NDLI: The creation of facts in the cloud:a fiction in the making

Content Provider	ACM Digital Library
Author	Gotterbarn, Don
Abstract	Like most significant changes in technology, Cloud Computing and Big Data along with their associated analytic techniques are claimed to provide us with new insights unattainable by any previous knowledge techniques. It is believed that the quantity of virtual data now available requires new knowledge production strategies. Although they have yielded significant results, there are problems with advocated processes and resulting facts. The primary process treats "pattern recognition" as a final result rather than using "pattern recognition" to lead to yet to be tested testable hypotheses. In data analytics, the discovery of a pattern is treated as knowledge rather than going further to understand the possible causes of those patterns. When this is used as the primary approach to knowledge acquisition unjustified inferences are made - "fact generation". These pseudo-facts are used to generate new pseudo-facts as those initial inferences are fed back into analytic engines as established facts. The approach of generating "facts from data analytics" is introducing highly risky scenarios where "fiction becomes fact" very quickly. These "facts" are then given elevated epistemic status and get used in decision making. This, misleading approach is inconsistent with the moral duty of computing professionals embodied in their Codes of Ethics. There are some ways to mitigate the problems generated by this single path approach to knowledge generation.
Starting Page	60
Ending Page	67
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00952737
DOI	10.1145/2874239.2874248
Journal	ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society (CSOC)
Volume Number	45
Issue Number	3
Language	English
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Publisher Date	2013-05-01
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Professional responsibility Data integrity Big data Data misuse
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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