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tklassy's review against another edition
3.75
In this book, Noble provides a well structured and convincing study around the systematically, oppressive design and enactment of algorithms. I found the most captivating chapters to be those that centred human first stories with real observations. Interesting to see an earlier discussion of algorithms pre-Facebook/Instagram algorithm discussions.
I think my preference around the person lead chapters could be because of my background in sociology, anthropology, and social sciences. However, I just felt that these chapters bolstered the argument in a way that made the impact feel more real and less theoretical. Some of the book felt a little bit repetitive, and that’s one of the reasons I only rated it a 3.75. I think the other drawback, other book about the Internet is that it becomes outdated very quickly. And this book suffered from that somewhat. I want to underline the books importance in starting conversations around the inequality of the Internet, a space that is sometimes conceptualised as this utopian and equitable space, truly, it’s an arena. That’s rife with the same inequalities and depressions that plague the ‘ real world.’
While reading Noble’s book I did note that I wanted to have a longer discussion around, not only race, but also some more thickened explorations of its intersections with things like size, gender, and even queerness. I acknowledge that a book can’t provide in-depth discussions of all of these topics, because each of them are extensive and deserve a book of their own. And I know no thesis was sent around these derogatory and harmful representations of black girls on Google images, more precisely, but I did want just a little bit more of that flashed out Interaction with the Canon of gender studies.
I think my preference around the person lead chapters could be because of my background in sociology, anthropology, and social sciences. However, I just felt that these chapters bolstered the argument in a way that made the impact feel more real and less theoretical. Some of the book felt a little bit repetitive, and that’s one of the reasons I only rated it a 3.75. I think the other drawback, other book about the Internet is that it becomes outdated very quickly. And this book suffered from that somewhat. I want to underline the books importance in starting conversations around the inequality of the Internet, a space that is sometimes conceptualised as this utopian and equitable space, truly, it’s an arena. That’s rife with the same inequalities and depressions that plague the ‘ real world.’
While reading Noble’s book I did note that I wanted to have a longer discussion around, not only race, but also some more thickened explorations of its intersections with things like size, gender, and even queerness. I acknowledge that a book can’t provide in-depth discussions of all of these topics, because each of them are extensive and deserve a book of their own. And I know no thesis was sent around these derogatory and harmful representations of black girls on Google images, more precisely, but I did want just a little bit more of that flashed out Interaction with the Canon of gender studies.
iamsammie27's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Sexism
jessthebp's review against another edition
A must-read for anyone who works in SEO or tech in general, Noble's overview of the ways that Search Engines reinforce racism and stigma is one of the most important texts about information in this century. There's a concept in this about how the shape of information is information itself; how we look for data affects the data. And search is that.
juliasilge's review against another edition
5.0
I read most of this book a long time ago and finally sat down to finish the last little bit this weekend. This book is quite academic and centered in the library and information science tradition, rather than any fields I have experience in like natural sciences or computational fields. It is slim but not a pop or casual read.
I see the main point that Noble is making here to be how information access and "sense-making" have become the domain of commercial, ad-driven organizations (examples include Google, Yelp, and so forth) which are inaccurately perceived as neutral. This has happened without most of us (including system designers) thinking carefully enough about how or why things are the way the are, and now we have consequences like reified racism, sexism, and so forth. This is more a book about identifying a problem than solutions, but it sets us up to ask incredibly important questions.
I see the main point that Noble is making here to be how information access and "sense-making" have become the domain of commercial, ad-driven organizations (examples include Google, Yelp, and so forth) which are inaccurately perceived as neutral. This has happened without most of us (including system designers) thinking carefully enough about how or why things are the way the are, and now we have consequences like reified racism, sexism, and so forth. This is more a book about identifying a problem than solutions, but it sets us up to ask incredibly important questions.