Autumn Issue: 2022

In this issue …

ACM Web Science Conference 2023
New WSTNet Labs: Welcome Stuttgart & Rutgers
Digital Democracy – In Conversation with George Metakides
Publications of Interest
Outreach Events

ACM Web Science Conference 2023 (WebSci’23)

Following this year’s conference in Barcelona, we are delighted to announce that WebSci’23 will take place in Austin, Texas and will be co-located with The ACM 2023 Web Conference.

The WebSci’23 Call for Papers (CfP) is now available on the conference website and we invite you to take note of the important dates for this year’s event.

Important Dates
Wed, November 30, 2022 Paper submission deadline
Tue, January 31, 2023 Notification
Tue, February 28, 2023 Camera-ready versions due
Sun-Mon, April 30 – May 1, 2023 Conference dates

Visit the 2023 Conference website

The Proceedings of the Barcelona conference are now available online here.

2022 also saw the first WST Test of Time award going to a team from the US.

Read about the winning article

Two new WSTNet Labs: Stuttgart & Rutgers

We are delighted to welcome not one, but two new WSTNet labs this time: University of Stuttgart and Rutgers University.
Stuttgart and Rutgers may be our newest members but Lab Directors Steffen Staab and Matt Weber are old friends of Web Science.

In this interview we catch up with Steffen Staab to hear about
the new Stuttgart Lab and how being a part of WSTNet will help.

In the next edition of the newsletter we’ll be talking to Matt Weber about Rutgers’ Lab.

Read the full interview

The Future of Democracy: In Conversation with George Metakides

In conversation this time is George Metakides, WST Trustee and Co-Founder of the Digital Enlightenment Forum. Ian Brown sat down to find out a little more about democracy in the digital age and why we should be concerned.

Read full interview

Publications

We recommend some notable books… click on the images to find out more.

Featuring WSTNet Lab Director Fabien Gandon and WST Trustee Jim Hendler, this 3rd edition adds new material and modern examples to an already classic textbook.

This book by Reid Blackman attempts to distill more than 20 years of work on
Ethics/Philosophy into an accessible framework that moves the ethics of AI
from being “squishy” (as Blackman calls it) to a more structured set of decisions for non-experts.

As mentioned in the George Metakides interview above, Zuboff’s book is a detailed examination of the unprecedented power of surveillance capitalism and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control human behaviour. Zuboff identifies the practice as:

“a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, and sales.”

Whilst progress in machine- and deep learning have opened the doors to both new opportunities, and some dark possibilities, Ben Shneiderman sees a bright future for those who employ HCAI strategies for design and testing. As many technology companies and thought leaders have argued, the goal is not to replace people, but to empower them by making design choices that give humans control over technology.

In Human-Centered AI, Professor Ben Shneiderman offers an optimistic (realist’s) guide to how artificial intelligence can be used to augment and enhance humans’ lives.

Our interview with George Metakides above refers to The Age of the Strongman, where Rachman examines archetypal strong figures including Putin, Xi Jinping, Trump and Bolsonaro. They are portrayed as both formidable yet deeply flawed leaders in a series of essays about the global rise of authoritarian, nationalist-populist leaders and its obviously corrosive impact on the liberal democratic ideal.

Outreach Events

Brave Conversations ran an event in Barcelona and also its first UAE event recently in Sharjah so if you’d like to know more about this or any upcoming BC events, head over to braveconversations.org

Find out about Brave Conversations

Finally

Thank you as always for subscribing to the WST Newsletter. We look forward to seeing you in the next edition. If you have any events, courses and news that you would like to share across the WST network please do get in touch via email using: info@webscience.org.

Subscribe to our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. Visit our WST homepagefor more news and updates on upcoming events.

Check out our new-look website!!

Best wishes,
Web Science Trust Team

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