Abstract

Enabling broader access to information access technologies and their resulting benefits for acquiring, updating, and disseminating knowledge is a vital project for both research and industrial development. In this talk, I take up the complex and multifaceted question of why we might pursue this goal: What is the ultimate purpose of enabling such access? What ethical principles may motivate that goal or specific efforts in its pursuit? What theory of change or political vision is assumed by such efforts? What technological, informational, political, and economic systems are users brought into as their information access is enhanced? What are these users’ roles relative to other actors in the sociotechnical milieu in which information retrieval operates?

I argue that these questions have significant implications for when and how we work to enable more universal information access, and how we define and evaluate success in that quest. My goal with this talk is to promote discussion of the questions, goals, and assumptions underlying the kinds of work presented at IR4U2 and elsewhere, and the consequences these underlying and sometimes unstated factors have for research, development, and society.

Recording

Also available on YouTube or as an edited transcript.

Slides

Resources and Works Cited

• ECIR24-i

  2024

  Michael D. Ekstrand, Lex Beattie, Maria Soledad Pera, and Henriette Cramer. 2024. Not Just Algorithms: Strategically Addressing Consumer Impacts in Information Retrieval. In Proceedings of the 46th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR ’24, IR for Good track). Lecture Notes in Computer Science 14611:314–335. DOI 10.1007/978-3-031-56066-8_25. NSF PAR 10497110. Acceptance rate: 35.9%.

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• Franklin, Ursula M. 2004. The Real World of Technology. Revised Edition. CBC Massey Lectures. Toronto, Ont.; Berkeley, CA: House of Anansi Press. http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-1989-cbc-massey-lectures-the-real-world-of-technology-1.2946845.