Laura Forlano

Bio

Laura Forlano is a Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.  She received her Ph.D. in Communications from Columbia University in 2008.  Her dissertation, “When Code Meets Place:  Collaboration and Innovation at WiFi Hotspots,” explores the intersection between organizations, technology (in particular, mobile and wireless technology) and the role of place in communication, collaboration and innovation.  Forlano is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Design and Management department at Parsons and the Graduate Programs in International Affairs and Media Studies at The New School where she teaches courses on Innovation, New Media and Global Affairs, Technology and the City, Technology Policy, Sustainable Design and Business Ethics.  She serves as a board member of NYCwireless and the New York City Computer Human Interaction Association.  Forlano received a Master's in International Affairs from Columbia University, a Diploma in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor's in Asian Studies from Skidmore College.

Abstract

Writing for the Algorithm:  Digital Labor and Mobile Work

The Internet has enabled the emergence of virtual, decentralized and digital labor, which has reorganized the way people work, where they work and what they do.  Based on a 3-year study of mobile work practices and an ongoing experiment in mobile work called Breakout!, this presentation will examine individual accounts of these changing work practices, environments and professions.  For example, the growing ranks of freelance, self-employed and independent workers have formed new types of face-to-face “communities” including membership in coworking spaces such as New Work City in New York, which are supported by a range of social networking tools such as Twitter and MeetUp groups; the flexibility and mobility of labor has allowed for new spaces like cafes, parks and public spaces to be appropriated for work; and, new jobs such as search engine optimizers (SEO) have been created.  Such phenomenon point towards the reorientation of individual identities away from firms and towards ad-hoc, place-based networks of likeminded individuals that perform various forms of unpaid labor for one another in absence of firm-structured relations.  In contrast to mass media and advertising accounts of virtual, decentralized and mobile work, which present a vision of “anytime, anywhere” work, these new forms of labor are contextual and deeply rooted in place.  It is vital that these place-based aspects of digital labor are taken into account in order to understand the overall socio-economic transformations that are occurring.