Ethical Concerns in Digital Curation : Ethical Concerns in Digital Curation A look into Apple’s App Store
By Cory Kellner
What is Digital Curation : What is Digital Curation Digital curation involves maintaining, preserving and adding value to digital research data throughout its lifecycle.
With Regards to Apple, this entails the app approval process
Does the App function as intended, Use legal APIs, Stability
Apps are sorted and filtered by a team of employees for quality control
Storage, maintenance, digital distribution of Apps through iTunes
How is Curation being used : How is Curation being used Verify Integrity
Enforce App maturity ratings
Prevent Malware Apps
Does the App function as it is intended?
Does the App use the standard APIs for future proofing
Effects of Curation on Content : Effects of Curation on Content May censor the freedom expression for developers and artists
Protect users from offensive materials
Ensures a basic level of integrity from the developer
Apps are limited to the rules and regulations set forth by Apple
"Even though my personal political leanings are Democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What's the point?" -Steve Jobs
Effects of Curation on Developers : Effects of Curation on Developers Very simple for a developer to setup shop with little overhead
70 / 30 revenue split
Developers must comply with the Terms of Use
Required to used only Apple’s API’s
May not compete with Apple’s own Apps
Curation for the Consumer : Curation for the Consumer Peace of mind from malware
Parental controls
Ratings, reviews, Charts and listings
Consumers can read reviews about the app before they decide to purchase
One-stop shop; simplicity
Few options outside of the app store
Moral Obligation or Censorship : Moral Obligation or Censorship Is Apple curating their App Store to limit competition, control innovation, and become the big brother of content development?
Or is Apple doing the same thing every retail store is entitled to do; verify that the products they selling are as advertised and safe for use by their customers?
No ability to opt out or use a competitive app service, would have to hack the iOS device or be limited to HTML 5.
In the case of Flash : In the case of Flash Why can’t I have Adobe flash on my Apple device?
Apple vs. Adobe; Anti-competitive or Visionary
How is HTML 5 a justification to tell Flash developers to jump ship and re-write?
In the end, who is benefiting from the argument? Apple
And who are the victims? Consumers, Flash Developers
Internet Browsers : Internet Browsers Webkit browsers, Opera approved but other denied?
Does this mean Firefox will be available on the iPhone?
(FireFox) No. We do not have plans to ship the Firefox browser for the iPhone. Due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution, we cannot provide users the Firefox browsing experience on the iPhone. For details, see ---> We have no plans to release Firefox for iPhone. The iPhone SDK Agreement requires browsers to use Apple's own JavaScript engine, or none at all (like Opera Mini, which downloads pre-rendered pages from Opera's servers and cannot run JavaScript code on the iPhone). Because of this, we have no supported way to distribute Firefox's rendering and JavaScript engine to iPhone users.
How do you feel? : How do you feel? As a developer, would this distribution system help you?
As a consumer, Is curation in your best interests?
If you own a device with an app distribution service, how does it compare?
Can you think of any other tech companies that use some sort of digital curation to organize and maintain their archives or store?
Conclusions : Conclusions It is ethical for Apple to control what software works on their devices
Curation works for the vast majority of consumers
Most people are happy have this service done
Limited to Apple’s app store, no real outside competition
Restricted to content approved by Apple
Some services like Adobe Flash are not supported due to this walled-garden distribution system
References : References http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1006ad9g4hjk/event/index.html
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Platforms and https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/firefoxhome
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/digital-curation/what-digital-curation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_curation
http://www.pcworld.com/article/159887/
rejected_10_iphone_apps_that_didnt_make_apples_app_store.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/06/apples_schiller_personally_responds_to_app_store_criticism.html
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Apple+news/news.asp?c=21243
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/apples-struggle-with-political-app/?scp=14&sq=app%20store&st=cse