About INDL
INDL, the International Network on Digital Labor, is an initiative founded in 2019. Over the years it has been funded by the French CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), the ISRF (Independent Social Research Foundation), and a number of local partners. By leveraging the experience of the vibrant communities of the ENDL (European Network on Digital Labour), INDL’s mission is to organize international conferences and foster global-level collaboration between academia and civil society. INDL conferences welcome stakeholders such as experts, media, union leaders, and policymakers. Graduate students and junior researchers are invited to actively participate, both by responding to our calls for papers and by lending a hand for the organization of the events.
INDL-1 conference “Microworking Platforms: A challenge for AI?” took place in Paris, France, June 13-14, 2019.
In the wake of the publication of the DiPLab’s report “Le Micro-travail en France”, INDL(International Network on Digital Labor, an offshoot of ENDL (European Network on Digital Labour) has organized the two-day conference “Microwork Platforms: A Challenge for Artificial Intelligence, A Challenge for Employment?” The event, organized in collaboration with the French government’s think tank France Stratégie and MSH Paris Saclay, took place on June 13 and 14, 2019 in Paris. Among the 300 participants, academics, workers, students, trade unionists, policymakers, journalists, citizens.
Day 1 focused on “policy perspectives”. Platform workers voiced their experiences and views in the session “Meet the micro-workers”. Companies and platforms that recruit them discussed their workflow and business models.
INDL participants Paola Tubaro (French Center for Scientific Research), Vili Lehdonvirta (Oxford Internet Institute), Florian Schmidt (University of Applied Sciences HTW Dresden), Anoush Margaryan (Copenhagen Business School), Mariya Aleksynska (Institute of Labor Economics), Patricia Vendramin (UCLouvain), Antonio Casilli (Paris School of Telecommunications) presented the results of national and international surveys on these emerging forms of labor.
Day 2 “academic perspectives” was devoted to a doctoral symposium organized by Julian Posada (University of Toronto) and facilitated by Adam Badger (Royal Holloway), Jen Schradie (Sciences Po Paris), Sébastien Broca (Paris 8 University), where PhD students presented their ongoing research in the field of digital platforms. In the afternoon, Alessandro Delfanti (University of Toronto) chaired a session featuring Ulrich Laitenberger (Paris School of Telecommunications), Johan Lindquist (University of Stockholm), Anoush Margaryan (Copenhagen Business School) and Niels van Doorn (University of Amsterdam).
Florian Schmidt (HTW Dresden) concluded the conference with the keynote speech “The Design of Crowdsourcing: development of an (almost) academic perspective on microwork”.
INDL-2 conference “Robotize This! The futures of automation and work”, took place in McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, Toronto, Canada, on Oct. 9, 2019. The workshop was a collaboration between the International Network on Digital Labor, which was funded by a University of Toronto – CNRS Joint Research Proposal Grant, and the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology.
This international conference discussed the past, present, and many possible futures of automation. It formed and interdisciplinary approach, bringing speakers from media studies, engineering, technology studies, literature, and labour studies. INDL-2 lanched with an international graduate colloquium on digital labour.
INDL-3 conference “Unboxing AI. Understanding Artificial Intelligence”, On November 5-7, 2020, DiPLab researchers Elinor Wahal, Antonio Casilli, Paola Tubaro, Julian Posada organized the two-day conference Unboxing AI. Understanding Artificial Intelligence. The event was hosted by the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, in collaboration with INDL (International Network on Digital Labour), NEXA Center for Internet & Society, ISRF Independent Social Research Foundation. (Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the conference was entirely held online).
INDL-4 conference “Digital Worker Inquiry: Data, Solidarity, Leverage”, took place in Edinburgh, UK, Oct. 28-29, 2021. It was co-organized with the University of Edinburgh, The Scottish Trade Union Congress, and the ISRF.
About the event from INDL4-4 site:
The platform economy runs on data– much of it drawn from work processes, worker bodies, and work-based interactions. Yet workers themselves have often been severed from accessing what becomes proprietary and commercial data. In response, workers, researchers, activists, and organisers have come together to design and develop various data-driven interventions and tools with the explicit aim of enabling workers to study, understand, resist, and reformulate these working conditions. To date, these projects have not yet been put in conversation so that new audiences, including trade unions and worker coops, may learn best practices, develop models for their own inquiry, or learn from project failures. Our event aims to generate that conversation.
Over two days, we will showcase worker-led data projects, ranging from the creation of apps, tools, and software to the discussions of the ethical, technical, and legal challenges of working with or organising through worker data. Four themes inform the workshop:
• Stories of the Build: The Who, What, and Why of the Tool
• Ethical and Technical Challenges of Accessing Worker Data
• Legal Concerns and Challenges of Building with Worker Data
• Building Solidarity Through Data-Driven Organising: Does it work?
You may direct inquiries and comments: contact@indl.network
