Computer Systems Bias (A Retrospective Blog)

I may have been sick when we had this lecture but after looking at Facebook, Big Data, ImagePlot, it is hard to deny the biases in computer systems. Biases in computer systems may not always be easy to identify but once the system is established, it can have widespread impact (Friedmann and Nissenbaum, 1996, p.331), so one always needs to consider what the biases are, and how it can affect us.

As someone with a Nigerian name, "Folarin Agbaje", I am used to adding my name to the dictionaries in Microsoft Word whenever I write my papers or resumes in a public workstation. It used to feel more like an inconvenience to me, but what about when I am applying to a job online?.I am well aware that some online job applications have systems that filter out applications without certain keywords, is it possible that some of the systems could have preexisting biases that filter out  names not found in the U.S or Canadian dictionaries? I cannot say for sure. One thing I can definitely say as an aspiring information professional is that we cannot divorce information systems from the social context, practices and attitudes of the institutions that spawned them. They may not be easy to spot but it is definitely something I will always keep at the back of my mind as I study more information systems.

                                                    References
Friedman, Batya and Nissenbaum, Helen (1996). Bias in computer systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems 14(3): 330–347