AgoraDialogue2024 #Are you a proletarian data worker?
Preface#
Today, we live in a fast-paced data society. Regardless of appearances, the prosperous life presented by the internet is rooted in a data network that expands outward with greed and flexibly adjusts its weights internally. You, I, and most people are no different; we are both consumers of data and producers of data: our communication, journeys, and attention, every footprint in any online space, is fed into the algorithm factories of major companies, customizing addictive illusions centered around individuals. "Big Data" was once a key term in the rise of the Chinese internet, and with the advantage of population size, the domestic market became a natural data mine, leading to the saying that "whoever has the data has the world" in fields like e-commerce, short videos, social media, and travel apps.
For a long time, users have lacked agency over data privacy. Perhaps you have no direct perception of this, or even some confusion: Is all this really happening around me?
Your confusion is precisely the cunning aspect of the data society. "Radical Markets" has long shown us that in today's society, engaging in "data work" is akin to the domestic work of housewives; as a form of invisible labor, it exists and has real value, yet it is not measured in economics; thus, value producers cannot capture the value they create.
"Data work" first entered people's view through user-generated content (UGC), marking the leap from Web1 to Web2. The interconnection of the web has made users producers of content, and the internet has evolved into a land-grabbing movement by big capital and internet companies. Once a free public space, the internet is now monopolized, privatized, and colonized by tech giants, designing various dopamine mechanisms to attract and tame large numbers of users and audiences that align with corporate interests.
Today, the data society lurks in people's daily lives in a form and spirit akin to "technofeudalism." It has become not only a pair of eyes peering into the private spaces of the masses but also algorithms that build the Babel Tower of "information cocoons." Existence itself has become increasingly non-material, abstract, and elusive, hovering around the alienation of people by the capitalist ghost in the empty internet, evolving from whips and discipline to today's fatigue and addiction.
Due to passive neglect, dissolution, and algorithmic traps, most people are "forced" to lack sensitivity to data dignity and lack means to protect their own interests. However, the scale of technology's occupation of data continues, gradually forming structured predatory behavior.
Two years ago, after the success of ChatGPT developed by OpenAI, "artificial intelligence" technology emerged as an absolute hotspot in the tech industry. While enjoying an exponential increase in productivity, issues related to data privacy are also escalating. In mid-2023, Hollywood initiated a strike to protest AI threats, with artists, writers, and image companies suing OpenAI for infringing on their works used to train large models without permission. By the end of the year, several media outlets, led by The New York Times, initiated similar public accusations. The speed of collective rules and social responses is far behind technological progress, and most lawsuits are merely futile attempts that cannot produce substantial meaning or change.
Are we powerless against this data plunder of Web2?#
Whether it's the "data alliance" proposed by Matt Prewitt or the "data trust" suggested by Sylvie Delacroix and Neil Lawrence, they express the same aim: effective data rights protection comes from collective self-rescue. It should be a reflexive yet organized bottom-up structure. Thus, the fermentation of this idea has given birth to a cryptographic distributed computing technology—blockchain. This technology was born from critical reflection on technology itself. It is equally rapid and aggressive but forms a subtle tension with artificial intelligence technology. Web2 is ill; can blockchain be the remedy? Our discussion unfolds from here.
From 2023 to 2024, new cryptographic technologies are continuously emerging in blockchain to address the centralization of data issues caused by AI. Among them, the most representative are the ZKML (Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning) and DePin (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) tracks. The former decentralizes machine learning using zero-knowledge proof technology; the latter decentralizes computing power and storage networks using incentive models and distributed computing. Can these new technologies in the blockchain field answer the dilemma of "data dignity"? How far are they from large-scale application? What challenges do they face?
We hope to use specific technologies as a starting point to engage in an in-depth discussion on the topic of "data dignity," and not limited to the following questions:
Invisible Data Work
As an internet surfing user, when did you start to realize that surfing the internet is not just about browsing but also involves invisible data labor, where your time becomes a leverage for big companies to capture economic value, and you are still working after hours, unable to stop scrolling on your phone... These may not be something you "voluntarily" do or simply a matter of "poor self-control." Among the internet products you have experienced, which data-driven designs left a deep impression on you?
