Managing Opacity: Information Visibility and the Paradox of Transparency in the Digital Age by Cynthia Stohl et. al
I thought it was interesting to see how they differentiate the term ‘visibility’ and ‘transparency’, which I used to think are one and the same. They mentioned the relationship between the two, which was not necessarily a linear relationship, and that it could be a colinear one as well.
Even though an organisation has all the information that is available and easily accessed by the public, in addition to it being approved legally, what was the intriguing was the transparency paradox that was mentioned in the article. Information can be hidden in plain sight when the receiver of the information chooses to intentionally or unintentionally ignore the relevant or important information due to information overload (inadvertent opacity). Organisations can also intentionally conceal certain important information through the framing of the information, which can give the impression of it being transparent, but in reality, the opposite is true.
This made me wonder, if there is such a thing as transparency paradox, then how can there be better monitoring of organisational conduct (instead of merely observing the three attributes of visibility)?
The Software Act by Warren Sack
In this reading, Warren Sack positions computing as a form of art, essentially calling programmers/computer scientists as artists. He tells us of the history of computing, but instead of putting science and technology at the forefront, he is placing the arts, and attributing the arts for its evolution. I thought that this reading was intriguing because we have always viewed computing as something that is science or mathematical in nature, but never have I viewed it the way Sack has viewed computing, in an arts and humanities perspective, which was rather refreshing for me.
Software Studies 