Syllabus

Big Data and Digital Methods

2018 Milan State University, Big Data and Digital Methods corso di laurea in
Comunicazione Pubblica e d’impresa
Prof. Emanuele Braga

The aim of the course is to provide an overview on the impact of cryptocurrencies and
Blockchain paradigm shift. Bitcoin was born as a monetary revolution, done by hackers and
anti-system activists, but very suddenly it became a perfect mean for venture-capitalism's
investment and financial trading. Facing all these risks, we will try to understand how is
developing the possibility to use cryptography ethically and politcally oriented, in the middle of
an historical paradigm shift in which the relation in between technology and democracy is
questioning the role of national states, the concentration of power and capital, and the creation
of new alterantive and radical ecosystems.
A paradigm shift: introduction to crypto economics and to blockchain
Technological innovation always rises by a movement of resistance that produces a radical
alternative to the existent system. New economic spaces, alternative infrastructures able to
shape new forms of organizations, decentralized computing hardware and forms of
co-ownerships, and a free access to the knowledge, are designing a new space of social
interactions. We will try to read in a theoretical and historical prospective the last decade
paradigm shift.
After the hype: critique to techno fetichism, financial extractivism and algorithmic
surveillance
The hacker culture always pointed that the net is not neutral, and the technological innovation
has been largely captured by the neoliberal and nationalistic policies. Big data extraction,
profilization of the users, algorithmic surveillance, meme production, financialization of trust and
automatisation of production are mostly reactionary actual uses of these technological tools.
Cooperativism, alternative forms of ownership and post work society.
A side the hegemony of platform capitalism, nationalism and surveillance capitalism, the most
interesting alternative movements are experimenting new forms of assembly and connections.
No more focusing only on the issue of anonymity and security, we will point the challenge how
to organize the alternatives, how to build up and scale alternative infrastructures. Platform
cooperativism, basic income, municipalism, welfare and care, are the keywords for the future
global ecosystem’s architecture.
We will analyze specific cases like
Eco AI/Amazon, China Social Credit System, Barcelona Smart City, Bitcoin, Crytocurrencies
financial marcket,
Commoncoin, Faircoop, Bankofthecommons, Smart.be and ICOs like Holochain…

Bibliography for oral exams:

Digital Methods
di Richard Rogers
Platform Capitalism
di Nick Srnicek
Alternative for the oral exams (students attending classes ONLY)
presentation of a text PAPER regarding the on issue rised by the calasses and negoziated wit
the professor.

Bibliography (optional):
OUR TO HACK AND TO OWN: THE RISE OF PLATFROM COOPERATIVISM, a new vision for
the future of work and Fairer Internet, Trebor Scholz
ORGANIZATION AFTER SOCIAL MEDIA, Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter
THE HERETIC'S GUIDE TO GLOBAL FINANCE, Hachink the future of the money, Brett Scott
INVENTING THE FUTURE: POSTCAPITALISM AND A WORLD WITHOUT WORK, Nick
Srnicek
ARTIST RE:THINKING THE BLOCKCHAIN, RUTH CATLOW, MARC GARRET
MONEYLAB, OTHERCOMING THE HYPE, Geert Lovink
ART, LABOUR AND ACTIVISM - edited by Alberto Cossu, Jessica Holtaway and Paula Serafini
- Rowman International
LA MONETA DEL COMUNE - edited by Andrea Fumagalli, Emanuele Braga - Derive Approdi

see also this repository:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UJXJRSz4Z-SfyWhGkI4o-naRvnUVJKyW

link/supports:
https://genr.eu/wp/decode/?fbclid=IwAR1iBssTSDPsaa_HyrwJ3UiqIXj0A-BCwxCGLVKWihOIeX
Jy3rNytfIyj98
https://bankofthecommons.coop/it/
https://www.dyne.org/
https://fair-coin.org/
https://chain.fair-coin.org/download/FairCoin2-white-paper-V1.1.pdf
https://economicsofimperialism.blogspot.com/2017/06/open-sesame-on-alibaba.html
http://www.share.barcelona/declaration/?fbclid=IwAR3dUhfG4G97shoozduq0Fgn6U9ntWTXH_
CFg-dRaKyHfphn4GrpSsHVTcw
https://decidim.org/
https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/digital/ca
https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/06/14/planning-outline-for-the-construction
-of-a-social-credit-system-2014-2020/
https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_645337/lang--en/index.htm
https://demystification.co/mmittee/about/
https://demystification.co/mmittee/downloads/Offshore_Investigation_Vehicle.pdf
https://non.copyriot.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The_Offshore_Economist.pdf
https://anatomyof.ai/
https://labs.rs/en/mapping-and-quantifying-political-information-warfare/
https://syntheticedifice.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/accelerate.pdf
http://money.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/blockchain-powering-future/
http://www.visualcapitalist.com/video-ico-explosion-one-animated-timeline/
https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/
wcms_645337.pdf
LE PIATTAFORME DEL CAPITALE, interview with Nick Srnicek by Emanuele Braga
https://vimeo.com/207437963
NOTES ON THE ABSTRACTSTRIKE, Antonio Negri
http://supercommunity.e-flux.com/texts/notes-on-the-abstract-strike/
RED STACK ATTACK! ALGORITHMS, CAPITAL AND THE AUTOMATION OF THE
COMMON, Tiziana Terranova
http://www.euronomade.info/?p=2268
KILL ALL NORMIES, Angela Nagle
https://archive.org/download/KillAllNormiesAngelaNagle
Jaromil D. Roio
https://files.dyne.org/readers/Bitcoin_end_of_taboo_on_money.pdf
B.Massumi
https://thenewinquiry.com/a-cryptoeconomy-of-affect/
and
https://medium.com/@CCCBLab/the-rules-of-the-game-of-platform-cooperativism-by-guido-smo
rto-950cfe83b51c
https://fairbnb.coop/it/
https://smartbe.be
https://smart-it.org/
http://wagesforfacebook.com/
http://speculative.capital/
https://p2pfoundation.net/
http://networkcultures.org/moneylab/
https://www.commonslabantwerpen.org/publicaties/2018/8/20/a-commons-transition-plan-for-gh
ent-source-stad-gent
http://delfanti.org/biohacker-it/
http://la-cura.it/