Individual Data Privacy
"Data dignity" is not just about individual management of information and data; the main issue we face today also includes the inequality of information and responsibilities between individuals and organizations. The privacy agreements that are often pre-checked when using various apps are almost like a form of a 霸王条款 (unconscionable clause). How can individuals effectively manage their own data? What responsibilities do organizations have to protect users' privacy?
Data Production Relations
Today, data, as an important asset in the information age, involves a complex web of competitive relationships. Once the old production methods combine with new content, they can create entirely new production structures and operational methods. Under certain macro backgrounds, how can this data production relationship be imagined? Where does the tension between its real form and ideal operational mechanism lie?
Blockchain as a Method
As a new technology that is currently thriving and has strong vitality and emergence, do you think blockchain can be a good remedy for data privacy issues? Is the impact of blockchain on Web2 a local improvement, a global update, or a matter of each encroaching on the other's territory in contradiction?
We hope you will join us in the urban living room to rethink life, encounter conversations happening in another space, and collectively experience "Agora Dialogue."
This time, we hope to invite everyone to play a board game about the operational logic and rules of the data society: The Crypto “Argo” in Data-sea. Its Chinese translation is: 加密公海上的阿尔戈 (The Argo on the Crypto High Seas).
In Greek mythology, the Argo is a ship filled with heroes sailing towards an ideal place. In the vast sea of data, everyone is a real participant.
Find Your Favorite Living Room#
A place that has disappeared from our daily and public life; a space of departure where we can engage in various activities for our own sake, where we think, collide, and create; a "lying flat" style space where we harvest leisure and free time.
Living Room Host | A-Dai and Others
Daily likes to daydream, doing a job to make ends meet, pondering some whimsical things; where will the trajectory of life lead?
Host | Bala
Event Time
5 / 18 Saturday 14:30
19.9 RMB / person
The Sewage Space is a public co-living space initiated by three friends—Jessy, Jerry, and G, which will open its 50-square-meter living room on weekends for events. We hope everyone can detach from profit relationships in the "sewage" and achieve emotional and intellectual connections.
Living Room Host / Moderator | Jessy
Web3 industry media person
Event Time
5 / 18 Saturday 14:30
22.2 RMB / person
A small office for personal use, not large, accommodating a maximum of 8 - 10 people. This event's theme is "Web3 Social: How to Achieve Decentralization and Data Privacy?" We plan to discuss how we can better share our data with the currently popular web3 social protocols.
Living Room Host | Wang Yixiang
A crypto enthusiast studying cybersecurity
Event Time
5 / 18 Saturday 15:00
23 RMB / person
The Between Living Laboratory is a unique space aimed at exploring, simulating, and expanding everyday behaviors, reactions, and experiences. The laboratory uses the concept of "between" as its core, emphasizing the interactions, transformations, connections, and influences between different things. It is not just a physical space but an experimental field that promotes exploration and expansion of daily life experiences in different fields, relationships, or environments.
Living Room Host | Tianxing
Works in the Department of Business Management at Nankai University, co-founded and operates a community for developing research capabilities with friends, enjoys writing, painting, traveling, and reading.
Event Time
5 / 18 Saturday 15:00
30 RMB / person
It's really just my living room.
Living Room Host | sz/Little Wang
In my thirties / infj / from Hangzhou, just moved to Tokyo for over half a year, currently in the stage of trying to understand the local area better / striving to root myself. I have many interests, such as music, cooking, and sports, and I am very interested in in-depth discussions on humanities and social sciences. I am very willing to hear different voices from various backgrounds. Before the pandemic, I operated a small gallery for traditional Japanese art in London, and after the pandemic, I insisted on slowly closing it down for a year, planning to restart based on Tokyo by the end of the year. Everyone is welcome to come and play with me~
Event Time
5 / 19 Sunday 14:30
1000 yen / person
(Offering various coffees and light alcoholic beverages)
Near the financial district's Canary Wharf - Canary#63
You can explore conversations over coffee aroma or enjoy your favorite cocktails in the summer London sun in the small courtyard...
Living Room Host | Keke
Space manager, executive, guide, coach, investor / serial entrepreneur
Producer / host of the podcast "CSS | Exploring the Wonderful World of Web3.0" and "Climate Action 2050"
Event Time
5 / 19 Sunday 14:30
10 pounds / person (nuts/chips)
The 706 Nanjing Urban Living Room is located next to the Zhujiang Road subway station on Line 1, open to the local community in Nanjing. We welcome friends to initiate activities here; we do not aim for profit and provide free venues to partner organizations, hoping to create an ideal and healthy youth cultural community together.
