The massive spread of fake news has been identified as a major global risk and has been alleged to influence elections and threaten democracies. Communication, cognitive, social, and computer scientists are engaged in efforts to study the complex causes for … Continue reading
The spread of opinions, memes, diseases, and “alternative facts” in a population depends both on the details of the spreading process and on the structure of the social and communication networks on which they spread. One feature that can change … Continue reading
This week it was reported that Berlin-based ResearchGate, a social networking site designed for scientists to share research, received $52.6m in investment funds from a variety of sources, including BIll Gates (previous investor), Goldman Sachs, and The Wellcome Trust. This … Continue reading
The wide availability of user-provided content in online social media facilitates the aggregation of people around common interests, worldviews, and narratives. However, the W3 also allows for the rapid dissemination of unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories that often elicit rapid, … Continue reading
Social Movements and their Technologies explores the interplay between social movements and their ‘liberated technologies’. It analyzes the rise of low-power radio stations and radical internet projects (’emancipatory communication practices’) as a political subject, focusing on the sociological and cultural … Continue reading
The recent explosion of Internet technology enabled the world to be more and more connected. With such a new network, the possibilities of crowdsourced e volunteer efforts rise during disasters. People from around the world can act as an emergency … Continue reading
What can the human brain and its relationship to the Internet tell us about our society, our technologies, and our businesses? A lot, as it turns out. The Internet today is a virtual replica of the brain, and the networks … Continue reading
Nobody has figured out how to spot the most influential spreaders of information in a real-world network. Now that looks set to change with important implications, not least for the superspreaders themselves. Who are the most influential spreaders of information … Continue reading
During the last three or four decades labour, union, research and advocacy networks have interacted with networks of anti-capitalist or alter-globalist social justice activists. These interactions have enabled the (self-)organisation of working people across production networks linking the Global North … Continue reading
Today’s networks forglobal problem solving have four characteristics: they must be diverse, attack a global problem, use digital communications tools and be free of state control. These networks will include participants from at least two of the four pillars of … Continue reading
