Following the publication of a landmark article, join us for a conversation about how today’s big tech platforms use the power they hold over the attention of billions of users to shape the markets in which they participate for their own benefit.
In their work, Tim O’Reilly (Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media), Ilan Strauss and Mariana Mazzucato (UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose) advance a theory of algorithmic attention rents. This explores the way that as platforms grow, they become increasingly capable of extracting rents from users and suppliers through algorithmic control over attention. The report focuses on advertising models that harvest, monetize and resell attention, but the work has relevance to other online business models. It calls for regulation that mandates the disclosure of metrics that platforms use to measure attention and the details of how that attention is monetised.
The article has been published in Data & Policy, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal at Cambridge University Press published in association with Data for Policy, a Conference series and community organization dedicated to the impact of data science on governance. In this event, the authors discuss the work and the process through which it was produced with Zeynep Engin and Jon Crowcroft, two of the founding Editors-in-Chief of Data & Policy.
This free to attend event is to be hosted in Zoom – register here
Wednesday 3 April at 1700 BST / 1200 EDT / 0900 PDT. Event lasts for approximately 60 minutes with Q&A.
Related Materials
Read the peer-reviewed, open access article in Data & Policy
Read related reports at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
About the Speakers
Tim O’Reilly – CEO & Founder O’Reilly Media; Visiting Professor of Practice at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Tim O’Reilly is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of O’Reilly Media, the company that has been providing the picks and shovels of learning to the Silicon Valley gold rush for the past thirty-five years. The company delivers online learning, publishes books, and runs online events about cutting-edge technology, and has a history of convening conversations that reshape the computer industry. If you’ve heard the term “open source software”, “web 2.0”, “the Maker movement”, “government as a platform”, or “the WTF economy”, he’s had a hand in framing each of those big ideas. Tim is also a partner at early stage venture firm O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (OATV), and on the boards of Code for America, PeerJ, Civis Analytics, and PopVox. He is the author of many technical books published by O’Reilly Media, and most recently WTF? What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us (Harper Business, 2017). He is working on a new book about why we need to rethink antitrust in the era of internet-scale platforms. More about Tim O’Reilly
Mariana Mazzucato – Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation & Public Value at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She received her BA from Tufts University and her MA and PhD from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. Her previous posts include the RM Phillips Professorial Chair at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at Sussex University.
She is the author of four highly-acclaimed books: The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013) which investigates the critical role the state plays in driving growth; The Value of Everything: making and taking in the global economy (2018) which looks at how value creation needs to be rewarded over value extraction; Mission Economy: a moonshot guide to changing capitalism (2021) rethinks the capacity and role of government within the economy and society; and most recently The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023).
She advises policy makers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being Chair of the World Health Organization’s Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, Co-Chair on the Council on Urban Initiatives, member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council, the UN High Level Advisory Board for Economic and Social Affairs, the European Space Agency’s High-Level Advisory Group on Human and Robotic Space Exploration for Europe, Argentina’s Economic and Social Council and Vinnova’s Advisory Panel in Sweden and the OECD High-Level Advisory Panel on Climate and Economic Resilience. Previously, through her role as Special Advisor for the EC Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation (2017-2019), she authored the high-impact report on Mission-Oriented Research and Innovation in the European Union, turning “missions” into a crucial new instrument in the European Commission’s Horizon innovation programme, and more recently, authored a report with the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Transformational Change in Latin America and the Caribbean: A mission-oriented approach. More about Professor Mariana Mazzucato
Ilan Strauss – Senior Research Associate at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Ilan Strauss is a senior research associate at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (London), where he leads the digital economy research team with Mariana Mazzucato (principal investigator) and Tim O’Reilly – funded by the Omidyar Network. His work investigates new theories of harm and competition in digital markets, with an emphasis on Big Tech’s digital platforms and ecosystems. Ilan is also the receipt of an Economic Security Project grant (jointly with Dr. Jangho Yang) looking at the role of acquisitions in Big Tech attaining dominance in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation.
llan is a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa (industrial policy). Previously, he taught macroeconomics at Rice University (Jones Graduate School of Business) and at New York University (Division of Applied Undergraduate Studies). Ilan has consulted for Airfinity (London), UNCTAD (Investment Division), the African Development Bank (AfDB), UNIDO, the ILO, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Ilan holds a Ph.D in economics from the New School for Social Research (New York) and an MSc in economics from SOAS (University of London, First Class). For recent information see www.ilan-strauss.org.
About the Hosts
Zeynep Engin is the Chair and Founder of the Data for Policy Conference Series, the next edition of which takes place on 9-11 July 2024, at Imperial College London (see details). She is Chair and Director of the Data for Policy Community Interest Company and a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Data & Policy journal, published by Cambridge University Press. She is also affiliated with UCL Computer Science as a Senior Researcher.
Jon Crowcroft is the Marconi Professor of Communications Systems in the Computer Lab, at the University of Cambridge, researcher-at-large at The Alan Turing Institute and Visiting Professor of I-X & Department of Computing at Imperial College London. He co-founded the Data for Policy Conference and is a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Data & Policy journal at Cambridge University Press.