Living Room Host | Bai Yuqing
A lawyer graduated in software engineering, started operating 706 Nanjing in 2020, hoping to change the world. Currently actively understanding this society, I have given up on making decisive evaluations of the world, accepted the reality of not finding answers, and continue to work hard, feeling my way through.
Event Time
5 / 19 Sunday 15:00
7.06 RMB / person
OpenSpace is an open Web3 space where we gather and cultivate some passionate friends about Web3 technology.
Living Room Host | Tiny Bear
🧑💻 Initiator of the Chain Community, master's degree from Beihang University, 6 years of experience in the blockchain industry, rich experience in practical blockchain projects and teaching, participant in multiple excellent projects, with over a thousand students, author of several blockchain technology books, former guest lecturer at the Blockchain Technology Research Center of Xiamen University.
Host | Qiuxiu
OpenBuild & Plancker DAO contributor, 706 slacker
Event Time
5 / 19 Sunday 15:00
29.9 RMB / person
Clearly, this is not a traditional tavern; we hope this "now-named tavern" can become a global urban hub, connecting local community windows and serving as a diverse and open space container. Here, there are real connections and specific people, and together we liberate a new way of living through exploration and creation.
Host | Lao Han
Large model algorithm engineer, sci-fi enthusiast, photographer, mediocre musician, initiator of the EIC super individual community.
Host | Ade
Former cryptography engineer, easygoing, enjoys communication.
Event Time
5 / 25 Saturday 15:00
Purchase any drink to participate
Welcome to BLOOOM, the place where inspiration blooms. One place inspires all, located in Wuhan Tongxingli, an old foreign-style house, 300 square meters, an environmentally friendly space. We want to invite new and old friends to gather here, eat together, chat together, dialogue together, and get things done together, hoping that every connection here has more possibilities.
Living Room Host | Bingbang
Hello everyone, my name is Bingbang.
Host | Haoran
Developer, digital nomad, everyone calls me Haoran.
Event Time
5 / 25 Saturday 15:00
39.9 RMB / person
The first digital nomad community and shared office space in China, aimed at digital nomads, remote workers, freelancers, independent entrepreneurs, tech developers, small and medium-sized teams, Web3, and flexible workers from different fields. It also provides a platform for communication and sharing.
Host | Nian
DaliHub & "Digital Nomads Are Not Crazy" organizer, designer and content creator who studied in France, community researcher, has traveled to over 160 cities worldwide, promoter and practitioner of the digital nomad lifestyle, craft beer culture & blues dance enthusiast.
Co-host | Noodles
Host of Black Persimmon Coffee, a mysterious programmer.
Event Time
5 / 25 Saturday 15:00
39 RMB / person (includes one cup of Americano)
Our living room is a "Friends" style urban co-living space, a local co-living space in Shenzhen. We hope to create a better living atmosphere, where roommates are no longer mere acquaintances but trustworthy partners or even friends. We look forward to finding that oasis in this cultural desert, searching for the missing proximity in an atomized society. We hope young people will unite to create their own living space and lifestyle.
Living Room Host | Jiangxingke
Founder of "Our Living Room." Film critic, movie blogger, host of the self-media channel "Xia Ying Ying Hua," currently has over a million fans online.
Host | Twone
Core contributor of Uncommons.
Event Time
5 / 25 Saturday 15:00
19.9 RMB / person
510, reshaping the topology of life in a small space.
Living Room Host | He Fa
Host of P4 Theater, artist.
Host | Ink
A new media artist in Beijing, creating in fields related to algorithm programming, video performance, interactive generative art, video installations, AI, etc. I also focus on post-humanism, technology philosophy, history of science and philosophy, and the application of radical thoughts, economic thoughts, and game theory in web3.
Event Time
5 / 25 Saturday 18:30
50 RMB / person
A café located in Kwun Tong, a great place for office workers to relax and eat. The owner is the handsome and cultured Eric! Various parties and gatherings can be held here.
