Spreadsheet Knowledge and Production of the “Modern Fact”
Poovey’s book provides a critical background and framework for understanding how certain forms of knowledge became authoritative and seemingly “objective.” She argued that the rise of double-entry bookkeeping and statistical sciences in the early modern period was not merely a technical advancement but a profound epistemological shift. These systems created a new way of seeing and organizing the world through numerical representation, presenting complex realities as quantifiable and manageable facts.
Peirce and Derrida on the Logic and Power of Spreadsheets and Dashboards
The growing ubiquity of spreadsheets, dashboards, and AI models across organizational life marks a shift in how meaning, decision-making, and authority are structured. These systems do not simply reflect reality or suggest more than an increase in computational capability. These techniques construct reality symbolically, substituting formulas, predictions, and metrics for presence, memory, and deliberation. This […]
Markets and Prices: Pros, Cons
This post looks a how the notion of markets emerged and what is useful and determental about them. It discusses the underlying economic understanding of markets and includes several critiques of this term and our allegiance to them.
AI and Government: Concerns Shaped from Classic Public Administration Writings
Drawing on the classics of public administration, we can start to specify some constraints and goals for artificial intelligence (AI) and develop a “smart” but ethical government that is efficient but also responsive to public concerns.
Lotus 1-2-3, Temporal Finance, and the Rise of Spreadsheet Capitalism
One of the books I read during my PhD years was Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989), about the $25 billion leveraged buyout (LBO) of the iconic conglomerate (tobacco/snacks/) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). An LBO is the purchase of a company using large amounts of short-term debt and […]
Determining Competitive Advantages for Tech Firms, Part 2
To be successful, tech companies need to understand how to shore up barriers to entry to solidify their positions and become profitable. Within the competitive environment, it is important to be aware of how companies can ward off other companies looking to capture their market share. In this post I expand the analysis of competitive advantages to a wider concept of “tech” companies.
How Do Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Use APIs and Web Scraping to Collect Data?
In both AI and Big Data applications, data networks are fundamental to the efficient gathering of information. High speed communications enable the seamless transfer of data between different sources, applications, and cloud locations, contributing to the overall effectiveness of AI models and Big Data analytics. APIs and web scraping are two techniques that are used to gather information from data networks.
It’s the E-Commerce, Stupid
The WTO adopted the Declaration on Global Electronic Commerce on May 20, 1998. Members agreed to “continue their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions.” They also set out to study the trade-related aspects of global Internet commerce, including the needs of developing countries and related work in other international forums.
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About Me
Professor (full) at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Research Professor for Stony Brook University. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and global political economy
You can reach me at:
anthony.pennings@gmail.com
apennings70@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
About me
Writings by Category
- artificial intelligence
- automatrix
- blockchain
- books and films
- characteristics of digital media
- creative cities
- creative industries
- crisis communications
- cultural Industries
- data analytics and meaning
- democratic political economies
- digital coordination
- digital destruction
- digital geography
- digital media economics
- digital media management
- digital monetarism
- digital spreadsheets
- disaster risk management
- disruption
- dystopian economies
- educational innovations
- electric money
- enabling frameworks
- enterprise systems
- financial news
- financial technology
- food policy and security
- futurists
- geopolitical risk
- global communications
- global e-commerce
- health IT
- how IT came to rule the world
- intellectual property
- journalism
- meaning makers
- meaningful play
- media strategies
- mobile technologies
- multimedia
- political economies in sf
- political economy of media
- public administration
- science and technology studies
- sensing technologies
- smart new deal
- social media
- space systems
- strategic communications
- sustainable development
- technologies of meaning
- technology management
- telecom policy and net neutrality
- telegraphic political economy
- telelearn/telework
- the cold war
- the smith effect
- uncategorized
- visual literacy and rhetoric
