Lecture: "Web Science, now more than ever: case studies on political communication in social media".

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab, University of Koblenz.

This event is part of the ITeG lecture series "Digitale Gesellschaft - eine Gestaltungsaufgabe" (Digital Society - a design task) at the Scientific Center for Information Technology Design (ITeG). Starting October 31, the dates are generally Wednesdays, 5-7 p.m., at ITeG (Pfannkuchstraße 1), room 0420. Admission is free.
www.uni-kassel.de/go/ringvorlesung-iteg

Abstract of the talk:
Web Science is a research field that deals with how people cooperate and interact with each other in large sociotechnical systems, such as the World Wide Web. For this, one needs to understand the interaction of people and technology and the way society and technology co-constitute each other. Achieving this understanding requires trans-disciplinary collaboration between different disciplines and a multi-method approach to problems and opportunities that arise from the Web and similar systems. Examples include problems such as misinformation on the Web on the one hand, and opportunities such as the development of a collaborative, intelligent Web on the other. Our approach to Web Science is illustrated by research examples on participation. Based on Data Science studies of the Liquid Democracy platform of the Pirate Party as well as on surveys on the use of participation tools by the Green Party / Bündnis 90 we find that the real use of tools does not always meet the expectations of the participants. In the outlook, we address two current projects that deal with the observation of social media in the political communication of elites or the observation and handling of misinformation.