# Algorithmacy Conference 2026 — full reference > The first global conference on algorithmacy. Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. October 28–31, 2026. Open review · open access · APA 7. Site: https://algorithmacy.org · Repository: https://github.com/rogerSuperBuilderAlpha/algorithmacy-conference ## What algorithmacy is Algorithmacy is the communication competency through which a worker coordinates with another human party through an algorithmic third party. It names a worker-level capacity that the platform-work literature has documented without naming: why equivalently positioned participants on identical algorithmic systems achieve divergent coordination outcomes. The competency vocabulary inherited from computer-mediated communication, human-machine communication, and AI-mediated communication was built around a worker on one side of a medium. It does not reach the form in which the algorithm sits between two human parties, acts on inputs from both, and pursues its own objectives. The historical precedents are oracy and literacy. Oracy was the competency of a speaker before a present listener. Writing introduced a third structural position — an author addressing a reader through a document that conveyed without acting — and the competency it required was reading, writing, citing, and working through institutions that ran on text. The algorithmic form is not a more sophisticated channel through which writing happens; it is a third party with its own objectives that transforms each input as part of its operation, and the competency it requires has not yet been named in the field's existing vocabulary. ## Why La Brea La Brea Pitch Lake is the world's largest natural deposit of asphalt — an opaque substrate that produced the roads of empires while remaining unreadable to those who walked over it. The conference convenes in a Caribbean nation whose talent is being recruited into the global algorithmic economy under terms its workers and institutions did not author. Whether the competency develops uniformly across populations or replicates existing stratification will be answered first in the regions whose workers enter the form last. ## Venue & dates - Venue: Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago (approximately 30 minutes by road from Piarco International Airport; the Saturday field day travels ~90 minutes south to La Brea Pitch Lake) - Dates: October 28–31, 2026 (Wednesday–Saturday) - Hosted by the Caribbean Emergence Institute in partnership with Anime Caribe (Trinidad) - Sponsors: the Rose Foundation, the Caribbean Emergence Initiative, and Hult International Business School (Boston) ## Program - Wed, Oct 28 — Opening: registration, opening remarks, Keynote 01, opening reception - Thu, Oct 29 — Papers: track sessions (TR.01–TR.05), Keynote 02, open-review panels - Fri, Oct 30 — Papers: sessions continue, Keynotes 03 & 04, lightning talks, posters - Sat, Oct 31 — Uniquely Trinidad: a field day at La Brea Pitch Lake, guided tour, closing reception - Four keynotes across the program; five thematic tracks; open review throughout ## Tracks - TR.01 — Coordination & Mediation: coordinating through an algorithm vs. being managed by one; the algorithmic third as partner vs. obstacle; triadic vs. dyadic workplace exchanges; the historical relationship between oracy, literacy, and algorithmacy. - TR.02 — Algorithmic Management: how performance algorithms reshape "good work"; surveillance and metric-shaping; scheduling, ranking, and matching; the role of human management in algorithmically-managed environments. - TR.03 — Platform Labor & Worker Voice: how workers learn the algorithm without documentation; gaming, anticipating, accommodating platform logics; collective action under algorithmic mediation; unions, worker centers, informal solidarities. - TR.04 — Trust, Opacity & Governance: information asymmetries between workers, managers, and the algorithm; when opacity protects vs. harms; worker-side auditing; codetermination and stakeholder review. - TR.05 — Methods, Lineage & Practice: methodologies for studying algorithmic coordination; observing what cannot be directly seen; earlier regimes (bureaucracy, Taylorism, scientific management); field accounts of mediated work. ## Submission types - Full paper — 6–8 pages - Research note — 2–3 pages - Panel — 3–4 participants with a unifying argument - Poster — visual presentation with a one-page extended abstract - Practitioner report — 2–4 pages; reviewed for relevance and substance rather than academic form ## How to submit Intake is via pull request against the public GitHub repository, but no GitHub account is required. Four paths exist: (1) a **web form** at https://algorithmacy.org/submit that needs no GitHub account — fill it in, confirm via an emailed one-click link, and the conference opens the PR for you; (2) an **MCP server** at https://algorithmacy.org/api/mcp for agent-to-agent