Datafication and Digital Rights in East Africa

东非数据化和数字权利网络以数字权利为主题，汇集了社会科学家、技术从业者和政策倡导者，探讨如何使东非公民社会和经济生活中围绕数据化和算法权力的“黑匣子”更加透明。它旨在为挑战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，公共领域和非正规经济以及三个东非国家：肯尼亚，埃塞俄比亚和索马里，如何体验，解释和争议。该网络的核心是一个伙伴关系结构，其核心包括技术从业人员和研究人员。在Alcinda Honwana教授的带领下，网络合作伙伴提供了广泛的行业专业知识和国家背景，以及研究和实践者的观点。该网络认识到，在社会和经济活动中，围绕专业化的巨大机遇和挑战。在政策和学术领域，人们越来越关注公私伙伴关系如何利用大数据的发展潜力，例如，利用数据分析为非正规企业家提供金融服务。同样，人们对科技公司收集和商业化数据的方式表示强烈担忧，这些数据用于“训练”支撑其平台的算法，而用户往往不知道这些数据是如何收集和商业化的。该网络接受并正视这两种观点，建立了一个协作结构，通过这个结构，可以揭示东非多层面、复杂和特定背景下的信息化特征。两个以部门为重点的工作组，一是探讨公共领域的信息化进程，二是探讨经济领域的信息化进程，第三个工作组负责知识转化和公众参与。每个工作组都将涵盖社会科学、政策和技术方面。这两个以部门为重点的工作组将负责制定理解框架，考虑到信息化流程的五个复杂和交叉的方面：1）后端流程; 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）组织结构和实践;以及5）区域和国际背景。他们将在各自的部门领域探索这些动态，并在全网络研讨会上共同讨论，以考虑跨领域的做法和问题。第三工作组的任务是与其他两个工作组对话，建立渠道，以便围绕网络的对话进行更广泛的接触和对话，特别是在合作伙伴的经验和更广泛定位的基础上。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可视化见解进行能力建设，以及创建互动式在线新闻功能。强调更广泛的参与至关重要，以确保该网络继续受到实地权利方面的优先事项和挑战的驱动，并与这些优先事项和挑战相联系。这些努力将成为制定合作赠款提案的基础，以深入研究不同背景下的数字化进程，它们对数字权利的意义，以及治理、监管和技术机构如何应对，包括为技术发展提供信息的可能性。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）与东非的政策和实践机构积极沟通; 3）对经济和公共领域的信息化过程的理解的新框架;以及4）具体而模糊的赠款提案，以扩大研究和参与，并为技术发展提供信息。

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.