5.3 and 5.4 Discussion Questions

Google “What age groups use Facebook” vs “… TikTok”? What does the data say? Is there purposeful exclusion in these platforms? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?

Facebook users between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four make up 18% of all users. 29.9% of Facebook users, or the majority, are between the ages of 25 and 34. While Facebook targets an older demographic, TikTok targets a younger one, with 25 percent of its users being between the ages of 10 and 19. Both society and the real app developers are to blame for the exclusion between the applications. Younger consumers enjoy the fast-paced videos that TikTok produces. This might hurt younger viewers, which makes it hazardous. Although it is detrimental to society and has to be changed, having a specific audience for an app is also beneficial from a commercial standpoint.

Why do virtual assistants have female voices? Amazon, Alexa Google, Apple Siri. Was this purposeful? Is it harmful? Should it be corrected? Is it good business?

Female voices are used in virtual assistants because they are more eloquent and facilitate audience comprehension. This was done on purpose since consumers may find virtual assistants more enticing if they can understand what the assistant is saying. In a way, it is damaging since it can indicate that women should only have assistant positions.

Talk about an algorithm that influences your decisions, think about these companies (ie FAANG - Facebook, Amazon, Apple,Netflix, Google)

Amazon is an algorithm that affects my choices. I do a lot of internet shopping. And I frequently purchase items I find intriguing on Amazon. Therefore, the majority of my days are spent browsing Amazon and making purchases there.

Pair Disussion Questions

Does the owner of the computer think this was intentional?

No, they do not think that this was intentional

If yes or no, justify your conclusion.

Although he believes it was unintentional, he also believes it to be incorrect and that it has to be corrected.

How do you think this happened?

I think that the programming and testing were done on or for white folks. Most likely, it wasn’t tested on or programmed for black folks.

Is this harmful? Was it intended to be harmful or exclude?

This is detrimental, no doubt. It could alter how young Black Americans regard themselves and damage their self-esteem. But I think this was an oversight and wasn’t meant to exclude.

Should it be corrected?

Yes, it has to be changed. A consumer has a right to anticipate that all functionalities of a computer they purchase will function.

What would you or should you do to produce a better outcome?

I believe we should test the algorithm on individuals of all various races in order to obtain a better result. In order to improve the product, we might also need user feedback and thoughts regarding the result.

Big Idea 5.4 - Crowdsourcing

Obtaining Data via Crowdsourcing

We have all experienced Crowdsourcing by using external data through API’s, namely RapidAPI. This data has influenced how we code and shown possibilities in obtaining and analyzing data. Discuss APIs you have used.

Some of the APIs that I have used was the google maps API. This API let me be able to set markers/ locations on a useable google maps screen that I was able to implement into my groups website.

We have all participated in code Crowdsourcing by using GitHub. Many of you have forked from the Teacher repository, or exchanged code with fellow students. Not only can we analyze GitHub code, but we can obtain profiles and history about the persons coding history. What is the biggest discovery you have found in GitHub?

The biggest discovery and most interesting part of GitHub was the fact that you were able to see when and how many times you pushed/ updated code through GitHub. The site was able to record and save that data for later viewing.

Kaggle datasets for code and science exploration. The avenue of data points us youtube or netflix channels. Analyzing crowd data helps us make decisions. Exam top 10 to 20. Did you see anything interesting?

I noticed a data set on the mental health of medical students on Kaggle. This intrigued me since it’s important to discuss about medical students’ mental health, which is rarely done. It could aid young people in deciding if they want to sacrifice their mental health to attend medical school.

Hacks

CompSci has 150 ish principles students. Describe a crowdsource idea and how you might initiate it in our environment?

We could develop a platform for coding homework assistance given the high number of computer science students we have. When we are stuck on a particular assignment, we may ask others to email us the relevant sections of their functioning code, post it on the platform, and provide an explanation of the code. We would have the ability to query and be questioned.

What about Del Norte crowdsourcing? Could your project be better with crowdsourcing?

Yes, our project would be much better. This is because we would be able to use our news website in order to reach more people with more diverse needs and wants. We could send people who only care about sports our sports section, or the people who only care about the latest news the newest section.

What kind of data could you capture at N@tM to make evening interesting? Perhaps use this data to impress Teachers during finals week.

During Night at the Mueseum, we can ask all of the people that are there at the school what their most favorite/ interesting news segment in. Whether that be sports, breaking news, or whatever else. Then later we will be able to push more of the news that the majority of the people want to see towards the home page, so that it is easier to access and read.