Data Driven Economy for All

We examine pathways to restructure the underlying institutions of the data driven economy to better distribute the surplus created by the collection and exploitation of personal and social data. We argue for an alternative way of understanding property rights related to personal data shifting it from an individual rights to the management of a “commons.” The common nature of the data driven economy emerges from the value added of data aggregation and thus requires institutions to collectively manage and distribute the gains from the monetarization of data. We argue that this “utility” approach addresses the harms that have arisen from data’s increasingly powerful economic role including monopolization, inequality of access to the internet, and eroding labor rights.

SPEAKERS Dr. Yakov Feygin is responsible for developing the research agenda, projects, initiatives and partnerships for the Future of Capitalism program at the Berggruen Institute. As a core part of the Berggruen Institute’s work to develop and promote long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century, the Future of Capitalism program will work to identify new ideas, models and mechanisms about how to manage and legitimate market economies. Prior to joining the Berggruen Institute, Yakov was a fellow in History and Policy at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and managing editor of The Private Debt Project. In these capacities, he conducted and coordinated research into international political economy, financialization, and comparative economics systems.

Dr. Hecht received a Ph.D. in computer science from Northwestern University, a Master’s degree in geography from UC Santa Barbara, and a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and geography from Macalester College. He is the recipient of a CAREER award from the U.S. National Science Foundation and has received awards for his research at top-tier publication venues in human-computer interaction, data science, and geography (e.g. ACM SIGCHI, ACM CSCW, ACM Mobile HCI, AAAI ICWSM, COSIT). At Northwestern, Dr. Hecht holds appointments in the Department of Computer Science and the School of Communication. Dr. Hecht also serves on the Executive Committee of ACM FAccT (formerly ACM FAT*), the premier publication venue for research on understanding and mitigating societal biases in artificial intelligence systems. Dr. Hecht has collaborated with Google Research, Xerox PARC, and Microsoft Research, and his work has been featured by The New York Times, the Washington Post, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and various other TV, radio, and Internet outlets. Dr. Hecht advises students in the Computer Science Ph.D. program and the Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) Ph.D. program.

Hanlin Li is a Ph.D. student in Technology and Social Behavior at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the utility and value of user-generated content for businesses and the public. She also explores ways to inform technology users of their data value through design research. Her work contributes to the field of human-computer interaction and social computing.

Nick Vincent is a PhD student in Northwestern University’s Technology and Social Behavior program and is part of the People, Space, and Algorithms Research Group. His broad research interests include human-computer interaction, human-centered machine learning, and social computing. He is studying the relationships between human-generated content and intelligent technologies to mitigate negative impacts of computing. Several of his recent projects have focused on “data dividends”, and how the public might exert “data leverage” against tech companies through “data strikes” and “conscious data contribution”.