CITO Conversations

Techno-colonization with Simeon Vidolov and Stefan Klein

Professor Stefan Klein and Dr. Simeon Vidolov present their paper, "Techno-colonization of scholarly communication: A call to reclaim control".  This paper contributes to wider research into how extractive publishing systems have colonized scholarly communication to gain not only infrastructural control but increasingly epistemic control as well. For far too long, big publishing companies have trapped academics in a vicious circle of parasitic business models employing monopolistic pricing and arbitrary gate-keeping where researchers provide the labour, only for corporate giants to end up owning the published element of scientific intellectual property (often publicly funded) and consequently, control the visibility of research outputs. These companies have moved beyond publishing; they are now providers of critical, AI and data-analytics enabled research infrastructures. They are reshaping scientific knowledge production, academic values and increasingly claim epistemic authority. That such a system can be used to publish research so critical of its inherent structure is both ironic and potentially positive. The authors call for each of us to reject the role of passive participant in our own exploitation. They conclude by calling for us to devise ways to dismantle these corporate infrastructures and reclaim the autonomy of the scientific community. Whether you are a student, a researcher, or a faculty member, join us to discuss how we can build a future for academia that prioritises collective knowledge over commercial surveillance. The underlying paper(s) are both Open Access, links below: ·       Vidolov, S., & Klein, S. (2026). Techno-colonization of scholarly communication: A call to reclaim control. Organization, Article 13505084261416192. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084261416192 ·       Ngwenyama, O., Klein, S., & Rowe, F. (2026). Platform Capture of Scientific Knowledge Production: Publishers’ Dominance, Generative AI and Subsumption of Academic Labor. European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS). https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2026.2642660  Biographies Simeon Vidolov is a Faculty Member in the J.E. Cairnes School of Business at the University of Galway. His research examines how digital technologies transform ways of working and organizing, with a focus on embodied and affective experiences. His work challenges dominant narratives of technological progress and interrogates the harmful and often normalized consequences of contemporary digital infrastructures for individuals, organizations, and society. Stefan Klein is Professor emeritus for Interorganizational Systems at the School of Business and Economics, University of Münster, Germany. His main research areas are information infrastructures, the transformation of work, risks of digitalization, and digital capitalism. He studies practices of technology use and organizational transformation from an individual to an industry level. The event was held on 6 May 2026 in University College Dublin, Ireland. Acknowledgements Music  Title: Story Artist: Meydän Source: https://bit.ly/2P5CSCv License: CC BY Cover Art  Title: Smurfit-Zartis Artist: Photo credit: Allen Higgins. Used with permission. Source: SimeonStefan-seminar.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part, you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Sanctuary Hypothesis by Jean-Fabrice Lebraty

CITO Seminar: The Sanctuary Hypothesis in Information Systems — Blockchain and AI as Strategic Havens for Non-Dominant Organisations Guest: Jean-Fabrice Lebraty  Host: Donncha Kavanagh  Recorded on Tuesday, September 23, 4:00 - 5:00pm in Q2.33 Lochlann Quinn School of Business, UCD Belfield Campus. Abstract   This talk introduces a theory of dominant vs non-dominant organisations in digital ecosystems. Dominant actors shape standards, data flows, and platform rules; non-dominant actors operate under asymmetric dependency and limited control over technological stacks. I argue that, for the non-dominant, the core IS problem is not efficiency but survivability—the capacity to endure adverse, shifting, or hostile digital environments. Survivability requires a digital sanctuary: an infrastructure and set of practices that preserve critical informational assets beyond the reach of dominant gatekeepers. I then present two sanctuary technologies. First, blockchain, leveraging immutability, persistence, and verifiable anchoring to secure records and proofs against unilateral alteration. Second, AI via model-level embedding, where strategic data placement in training corpora and model fine-tunes creates durable informational traces and capabilities resilient to upstream platform changes. I conclude with design principles and governance implications for building and stewarding such sanctuaries.   Keywords: digital sanctuary; survivability; blockchain; AI/model embedding   Bio Jean-Fabrice LEBRATY is a Full Time Professor of Management Sciences at iaelyon School of Management (Jean Moulin University Lyon 3). He specialises in information systems management. His research focuses on decision-making in extreme contexts, crowdsourcing, social networks, and innovative technologies such as blockchain or AI. Since April 2023, he is in charge of the Magellan research laboratory, which comprises 80 researchers and 50 doctoral candidates. Notes: Jean-Fabrice Lebraty (at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3) https://iae.univ-lyon3.fr/lebraty-jean-fabrice Acknowledgements Music  Title: Moody Break  01 Artist: Allen Higgins Source:  a-Wed10Oct2024 License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Includes samples from Ableton Live by Ableton AG and by KORG Inc. Cover Art  Title: Room Q233 Photo credit: Allen Higgins. Source: Jean-Fabrice-seminar.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part, you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Johno (Robert Johnston) on Psilocybin, Heidegger and being-toward-death

