sohyeon hwang

Why do people participate in similar online communities? Note: I have not published blog posts about my academic papers over the past few years. To ensure that my blog contains a more comprehensive record of my published papers and to surface these for f…

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...

Deepfake pornography isn’t going away just because we are passing laws and taking down a couple of big websites.

Our new pre-print, led by @aedcv.bsky.social suggests that the sharing of this material continued to prosper even after platform and policy shocks.

arxiv.org/abs/2602.02754

You have to read this. Firsthand affidavit from one of the women who was there and recording the video. She talks about how Alex Pretti was directing traffic when she arrived. She watched him be killed in front of her. She's afraid to go home, worried she'll be arrested.

The Librarian's Dividence (ALA Core Forum).pptx ✨The Librarian’s Dividend✨ Pathways towards Information Ethics and Literacy in the Age of Generative AI Casey Fiesler | casey.prof Image credit: OpenAI’s DALL-E and countless uncredited and uncompensa...

I know this probably isn't very useful since I don't even have speaker's notes, but here are the slides from that recent talk. The title was "The Librarian’s Dividend: Pathways towards Information Ethics and Literacy in the Age of Generative AI" docs.google.com/presentation...

i'm partnering with them on some of this, in particular re: increasing the options and features for community governance!

the campaign is really close, with only 11 days left - join us by supporting! we can have matching art 🤗

Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web by Bonfire - Indiegogo From platforms to communities: a federated social web with shared foundations and co‑created spaces for gathering, care, connection, and stewardship.

help spread the word about this campaign - or, if you're able, consider supporting yourself! Bonfire is building a modular toolkit for organizing, mutual aid, open science, and collective decision-making on the open social web. communities choose what gets built:

www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

Weizenbaum Conference 2026: Call for Papers The Weizenbaum Institute will host its 8th annual Conference on the topic “Generative AI and Society: What is at stake?“ We invite interested scholars to submit papers for presentations. The conferenc...

📣 Call for Papers: Weizenbaum Conference 2026
🤖 “Generative AI and Society: What is at stake?”
📅 Berlin, June 10–11, 2026
📌 Submit papers by Jan 31, 2026
🔗 More: t1p.de/wa2nc

I’ll be presenting this work at #CSCW2025 in Bergen on Tuesday at 2:30PM! We will be part of the session “Core Concepts in Privacy Research” (in the Bekken room) chaired by @emtseng.bsky.social ☺️

A rectangular Northwestern University flyer titled “Call for Study Participants.” The top banner is pink with bold black text reading “CALL FOR STUDY PARTICIPANTS.” Below it, highlighted in yellow, is the question: “Are you a journalist writing about technology and/or computing?” The flyer explains that researchers at Northwestern University are seeking professional journalists who cover technology or related topics, write news in English, and are based in the U.S. to participate in an online study. The study involves using a tool for two weeks, providing feedback, and receiving $100 compensation (IRB Study #STU00224608). It includes a yellow box that says “Fill out our eligibility form if you’re interested!” with the link https://tinyurl.com/newscompass and contact emails: Nick Diakopoulos (nad@northwestern.edu) and Sachita Nishal (nishal@u.northwestern.edu). The Northwestern University seal appears in the top-right corner.

📣 Attention science + tech journalists!

Trying to keep up with the flood of research papers that come out every day? Attempting to track what research has already been covered by others, and what may benefit from deeper exploration?

You are invited to participate in our research study!

[1/3]

The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials - Scientific Data Scientific Data - The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials

New dataset that describes social media activity of a very large group of US elected officials: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

echoing @jeremydfoote.com, really appreciate the kind words @haimson.bsky.social :D it remains one of my favorite pieces - and has really made vague questions about scale and how to think about it sit in the back of my head for years!

A faded etching of the Hudson River from Hoboken is overlaid with the following text: CSCW Northeast 2025, in-person regional gathering. Friday, October 3, 2025, 10AM-4:30PM at University Center Complex, Stevens Institute of Technology. RSVP: cscw-ne.hci.social The logos of HCI at Stevens, Princeton HCI, and Rutgers University are on the right-hand side.

