Algorithms are increasingly invoked as powerful entities that control, govern, sort, regulate, and shape everything from financial trades to news media. Nevertheless, the nature and implications of such orderings are far from clear. What exactly is it that algorithms “govern”? What is the role attributed to “algorithms” in these arguments? Can we turn the “problem of algorithms” into an object of productive inquiry?

This conference sets out to explore the recent rise of algorithms as an object of interest in scholarship, policy, and practice beyond computer science. Taking a fresh view on the current wave of interest in this topic, we aim to discuss themes such as:

* the very idea of “algorithms” as a subject and object of analysis
* issues of methodology and the kind of knowledge claims that come with algorithms
* the rhetoric of problems and solutions, success and failure
* questions of agency, accountability, and automation
* secrecy, obscurity, inscrutability
* rules, regulations, resistance

Speakers include: Lucas Introna, Tarleton Gillespie, Paul Dourish, Evgeny Morozov, Daniel Neyland, Frank Pasquale, Claudia Perlich, Robert Tarjan as well as Mike Annany, Kate Crawford, Lisa Gitelman, Moritz Hardt, Matthew Jones, Karrie Karahalios, and Martha Poon.