Untangling the Web

Our guest for this episode is Robert Ackland, a professor from the School of Sociology at the Australian National University in Canberra. Rob studies networks on the Web, and he established the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks -- VOSON for short -- to provide tools for research on this topic.

During this episode, Rob talks about his early work with hyperlinks, as well as how he evolved his research and VOSON tools as the web entered the social media era. He explains how he got involved in web science, as his background is mainly in economics, as well as what he's interested in now. And he talks about how we could use social bots as a positive force for political deliberation, even as so much of research on bots focuses on their negative effects. To hear all this and more, listen to this episode.

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

In this episode, we talk with Jaime Teevan, chief scientist for Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices. In this role, she's charged with creating the future of productivity. She also developed the first personalized search algorithm used by Bing and introduced microproductivity into Microsoft Office.

This conversation centers around a report by Jaime Teevan and her colleagues at Microsoft, which is what they believe to be the world’s largest synthesis of findings related to how people’s work practices have evolved since the start of the pandemic. She gives insights into our “New Normal” — and what our “Next Normal” may look like, too.  And she tells us how web science has informed this research. Most of us have felt the effects of the pandemic on the way we work, but Jaime breaks down why. To hear all this and more, listen to this episode.

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode’s show notes.

For this episode, we talk with Danny Weitzner, a proud founding member of the Web Science Trust who will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming 2021 ACM Web Science virtual conference. He's a 3Com Founders Principal Research Scientist at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and also the founding director of the MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative. His research interests include accountable systems, privacy, cybersecurity and online freedom of expression.

During this conversation, Danny takes us back to the start of web science and explores challenges that are both old — but still relevant— and new. He talks specifically about what approaches we can take to address privacy on the web. For example, you may have heard of the panopticon, but do you know what countervailance means? Do you know why accountability is so important to privacy? Danny can explain. Most of all, he points out how crucial web science is to solving these problems. To hear about all this and more, listen to the full episode!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

Ravindran (Ravi) Balaraman is our guest for this episode (23 min. long). He is the Mindtree faculty fellow and a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. And he also heads the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at IIT Madras, which is the leading interdisciplinary AI research center in India and India’s first lab to join the Web Science Trust Network of laboratories from around the world. His research is pushing the boundaries of reinforcement learning, social network analysis, and data text mining.

In this episode, Ravi explains the unique challenges that India faces in web science, including how displaced migrants feeling alienated from the Web. He also explains some solutions, like increasing access to devices with local languages programmed in. And Ravi talks about the importance of AI and how that can help or hurt in pursuits of different social goods, as well as just how explainable AI could get. To hear about all this and more, listen to the full episode!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

Our guest for this episode is Eszter Hargittai, who is a professor and holds the chair of the Internet Use and Society in the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich,  where she also heads the Web Use project research group. She's also one of the most cited web science researchers in the world. Her research focuses on the social and policy implications of digital media, especially how differences in people's web skills and digital literacy influence what they do online.

During this conversation, Eszter gets into why she wishes people would use the term "digital inequality" more, as well as how it means something different than "digital divide." She describes her research on how people's web skills vary, including her findings dealing with disability status and age. Eszter also discusses why she feels it's important to explore the challenges of studying web science, as well as have people shared how they overcome those difficulties, a topic on which she has (co-)edited three books. Plus, she shares a peek into what she's writing right now: a book about web use and COVID-19, which is based on a large data collection effort across three countries that she and her team completed in last April. To hear about about all this and more, listen to the episode!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

Our guest for this episode is Deen Freelon, an associate professor in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. His research ranges from political expression through digital media to data science to computational methods. He has also served as principal investigator on grants from the Knight Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the US Institute of Peace. Not only does Deen make intellectual contributions to the fields of web science, communication studies, and more, but he also focuses on engaging and helping the general public with his insights.

In this conversation, Deen tells us why it is so important to incorporate identity into web science research, and how that has influenced his own work. That includes his recent article on Black-presenting trolls and why disaggregating ideology from race was crucial to his insights. Deen also discusses the difference between disinformation and misinformation, as well as why there needs to be more research into left-leaning disinformation. And he describes what tools he's created to help other researchers as well as the general public -- coming up are developments to his "filter map" project. To hear about about all this and more, listen to the episode!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

In this episode, we talk with Alex “Sandy" Pentland, who is one of the most cited web scholars at the crossroads of web science, network science, and computational social science. He’s a professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, directs the MIT Connection Science Research Initiative, and heads MIT’s Human Dynamics Group, among other accomplishments. His work has pioneered organizational engineering, wearable computing, modern biometrics, and more.

In this conversation, Sandy brings insight to how data is the “new resource.” He talks about issues of data and privacy, as well as why people should have more control over their data. He also discusses what he learned in his study of signals and the mobile web, why wearable devices have a social dimension, and how the web can help respond to COVID-19. And he tells us the power of blockchain as the web evolves from not just a communication medium but also toward a transaction medium. To hear about this or more, listen to this episode!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode’s show notes.

In this episode, we talk with Gina Neff, whose work focuses on...work! No, that's not a typo — she's actually a sociologist who studies how web-based technologies are shaping the changing nature of work. Gina is a professor of Technology & Society at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford, and has published three well-acclaimed books.

In this conversation, Gina tells us about the cross between web science and work. She brings us through the early onset of the Web, discussing why an Internet industry would form in New York City, even though the Web is hypothetically worldwide. Part of the reason is that industries rely on social capital, which is easier built in person. That's precisely the type of interactions that we've largely lost during the pandemic and work-from-home era. And Gina touches on this too, talking about work done over web meetings and potential privacy concerns if workers get tracked at home. To learn about all this and more, press play!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

Our guest for this episode is Brooke Foucault Welles. She recently co-authored the award-winning book, #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice. Brooke studies how online communication networks enable and constrain behavior, with particular emphasis on how these networks both enhance and mitigate marginalization.

During this conversation, Brooke talks about just exactly what "hashtag activism" means, especially in the context of web science, and about her research into specific hashtags beyond her book. She tells us how these hashtags can impact public discourse, validate online participants and form networks of people online. But she also discusses why the web can be a difficult space for activists and how web science can work to change that. Listen to learn about these topics and more!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode's show notes.

For this episode, we talk with Fil Menczer, whose work is awesome. No, seriously — he’s the director of OSoMe, which is pronounced “awesome” and stands for the Observatory on Social Media. Fil’s research spans web science, computational social science, network science, and data science.

In this conversation, Fil gives insight into how information can spread on social media and be manipulated. He talks what astroturfing looks like and how bots can work. And he tells us the tools that the Observatory on Social Media has developed to combat some of these issues, including “Botslayer.” Despite the name of that tool, he also discusses why not all bots are “bad,” and what differentiates a good or neutral one from one that’s harmful. Listen to learn about this and more!

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode’s show notes.