submission (tools `list_tracks` and `submit_abstract`) — the agent prepares everything and the human author signs off by clicking the emailed link, which is what opens the PR (the agent never receives the token, so it cannot publish on its own); (3) an **HTTP API** `POST https://algorithmacy.org/api/submit` with the same fields, confirmed by the emailed link; and (4) a **manual GitHub** path — fork, copy `submissions/TEMPLATE.md` to `submissions/.md`, fill it in, and open a pull request titled `[Type] [TR.0X] Your title`. In all paths a 300–500-word abstract plus outline is required, manuscripts follow APA 7, and submissions are in English with translation support for presenters whose first language is not English. Every submission and review is public; the pull-request timestamp is the authorship-priority record. - Submission deadline: 1 August 2026 - Publication: full papers accepted at the conference are organized and published by Hult International Business School (Boston) after peer review. - Review: open, signed, published, and timestamped. Submissions and review threads are public from intake; there is no anonymized stage. Reviewers sign their assessments. Accepted papers ship with their full review history. The pull-request timestamp is the authorship-priority record. Review is rolling, with responses on the PR thread typically within about five business days. ## Awards - Founders' Paper Award — best full paper - Pitch Lake Prize — most theoretically generative early-career contribution - FutureTT Practitioner Award — the practitioner report that most advances translation of algorithmacy into curriculum, policy, or worker advocacy ## Keynote speakers - Antonio Mele — Economics, London School of Economics — https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-mele-6387821/ - Samuel Fosso Wamba — Information Systems & Data Science, TBS Education — https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelfossowamba/ - Thomas K. F. Chiu — AI & STEM Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong — https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-chiu-88469587/ - Antonio Scala — Complex networks, CNR Institute for Complex Systems (Rome) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-scala-1b298b19/ ## Travel & support Full logistics page: https://algorithmacy.org/logistics (venue, getting there, accommodation, visas & entry, registration, travel support, and local info). Limited travel support is available for scholars from low- and middle-income countries, doctoral students, and worker representatives; apply with your abstract. ## The tester (learning tool) The home page hosts an interactive "algorithmacy tester": a deck of 10,000 short prompt/response exercises in which only the model's output is shown and the learner reconstructs the human's input. Four modes — guess the prompt, multiple choice, predict the output, and a triadic "relay" (infer what your partner meant) — plus a difficulty filter and a hint ladder. Progress can be saved in the browser via local storage. ## Featured speakers - Dr. Uohna Thiessen — AI/ML Strategist & Educator; Strategic AI Advisor, Break Through Tech AI (Cornell Tech) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/druohna-datascientist/. Chairs the Algorithmic Literacy special session. Ten featured-speaker slots run across the program; more speakers are being announced. To be considered as a featured speaker, email rhunt@bentley.edu with your work and its fit. ## Special sessions - Digital Sovereignty — chaired by Samuel Fosso Wamba (Information Systems & Data Science, TBS Education); accepting submissions. - Algorithmic Literacy — chaired by Dr. Uohna Thiessen (Break Through Tech AI, Cornell Tech); treats everyday data and AI literacy as the coordination competency for algorithmically mediated work; accepting submissions. Further special-session slots are open. Propose a themed session and serve as its committee chair by emailing rhunt@bentley.edu. ## Organizers - Anusha Vissapragada — Hult International Business School, Boston — https://www.linkedin.com/in/anushavissapragada/ - Roger Hunt — Bentley University (convener) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerjgs404040/ - Tamsen Webster — Message Design Institute — https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamsenwebster/ - Cat Pierson — Manifold — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cat-pierson/ - Sarah Witmer — University of Iowa — https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahwitmer/ - Amanda Gentile McEwen — Salubris Biotherapeutics — https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandamariegentilemcewen/ - Lorraine Villaroel — Trinidad & Tobago — https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraine-villaroel-37b3a99/ ## Contact Roger Hunt — rhunt@bentley.edu Site: https://algorithmacy.org Repository: https://github.com/rogerSuperBuilderAlpha/algorithmacy-conference