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...
😅 I think the fact that these data are so important (sometimes treated as "ground truth" in post-training!) has really raised the stakes and increased the incentives for this type of capture going forward.
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.
This is the official Google Gemini app on Android on a Google Pixel phone. The text on the screen says, "My name is pronounced GEH-muh-nye." The source is authoritative. I plan to pronounce it correctly going forward.
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...
True story!
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!
Totally. I'll be there.
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...
Incorrect in the sense that I'm not joining or in that I'm not looking forward to it?
Poll asking "Will you join us for our Bowling Bash?" With "Yes, looking forward to it" checked and the answer marked "Incorrect".
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)
I'm going to presenting about this work at #IASC in Amherst this weekend as part of the knowledge commons track! I'd love to connect and talk! #IASC2025
Thanks to everybody at @communitydata.science for inspiring and helping carry out all the work. Also thanks to Nancy Joseph and the UW College of Arts & Science for writing such a clear description of my research!
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...
If you can't attend, there's also information on how to sign up for information about future events in the series and/or get information about recordings and other material after the event.
