First time poster here.
My reading of the article "Please, Corporations, Experiment on Us” was that yes, conventional product releases can be considered a form of corporate experimentation, and that, rather than legitimising experimentation of the A/B type without ethical standards, as the authors seem to propose, it instead highlights the lack of consent and disclosure in conventional production and consumption. Consumers are assumed to give consent by way of choosing or not choosing to use or consume a product, but is this informed consent? There is much that manufacturers do not disclose about their products
I discuss this further on my site:
http://guykeulemans.com/2015/06/product-transparency-corporate-experiments.html
Guy Keulemans
PhD candidate
UNSW | Art & Design
UNSW AUSTRALIA
Mobile +61 (0) 425 128 762
Email [log in to unmask]
Web guykeulemans.com
On 24 Jun 2015, at 12:06 am, Filippo Salustri <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Here's a thought experiment. I mean no disrespect to anyone or any
> organization; I'm just posing what I think is an interesting question.
>
> Say company X releases product P. It's a "radical" (but not dangerous)
> reconceptualization of some existent product class.
> P is successful.
> After a year or two, X releases the next version of P. It's significantly
> different from v1.
> The changes between v1 and v2 are easily traced to two basic sources:
> 1. feedback from v1 users on what they liked and didn't like, and
> 2. X's strategic goals to gently encourage certain user behaviours that
> would benefit X.
>
> One might well argue that X's customers were experimented on with v1 of P
> without the users' knowledge.
> One might also argue that this is just how "product development" is done
> and that a systems analysis of how the user community interacts in the
> "real world" with various organizations that provide products and services
> is pretty much just "how things are."
>
> If the former case is the best model of the situation, one might extend
> this reasoning to propose that all design is fundamentally an experiment
> done on users without their knowledge/consent/whatever. (I personally
> disagree with this stance, but that's not the point.)
>
> So, which of these 2 models is the "best" representation of the situation?
> Is the situation itself a good one, or is it flawed (e.g., a false
> dichotomy)?
>
> \V/_ /fas
>
> *Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.*
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
>
> On 20 June 2015 at 08:25, Gunnar Swanson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>> On Jun 20, 2015, at 1:30 AM, Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> The New York Times Sunday Review has an interesting article for those
>> who design products and services. It is an useful discussion piece for
>> seminars in the ethics of design, as well as for seminars on research
>> ethics.
>>>
>>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/please-corporations-experiment-on-us.html
>>
>> "Research ethics" seems to be the same as "biomedical research ethics" in
>> too many minds. Slate had an interesting twist in the Alice Goffman 'On the
>> Run' saga:
>>
>>
>> http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/06/alice_goffman_s_on_the_run_is_the_sociologist_to_blame_for_the_inconsistencies.html
>>
>>
>> Gunnar
>>
>> Gunnar Swanson
>> East Carolina University
>> graphic design program
>>
>> http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Gunnar Swanson Design Office
>> 1901 East 6th Street
>> Greenville NC 27858
>> USA
>>
>> http://www.gunnarswanson.com
>> [log in to unmask]
>> +1 252 258-7006
>>
>>
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