Yuhan Liu will present her General Exam "Understanding and Building Decentralized Sociotechnical Systems" on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at 8:00 AM in CS 402 and via zoom. Zoom link: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/95333464737 Committee Members: Andrés Monroy-Hernández (advisor), Parastoo Abtahi, Janet Vertesi Abstract: Since the 19th century, the impact of technological advancements on labor has been recognized as a double-edged sword. The rise of scientific management, also known as Taylorism, increased production efficiency but also led to worker exploitation. Today, the evolution of algorithm-mediated labor reflects this dynamic, with the arena shifting from factories to different mobile applications and the source of stress evolving from timers on the assembly lines to AI-powered algorithms. The past decade has witnessed the rise of the gig economy, alongside significant challenges. For example, monopolistic food delivery platforms are the sole authority in deciding restaurant commissions, customer prices, and worker wages, causing imbalances of power. The black-boxed AI algorithms result in significant information asymmetry and the gig economy’s zero-sum nature leads to value misalignments between platforms and other stakeholders. My work aims to explore and develop decentralized solutions, drawing inspiration from the labor movement a hundred years ago and the recent decentralization trends in social media. To understand existing alternatives to mainstream gig platforms, I led a mixed-method study investigating the widespread but underresearched socio-technical phenomena: indie food delivery platforms. We collected data on 495 indie platforms and detailed survey responses from 29 platforms. We analyzed these platforms to understand why they were created, how they operate, what technologies they use, and what challenges they face. Furthermore, to dig deeper into the recent trend of migration to decentralized social media, I led a qualitative study on understanding how the nature of decentralization in systems like Mastodon, is associated with novel uses of the technology. Building on the insights from independent food delivery platforms and decentralized social media, I’m now working on designing a protocol for the decentralized food delivery network: Open Deli Protocol. In my future research, we plan to implement and deploy the decentralized food delivery system with the support of our industrial collaborators. The system will improve the user experience and agency of delivery workers and enable indie food delivery platforms to operate in a way that aligns with their values. Reading List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vSxL9e_Z6_UfVuahVfzG0sJoZ_BdKC7mGyAHYwmq... Everyone is invited to attend the talk, and those faculty wishing to remain for the oral exam following are welcome to do so.