4. Big data allows micro-targeting

Preamble: The collection and processing of large amounts of data is another of the "ways in which changes in...technology, commerce, and social life have changed our needs and capacities for mathematical thinking." The resulting business model is that advertizing can be directed at and customized for the specific characteristics of a reader/viewer, without wasting resources on the larger, less receptive population. The Wang video describes some limitations of that model. The Cadwalladr news article suggests, in contrast, that micro-targeting worked very well thank you in the Brexit campaign. (I'm not sure that the following example resulted from the efforts Cadwalladr describes, but the somewhat conservative Jewish sister of an English colleague of mine voted for Brexit because of fake news literature distributed in her town -- which had a high proportion of Jewish voters -- about EU restricting kosher foods.)

Preparation

• View Tricia Wang's video, "The human insights missing from big data," https://www.ted.com/talks/tricia_wang_the_human_insights_missing_from_big_data (only as far as needed to appreciate the point that the value of big data is limited by things not measured).
• Read Cadwalladr, C. (2017) "The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked," https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy (viewed 7 Sep 17)
• Peruse Silverman, D. (2013) "How to Learn Board Game Design and Development," https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-board-game-design-and-development--gamedev-11607 (viewed 7 Sep 17),

Goals

1. Begin to explore games as a way to draw students or others in your audience into appreciating new social dynamics, in this case, the use of big data for micro-targeting
2. Apply social interpretation as a means to expose the restrictiveness that comes with using any quantitative tools

Activity
Imagine the simplified US electoral college of 9 states of differeing sizes, that is with fractions of US population: 1/4, 1/4, 1/9, 1/9, 1/9, 1/24, 1/24, 1/24, 1/24. Winner takes all in each state. States are made up of heterogeneous citizens, differing in combinations of traits such as gender, race, class, prejudice, voting record, employment history.... If resources to target subgroups are limited, my initial idea is that the game would be won either if the player can invent an affordable media campaign to swing the vote in the election overall or by the player who does so with the minimum of resources.
Steps
1. Brainstorm about the game design and rules (see section of Silverman on "Fleshing out your idea," especially "Ask yourself questions like").

• (If you find yourself stalled, first do some freewriting, then, if still needed, invite someone to join you in a breakout room.)

2. Share ideas about the game design and rules with other students in breakout room.
3. Reflect on how the outcome of micro-targeting in an election gets summarized in a macro-story of the kind that working class, elderly white voters left behind by globalization (or Europeanization) pushed back against the elites who have benefitted from those processes.
4. Post your ideas on game design and rules and/or your reflection on #3 to the wordpress site, http://wp.me/p98Z1M-r
5. Plus-delta feedback on activity
6. (Optional) Respond to other students' reflections (#4). Do follow-up reading to learn more about board games (see entry point below).

From García-Barrios, L. et al, (2016) "Azteca chess: Gamifying a complex ecological process of autonomous pest control in shade coffee," Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 232: 190–198 (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306418689_Azteca_chess_Gamifying_a_complex_ecological_process_of_autonomous_pest_control_in_shade_coffee) Bringing together all the elements and requirements of a complex scientific board-game is a long, arduous, nonlinear tinkering process of trial and error (Speelman and García-Barrios, 2009; García-Barrios et al., 2015; Meza-Jiménez and García-Barrios, 2015; Chiarello and Castellano 2016). It emerges more out of messy vitality than of ordered recipes. Nevertheless, it needs guiding principles. Based on our understanding of the ecological system and our educational objectives we decided that the Azteca Chess game/model should...... Be attractive, playable and educational for a wide range of users (a diversity of genders, ages, cultures, relations with farming activity, incomes, power, academic education, etc.). This required making the previous points compatible with the principles of successful strategy-board-game design (Adams and Dormans, 2012; Pulsipher, 2012): clear goal and rules; trajectories and challenges not prescribed but emerging; balance among potential outcomes; possible trajectory change during all or most of the game to avoid early dominance; minimum use of randomness; entertainment; flow (not too hard and not too easy for the average player); immersion and engagement; simple and swift mechanics; minimum or no need for calculations and number tracking; adequate board geometry and size; board and tokens attractive and easy to manipulate; appropriate duration of turns, of rounds and of the whole game; appropriate number of players. (f) Allow for evaluation of the most basic learning skills (retention, understanding, application; Anderson et al., 2001). Adams, E., Dormans, J., 2012. Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design. New Rider Games, Berkeley CA, USA. Pulsipher, L., 2012. Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish. McFarland & Co., Publishers, NC USA 276 pp.