Peter Aiken

“Data Literacy: Achieving Higher Productivity for Citizens, Knowledge Workers, and Organizations” (2021)

Do you know what a "PIDD" is? A PIDD is a Perpetual Involuntary Data Doner. Surveillance capitalists love PIDDs because PIDDs materially support the data extraction industry by unwittingly surrendering their personal information, paying for data transport and storage, and tolerating poor Internet/technology performance. Today, this quiet industry collects massive data about people to modify and control their societal behavior. Surveillance capitalists control behavior by exploiting people's low data literacy. Three things increase the magnitude of the challenge: Data volume continues faster than we can process. Poor data interchange costs drain citizen and organizational resources and productivity. Society's reliance on technologies has not materially addressed the gap. Our Digital Civics Framework (DCF) presents a guide to increasing the data literacy of billions of citizens or at least those connected to the internet. We outline the levels and types of data knowledge that society needs and propose exercises that will help citizens interact productively within a data-driven society. Unfortunately, far too many PIDDs allow surveillance capitalists to monitor their data. This type of monitoring comes at an expense to individuals, our communities, and society writ large. Completing this material will equip readers with a shared understanding of society and the role data plays in it.