Symposium on Online Community Research at Purdue

On September 13th, the Community Data Science Collective led the “Frontiers in Online Community Research Symposium” at Purdue University. We had a number of fantastic presenters and panelists discussing topics from moderating the Fediverse to the role of LLMs in online communities and how different academic disciplines approach online community research. 

Eshwar Chandrashekharan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) joined as our keynote speaker. He presented research he and his group have been working on titled, “Proactive Approaches to Promote Community Resilience and Foster Desirable Behavior Online”. Eshwar discussed ongoing efforts to combat undesirable online behaviors through research and design that promote resilience and facilitate positive interactions within online conversations and communities.

Prior to Eshwar’s keynote, we had an opening panel and research presentations by CDSC members. For the opening panel, Purdue professors Diana Zulli (Communication) and Marcus Mann (Sociology) joined CDSC faculty Aaron Shaw (Northwestern), and Mako Hill (University of Washington) for an introductory Q&A panel. The panel discussed what we know about online communities, what new questions we are just starting to answer, and what exciting new methods are being used.

Following the panel, CDSC students Carl Colglazier (Northwestern), Sohyeon Hwang (Northwestern), and Kaylea Champion (University of Washington) gave really wonderful talks on their research. Carl talked about his work on moderation in the Fediverse, and the impact of site-level blocking. Sohyeon provided a number of provocations about community governance in the face of AI-driven changes, while Kaylea discussed her work on underproduction in social systems. They all gave fantastic presentations and inspired great conversations among attendees.

Overall, it was an excellent symposium that we hope helps to push our field forward. Thank you to all who attended and made it such a great event. A special thank you to the CDSC Purdue members for organizing the event and to Thatiany Andrade Nunes for taking photos!