Datafication and Digital Rights in East Africa

东非数据通信和数字权利网络以数字权利为主题，将社会科学家、技术从业者和政策倡导者聚集在一起，探索如何使与东非公民社会和经济生活有关的数据通信和算法能力变得更加透明。它的目的是为以挑战为主导的研究奠定基础，这些研究询问在日常生活的两个部门--公共领域和非正式经济--以及在三个东非国家：肯尼亚、埃塞俄比亚和索马里，数据通信是如何经历、解释和竞争的。这一网络的核心是一种伙伴关系结构，其核心包括技术从业者和研究人员。在Alcinda Honwana教授的领导下，网络合作伙伴提供广泛的部门专业知识和国家背景，以及研究和从业人员的视角。该网络认识到，在社会和经济活动中，围绕数据通信存在着巨大的机遇和挑战。在政策和学术领域，越来越多的人关注公私合作如何利用大数据的发展潜力，例如，利用数据分析为非正式企业家带来金融服务。同样，人们也对科技公司获取数据并将其商业化的方式表达了强烈的担忧，这些数据被用来“训练”支撑其平台的算法，而这种方式通常是用户不知道的。该网络接受并面对这两种观点，建立了一个合作结构，通过这种结构揭示东非数据通信的多层面、复杂和特定背景的特点。网络伙伴将通过三个工作组运作：两个以部门为重点的工作组探讨数据通信进程，第一个是公共领域，第二个是经济，第三个工作组是知识转化和公众参与。每个工作组将涵盖社会科学、政策和技术观点。这两个以部门为重点的工作组将负责制定谅解框架，考虑到数据通信进程的五个复杂和交叉层面：1)后端进程；2)前端用户体验；3)数据治理和管理及其与公民权利的联系；4)组织结构和做法；5)区域和国际背景。他们将探讨各自部门领域的这些动态，并在全网讲习班上共同讨论，以审议贯穿各领域的做法和问题。第三个工作组与其他两个工作组的任务是建立渠道，围绕网络的对话进行更广泛的参与和对话，特别是在伙伴的经验和更广泛的定位的基础上。这包括使用当地语言播客来激发对话，支持青年和学生围绕洞察力可视化的能力建设，以及创建互动的在线新闻专题。这种对更广泛参与的强调是至关重要的，以确保该网络继续受到围绕实地权利的优先事项和挑战的推动，并与之挂钩。这些努力将构成制定合作赠款提案的基础，以便更深入地挖掘不同情况下的数据通信过程，它们对数字权利意味着什么，以及治理、监管和技术机构可能如何回应，包括为技术发展提供信息的可能性。该网络第一年的具体成果将是：1)建立和可持续的合作模式；2)与东非的政策和从业机构积极沟通；3)对经济和公共领域的数据通信过程有新的理解框架；以及4)扩大研究和参与并为技术开发提供信息的具体和含糊的赠款提案。

Sitting within the theme of Digital Rights, the Datafication and Digital Rights in East Africa Network brings together social scientists, technical practitioners and policy advocates to explore ways to render the 'black boxes' around datafication and algorithmic power with regard to citizens' social and economic lives in East Africa more transparent. It aims to lay the groundwork for challenge-led research that interrogates how datafication is experienced, interpreted and contested in two sectors of everyday life, the public sphere and the informal economy, and in three Eastern African countries: Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. At the core of this network is a partnership structure that includes technical practitioners and researchers at its core. Led by Professor Alcinda Honwana, network partners provide a breadth of sectoral expertise and country-contexts, and research and practitioner perspectives.This Network recognises there are both huge opportunities and challenges around datafication in social and economic activities. In policy and academic domains, attention to the ways public-private partnership can leverage the developmental potential of big data is growing, for example, using data analytics to bring financial services to informal entrepreneurs. Equally, there are strong concerns are voiced over the ways that technology companies harvest and commercialise the data used to 'train' algorithms underpinning their platforms, in ways often unknown to the user. This Network accepts and confronts both of these perspectives, setting up a collaborative structure through which to unpack the multi-dimensional, complex and context specific features of datafication in East Africa.Network partners will operate through three working groups: two sector-focused working groups exploring datafication processes in, first, the public sphere and, second, the economy, and a third working group on Knowledge translation and public engagement. Each working group will cover social science, policy and technical perspectives. The two sector-focused working groups will be tasked with developing frameworks of understanding that take into account five complex and intersecting dimensions of datafication processes: 1) Back end processes; 2) Front end user experiences; 3) Data Governance and management, and their linkages to citizen rights; 4) Organisational structures and practices; and 5) the regional and international context. They will explore these dynamics in their sector area, as well as discuss together at network-wide workshops to consider cross cutting practices and issues. The task of the third working group, in conversation with the other two, will be to set up channels for wider engagement and conversation around the network's conversations, specifically building on the partners' experience and wider positioning. This includes using local-language podcasts to spark conversation, supporting capacity building of youth and students around visualising insights, and creating an interactive online journalism feature. This emphasis on wider engagement is crucial in order to ensure that the network remains driven by and linked in to priorities and challenges around rights on the ground. These efforts will form the foundation for developing collaborative grant proposals to dig deeper into processes of datafication in different contexts, what they mean for digital rights, and how governance, regulation and technical bodies might respond, including possibilities to inform technological development.The concrete outputs of the Network in its first year will be: 1) established and sustainable patterns of working collaboratively; 2) active communication with policy and practitioner bodies in East Africa; 3) new frameworks of understanding of datafication processes in the economy and public sphere; and 4) a concrete and ambiguous grant proposal to extend research and engagement, and inform technological development.