Ran Tang just posted a recap of a workshop series at @ufowa.uw.edu that ran earlier this year on troubleshooting in computational research design by Yibin Fan. Ran's post has some great ideas for anybody who'd like to borrow the model! blog.communitydata.science/troubleshoot...

So refreshing to talk with hacktivist and computer science professor Benj. Mako Hill, @mako.cc, about the distinctive dynamics of online collaboration. Many insights into corporate & political enclosures of digital commons, too. More on my 'Frontiers of Commoning' podcast: tinyurl.com/c56v62np

Broke my keyboard and thought I would dig out #75514, from one of the previous times this happened, from the QDB snapshot (RIP bash.org). mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Finally blogged about two papers led by @kayleachampion.bsky.social that show how taboo shapes the production of knowledge on @wikipedia.org. mako.cc/copyrighteou... It was the "not safe for work" work meeting for a couple of years. I miss it dearly.

May this serve as a corrective for all of us who have apparently been mispronouncing Google chatbot's name. (sound on)

Finally blogged about my paper (led by @zarine.net) that seeks to explain why Croatian Wikipedia spent a decade captured by a cabal of political extremists and became a site for Holocaust revisionism, while other similar Wikipedia languages seemed to have fared much better. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

I'm doing a talk and panel discussion for Open Knowledge Initiatives - India's "Future of the Commons" program tomorrow in honor of @wikipedia.org's 25th birthday. I'll be talking about some of my research on peer production projects' governance and lifecycles. Join me! foc.oki-india.org

Super interesting blog / paper with a core thesis - that people go to social communities for information, community, or reach, and that social networks generally can deliver only two of these. Good blog by the other Cory here: pluralistic.net/2026/02/16/f... (h/t @bnewbold.net)

Cory does a better job of explaining my research than I do. 😅

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist.cc) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper led by @kayleachampion.bsky.social that developed a new method (forensic qualitative analysis) to understand the nature and value of @torproject.org users' contributions to @wikipedia.org. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Me: Do you want your coffee in a Japanese or Western style tea cup? M: Yunomi. Me: Apparently not as well as you think I do!

This is an interesting complement to the finding that even adding fair risk scores can increase human decision bias (dl.acm.org/citation.cfm...). Context matters and a priori prediction of human-algorithm compositional behavior is difficult.

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an "old" paper led by @groceryheist.cc that uses data from a @wikipedia.org system to show how the introduction of a biased AI flagging system can still lead to more fairness because the humans without the system are even more biased. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

I'm teaching a course on how to build great online communities and am hoping to pair up a few students with people who want to build, improve, grow, or change a new or existing online group. Drop a DM or email if you'd be interested in having one of my students consult (for free)!

Register to join me and @communitydata.science Friday (November 7) for our next free/public science of community dialogue on "The Impacts of Organizational Interventions in Open Source Software Engineering" with talks from Matt Gaughan and Igor Steinmacher: blog.communitydata.science/science-of-c...

Last chance to register for an event my research group (@communitydata.science) is organizing tomorrow on AI chatbots that respect privacy boundaries. Our own Hsuen-Chi (Hazel) Chiu will present along with @JasmineMcNealy. Join us! blog.communitydata.science/community-di...

Interested in doing graduate research with me and the rest of @communitydata.science? My research group (now with faculty at six campuses!) is organizing a PhD and MS recruiting event and Q&A. Join us! Details and a registration link is here: blog.communitydata.science/prospective-...

For the cover of my next book? Thanks @mako.cc‬ , who found this while biking, as in like pedaling-biking!, through a big chunk of Africa (pic taken en route into Nairobi from Ngong)

UW published this really nice article about my work on governance challenges and lifecycles faced by peer-produced online communities—the work supported by my NSF CAREER grant. Check it out if you want to know what I've been thinking about and working on!

If you're in Denver for the International Communication Association's annual meeting, see work by and connect with CDSC people. @yibin.bsky.social, @callofdyuti.bsky.social, @mako.cc, Haomin Lin, and Jeremy Foote are all around! #ICA25 blog.communitydata.science/come-check-o...

a new short research brief with @mako.cc and @aaronshaw.bsky.social synthesizes some of the work I presented at @communitydata.science Science of Community Dialogues back in April! zenodo.org/records/1560...

Last chance to register for this public event on online governance that my research group (@communitydata.science) is organizing tomorrow as part of our Science of Community Dialogues series.

The New Yorker says Wikipedia is a beacon of hope, with quotes from me and @mako.cc www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

My current playlist is this diorama of Lulu the Piggy channeling Tupac Shakur in a toy vending machine in the basement of New World Mall in Flushing Chinatown.

While in Tokyo, nutritional epidemiologist @mikazilla.bsky.social realizes that "if I am what I eat..." The situation in Seoul is similar, albeit less fried and more confident.

i guess "governance capture" may be kind of relevant these days... i'll be at CSCW this week presenting our paper with @mako.cc and @katestarbird.bsky.social exploring why some self-governing online communities are more vulnerable to capture than others: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

My research group @communitydata.science will host a public/free workshop on research into online community governance as part of our Science of Community Dialogue Series: https://wiki.communitydata.science/Dialogues/Complexities_of_Community_Governance (register at the link!).

I realize that because I have several chairs, the phrase "my chair" is ambiguous. To reduce confusion, I will refer to the head of my academic department as "my office chair" going forward.

"If you'd like to be even more confused, click here!" (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope)

Abbott should have a deferred payment plan for its COVID tests and call it BinaxNOW™ PaynaxLATER™.

Wrapped up an awesome first day at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy where I'm honored to be part of an awesome class of fellows for 23-24 (w/ @alicetiara.bsky.social as you can see). Excited to be back on the east coast and to (re)connecting w/ many of you! #sabbatical

Turns out out that my house is on here (@els.bsky.social ), already followed by 66 people, and has posted pictures from events I was present for!

Japanese macrobiotic biscuits reminding me to upload my plant and animal photos to iNaturalist.

Tokyo garbage can asking me the big questions.

An ad for an app to look for new jobs... #ohnojp

I'll be at #ICA23 with a big chunk of the Community Data Science Collective. Check out this blog post that documents all the great stuff that folks from my research collective will be doing and presenting. https://blog.communitydata.science/community-data-science-collective-at-ica-2023/