Host | Aragorn
Currently working at HKU, wants to participate in the Night of a Hundred Ghosts, enjoys various strange stories, urban legends, ghost stories, and is very interested in researching folk beliefs. Wants to connect with more interesting people.
Co-initiator | Regina
Currently a freelancer starting a business, working hard to operate an AI startup and educational consulting business, always busy, loves to create. Will be responsible for connecting and planning various fun activities in Hong Kong in the future.
Event Time
5 / 26 Sunday 14:00
Consume any drink to participate
The Empty Living Room is a decentralized community activity space. This event will focus on casual conversations, covering basic concepts of Web3, the future world built by AI, the spirit of open source & community, and the impact of technology on daily life. Affe plans to use this sharing as a starting point to find partners for the "Technology & Efficiency" team in the Empty Living Room.
Host | Affe
Member of the Empty Living Room preparation team, independent developer in Web3 / AI.
Event Time
5 / 26 Sunday 15:00
29 RMB / person
Located in Putuo District, the 706 Shanghai Youth Space serves both co-living and public functions. Since its establishment, it has hosted hundreds of non-profit salons, lectures, creations, and events related to culture / art / academia / practice. We hope to become the Flaubert living room of Shanghai, sparking countless ideas while rediscovering life in co-living, and opening our living room and public space to allow young people and students new to Shanghai to enjoy cultural and intellectual life at a low cost.
Host | Lee
706 Shanghai Youth Space operational partner, spiritual Dali person.
Event Time
5 / 26 Saturday 16:00
39 RMB / person
Chiang Mai event preparation is ongoing, please stay tuned
Online Special Event
706MLab Data Dignity
The 706 Media Lab was established in August 2021, gathering partners from online and offline salons to explore and study the possibilities of combining new media technology with community. Friends interested in cryptographic technology are welcome to join us for discussions.
Host | Deng Chen
Deng Chen, freelance writer, member of the 706 Media Lab, focuses on issues such as technological politics, online violence, and internet governance.
Event Time
5 / 26 Sunday 15:00
9.9 RMB / person
Registration and Consultation#
✨ To ensure the experience and effectiveness of the event, the living room dialogue has a certain limit; specific details can be confirmed in the registration form.
🥂 After registration is approved, the living room dialogue assistant will proactively contact you based on the reserved contact information. If the approval is not granted, the assistant will refund the event fee.
🪐 Due to preparation factors such as materials and catering, transfers are only allowed within 24 hours before the start; refunds are not provided.
👾 If you are interested in the "Agora Dialogue" living room dialogue and wish to become our living room host, moderator, or volunteer, please contact the living room dialogue support team and note "living room dialogue."
About Us#
Living Room Dialogue Agora Dialogue
Through a series of collective face-to-face conversations held in living rooms, individuals with diverse viewpoints and educational backgrounds enter a relaxed and enjoyable communication environment, crossing divides, promoting understanding, and achieving greater consensus through genuine connections and participatory discussions. The aim is to improve people's lives by creating real connections with knowledge, experience, and methods. At the same time, we actively seek more understandings and interpretations of this form.
Uncommons
Uncommons is a public space within the blockchain world, where a group of public goods builders collide with crypto-humanistic thoughts. Its predecessor was the GreenPill Chinese community.
LDNET Link Island Roaming Network
A space-sharing network concerning private living rooms and various independent spaces, advocating and supporting more space operators to host salons, gatherings, study tours, etc., connecting young people scattered across the city who focus on public issues, overcoming the alienation of daily life through sincere interactions, seeking possibilities for human interaction in this time and place, solidifying trustworthy community relationships, and building a global network across regions.
706 Youth Space
Originating from the cosmic center of Wudaokou, it is China's first youth space, attempting to create a new type of physical space. It has co-created dozens of 706 bases in several cities at home and abroad, while also incubating potential partner projects.
706 advocates a new model of education, travel, living, and socializing through a community distributed operation model, allowing young people to explore more possibilities in life.
Uncommons is a public sphere where a collective of Commons Builders explores Crypto Thoughts together.
Uncommons 是区块链世界内一隅公共空间，一群公共物品建设者，在此碰撞加密人文思想。其前身为 GreenPill 中文社区。
Notion: https://uncommons.notion.site
Uncommons TG: https://t.me/theuncommons
Uncommons Twitter: https://twitter.com/Un__commons