internet means that this intensification of social capital
> must similarly be accounted for in one's measurements associated with the
> SNA.
>
> 2. the Internet through its intensification of social capital is
> transformative (and not simply summative) of the overall economy,
> economic relations, transactions, production, distribution and
> consumption; such that it is impossible to describe let alone measure
> the various components of the SNA without including various of the
> Internet (and thus social capital) related impacts in any assessment
> and thus measurement of each of these components (the "Walmart
> effect"). Thus, for example, a company such as Walmart would not be
> possible without the affordances provided by telecommunications/the
> Internet and hence any measurement including Walmart as a component
> needs to include measures reflecting this relationship.
>
> The value of such an argument from a civil society perspective I
> think, is that it links overall economic activity (GDP) with the
> Internet, and links the Internet with the production of social capital
> which in turn becomes something of a backdoor way of arguing that
> investment in ICT should be as much focused on education, health, and
> social support as it is on bits and bytes--hardware and
> software--something I'm assuming we all agree with but also something
> which is not taken as a necessary given by those folks managing
> current economic policies.
>
> Comments, critiques, suggestions with respect to the above are
> gratefully welcomed.
>
> (Incidentally, I'll be in Paris Sept. 12-19, exceptionally with some
> time to spare so if anyone is in Paris at the time and interested in a
> meet-up to discuss this or IGC or CS or other issues I would be
> delighted.
>
> Best,
>
> Mike
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
> governance at lists.cpsr.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>
> For all other list information and functions, see:
> http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/
>
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
>
>
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
More information about the Governance
mailing list