- The University
- 28/10/2022
JADS film festival about digitization and big data
Sometimes, it’s easier to start a debate with a film than with a scientific presentation. That’s why the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science holds the second edition of its International Data Science Film Festival, which is set to take place between 3 and 5 November. The films were selected by JADS’ own researchers. Associate professor Ksenia Podoynitsyna chose The Rise of the Mega-Corporations, a documentary about the unbridled power of tech giants such as Amazon and Facebook.
Next week, between 3 and 5 November, JADS (short for Jheronimus Academy of Data Science) will open its chapel to welcome students, staff members, partners from companies and organization, people from the neighborhood and other interested parties to the second edition of its International Data Science Film Festival (IDSFF). A cinema screen was set up in an actual chapel for this occasion, because JADS, a cooperation between Tilburg University and TU/e, is located in a former convent in Den Bosch.
JADS will show the following three films during the festival, all of which deal with questions relating to the digitization of society and big data, and the role of data science in that process: the documentaries The Rise of the Mega-Corporations and iHUMAN, and the science fiction film Interstellar.
After each film, a debate will be held, for example in the form of a panel discussion. There’s also an artwork on display: As Above, So Below, an audiovisual performance by artist Mark IJzerman based on (satellite)data of deforestation in Chile.
Vehicle for innovation
According to Liesbeth Leijsen, business director at JADS, film is a perfect medium to start a dialogue about the ethical issues of the digital transition. In addition, a film festival is a perfect fit for the organization’s DNA, she says.
“Culture – which includes film – is a vehicle for innovation, and a source of inspiration. It visualizes abstract issues and makes us look at reality and the future from a different perspective. We are also thinking about setting up a cultural event in an even more innovative form. Perhaps it will take place in the metaverse.”
There is broad support for the festival within JADS, Leijsen says: “The films were selected and will be introduced by our researchers from Eindhoven and Tilburg. Also, each film was ‘adopted’ by one of our external cooperation partners. They will shed light on the themes of the films using examples from daily practice of their company or organization. This is in line with how JADS operates: community-based and thinking in terms of cross-fertilization and co-creation. To us, science is always connected to the outside world.”
Amazon
Ksenia Podoynitsyna is an associate professor at JADS and TU/e whose field of research includes Data-Driven Entrepreneurship. Podoynitsyna, who also heads the master’s program Data Science in Business and Entrepreneurship, investigates how the opportunities offered by digitization, big data and AI lead to new forms of entrepreneurship. She selected the The Rise of the Mega-Corporations(to be screened on November 3, 20:00 hrs.), a documentary about the Big Four (Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook), which have become so huge and powerful that they are able to rewrite laws and regulations with impunity.
“I like to use Amazon as a case during my lectures,” Podoynitsyna says. “It takes four or five slides to show the complete list of all the platform’s business models. Amazon started out as an e-commerce company, then started to host other webshops, then went on to expand that offer with other services… and now it has become active in healthcare, payment systems and supermarkets. The question is, where will it end?”
Locked-in effect
For consumers, it has almost become impossible not to use Amazon, and the same is true if you want to market a product. “They have the most reviews, the largest assortment and very often the lowest prices.”
And because of those low prices, Amazon is impervious to our ‘old-fashioned’ legislation against monopolization. Podoynitsyna: “That legislation is designed to protect consumers against artificially enhanced prices, but that’s not the problem. The problem lies in Amazon’s B2B version: data research tells Amazon how successful the products offered by their sellers are, and then they copy those products and sell them at a lower price.”
“Another example is how meal delivery services like Thuisbezorgd can significantly increase commission percentages, since delivery restaurants depend on orders made via those delivery programs – the so-called ‘locked-in effect.’” The documentary presents various similar cases, and it offers some uncomfortable truths about what the Big Four can do with our privacy-sensitive data, and about how powerful they have become.
Animal
Podoynitsyna saw how the tone of the debate about mega platforms shifted over the years. “Fifteen years ago, people were fascinated and in awe even – ‘Look at how that beautiful animal develops’ –, but today, people are worried and alarmed.”
The EU is trying to impose restrictions on technology giants like Amazon with the Digital Markets Act, which will enter into force on November 1. Does Podoynitsyna have faith in this act? “I’m hopeful. But the question is what effect this legislation will have in practice. After all, the cookie law was also introduced with the best intensions at the time.”
Discussion