I'm co-organizing #CSCW NE, an in-person regional gathering for people in Northeast America, alongside some folks from Stevens, Rutgers, and Princeton. If you want to come hang out (especially if you can't make it out to the full conference in Bergen this year), RSVP at cscw-ne.hci.social!

hello - i would love to see this too, if you're okay with sharing more broadly!

Uniting and reigniting critical Wikimedia research - Steve Jankowski, Heather Ford, Andrew Iliadis, Francesca Sidoti, 2025 Over the past fifteen years, Wikimedia's technical relationships and social meanings have shifted from supporting the creation of an encyclopedia that seek...

"In connection with “A Manifesto for Wikimedia Rsrch: Critically Studying Media as Infrastructure”, [we call] for rschrs to critically examine Wikimedia's role as global knwldg infrastructure[, which involves] historicizing [its] epistemology [+] recognizing the dispossession of the commons..."

NEW YORK TIMES (2020): U.S. DEATHS NEAR 100,000, AN INCALCULABLE LOSS

5 years ago: “An incalculable loss”

Today: Banning masks and restricting vaccine access

Like unhappy families, each microblogging site is batshit insane in its own way.

‘A special day’: how a Glasgow community halted immigration raid Activists and local people tell how they forced the release of two men detained in an enforcement van

if you're in the US and despairing about people being pulled off the street, you need to find your nearest immigrant defence/deportation defence group and learn how to do stuff like this
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021...

Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy

They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.

Crowd at Washington square park for the stand up for science 2025 march 7 protest. Captured in the image is a sign that says Stand Up 4 Science

Crowd at Washington square park for the stand up for science 2025 march 7 protest. Captured in image is a sign that says science led by fascists equals atrocity.

the turnout for nyc @standupforscience.bsky.social
was incredible!! some snapshots —

#academicsky #standupforscience

:) come hang!

A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.” The senator flagged thousands of National Science Foundation grants for using words like “female” and “diversify.” A ProPublica analysis found numerous examples of projects caught up in his crude meth...

Ted Cruz said he’d found $2 billion in “woke” science grants, but his team used keyword searches that flagged things out of context, like a grant to develop a device to treat severe bleeding that mentioned “victims” and “trauma.”

www.propublica.org/article/ted-...

Book Ban: Trump Floats Law to Target Books Critical of Him Trump continues to attack free speech

Book Ban: Trump Floats Law to Target Books Critical of Him

Trump continues to attack free speech

if you're also going to be at the NYC one, lmk - let's meet up!! if not, you can find your local event here: standupforscience2025.org/local-event-...

An email from a predatory scam journal that reads: “Dear Professor, Hope this email finds you well. Can I expect your one manuscript for successful release of Volume 25 issue 6, your eminent support will help to release our issue on time. If this is short notice, satisfy do send a 2-page opinion/mini review/case report. Submit your manuscript on or before 25th of February to this email id. Hope you don’t disappoint us. Await your positive reply. Taylor Swift! Assistant Managing Editor, American Journal of Biomedical Science and Research (ISSN: 2642-1747)

i must disappoint Taylor Swift! i fear

Yosemite halts camping reservations, with no timetable for their return Yosemite halts camping reservations, with no timetable for their return at a time when federal employees are being laid off

Want to go visit the national parks this year?
Sorry.
The reservation system is shut down, EMT personnel are gone, so don't get hurt or lost. No one can clean the bathrooms or cabins, so they'll be closed. Rangers are fired.

www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

A Defense of Weird Research—Asterisk Government-funded scientific research may appear strange or impractical, but it has repeatedly yielded scientific breakthroughs — and continues to pay for itself many times over.

"The govt’s unique structure + position allow it to play a distinct role from the private sector... Focusing on near-term returns will not make public investments more efficient in the long run. It merely eliminates the govt's unique advantages to advance scientific research for the public benefit."

Balancing Free Speech & Safety: Envisioning a Human-Centered First Amendment for AI Regulation – TechTakes How should the law handle manipulative AI content, like bots that encourage self-harm or give explicit instructions for it? The U.S. First Amendment

As the #ParisAISummit is happening today, we share another in the #TechTakes series based on
@inyoungcheong.bsky.social's presentation at the conference.

READ ➡️➡️"Balancing Free Speech & Safety: Envisioning a Human-Centered First Amendment for AI Regulation" freedom-to-tinker.com/2025/02/11/b...