Psilocybin, Heidegger and being-toward-death Between 2020 and 2023 psychologist Marg Ross and psychiatrist Justin Dwyer, together with collaborators, ran the largest Australian randomised control of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of extreme death anxiety in terminally ill patients using psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) (Ross et al, 2025).  Over the past 15 months I have contributed to the analysis and reporting of qualitative interview data collected by these researchers before and after treatment. The therapy has been shown to be remarkably effective with 21 out of 28 patients who completed the full trial reporting sustained relief. Whereas before the treatment the patients had found themselves 'stuck' in an oppressive lingering present, after treatment they are able to 'step back into' a life that is in some ways fuller even than before the diagnosis (Dwyer et al, 2026).  In this reading group/seminar I will briefly present Heidegger's account in Division II of Being and Time of being-toward-death and its role in prompting a more authentic human existence and richer lived temporality. I will point out its striking similarity to the change phenomenon we observed in the qualitative analysis. I invite discussion of this observation, its implications, and suggestions. Note I will devote little time to describing the clinical trial so reading the accompanying paper (Dwyer et al, 2026) is advised. Johno Robert B. Johnston is a professor (emeritus) at University College Dublin, and a person in his own right. Dwyer, J., Johnston, R. B., O'Callaghan, C., and Ross, M. 2026. "Stepping Back into Life: How Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy Transforms the Way of Life of the Terminally Ill," General Hospital Psychiatry (98), pp. 86-96.  doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2025.12.002 Acknowledgements Music  Title: Justice Little League Artist: Ema Grace Source:  https://bit.ly/2tJ6Bnd License:  CC BY 4.0 Artist notes: Ema Grace is an AI vocaloid produced by Ryoma MAEDA (@Ryoma_Maeda). Styled as virtual Singer&Idol 架空のバーチャルアイドル & シンガー、それがEma Grace. Cover Art  Title: Inspired by zoom Artist: Allen Higgins Source: CITO-podcast-Johno.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Data Practices with Hippolyte Lefebvre

Welcome to the CITO Podcast. Séamas Kelly invites Hippolyte Lefebvre to present an overview of his research interests and direction. Hippolyte is a member of CITO and the Management Information Systems group in the UCD College of Business, Dublin, and previously at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland. Notes, extra questions, and further reading: Homepage at UCD - https://people.ucd.ie/hippolyte.lefebvre [https://people.ucd.ie/hippolyte.lefebvre] Hippolyte’s Google scholar page is https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uxo4pH4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uxo4pH4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao] Acknowledgements Music  Title: Justice Little League Artist: Ema Grace Source:  https://bit.ly/2tJ6Bnd License:  CC BY 4.0 Artist notes: Ema Grace is an AI vocaloid produced by Ryoma MAEDA (@Ryoma_Maeda). Styled as virtual Singer&Idol 架空のバーチャルアイドル & シンガー、それがEma Grace. Cover Art  Title: Inspired by selfie and AI Artist: Allen Higgins Source: CITO-podcast-DataPractices.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Making New Money by Quinn DuPont

Welcome to the CITO Podcast. This episode is a seminar by Quinn DuPont titled “Making New Money: How autonomous communities produce and govern cryptocurrencies.”  Paul Dylan-Ennis will open the session with a brief introduction after which Quinn will present an overview of his project, after which Donncha Kavanagh will make some observations and invite reactions. Decentralized cryptocurrencies are upending the foundations of economic power, challenging centuries of state and bank control over money. This research critically examines the rise of digital wildcat banking and its profound implications for economic sovereignty. Leveraging digital forensics, data science, and OSINT, this work reveals who actually produces and governs cryptocurrencies—and how their collective labor reshapes value and risk. It explores the forces behind decentralized money, the vulnerabilities these systems introduce, and the future role of state-issued currencies in an era of rapid monetary transformation. Reflecting on the project Quinn notes: "I've been working on this for well over a year now, and while it is still in development, the basic outline is complete. I make some pretty provocative claims, like arguing that global forces first emerging in the 1970s lead us inexorably to this point where the labour required to produce and govern new money has become involuted[1] [about:blank]. It’s a unique project that reveals how new money is made and details the implications for banks, nation states, and society. I also have some fun stories to share, like my effort to vampire attack Trump's WLFI token or my reverse engineering of the FBI's Operation Token Mirrors." [1] [about:blank] Involution; the theory from Clifford Geertz where, in the original context, rice production becomes internally competitive and the processes require more labour without an increase in output - analogous to this story of technological development and precarious technological labour. I argue that the operational infrastructure of crypto expands to require more labour, despite no correlated increase in output. Thus, crypto overtakes national currencies not by meeting a market demand, but by accommodating excess labour supply. Notes, extra questions, and further reading: Quinn’s homepage - https://iqdupont.com China’s “Involuted” Generation by Yi-Ling Lu | The New Yorker Published MAY 14 The president and the billion-dollar crypto businesses – How the Trump companies made $1bn from crypto by Joe Miller and Alex Rogers in Washington, Paul Caruana Galizia, Nikou Asgari, Eade Hemingway, Oliver Hawkins and Chris Cook in London | FT.com Published OCT 16 2025 "Overcapacity" or "involution"? How China's manufacturing suffers from over-competition Tracing the roots and perils by Elena Wang and Nina Chen | Baiguan.news Published APR 18 2024 Acknowledgements Music  Title: CrazyMix Artist: Sandbox Korg Ableton Source:  CrazyMix.aif License: : CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Cover Art  Title: Inspired by Wordpress Defaults Artist: Allen Higgins Source: CITO-podcast-STS.pptx License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Podcast License Design Talk (dot IE) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0  The license can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 By taking part you give permission for your voice to be recorded, for the recording to be edited, and for it to be posted and published as a podcast. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.