Event

Part of the BCTR Talks at Twelve Series

Digital systems like social platforms and AI coordinate, connect and empower billions of people — while also amplifying and scaling social problems including hatred, censorship, and exclusion. As the public asks questions about the power of technology in our lives and wonders how to create change, many people mistrust the technology industry to develop answers. How can we advance a world where digital power is guided by evidence and accountable to the public?

In this talk, J. Nathan Matias and Sarah Gilbert from the Citizens and Technology Lab at Cornell will describe how they work alongside communities of millions to develop both qualitative and quantitative research that answers practical community questions, advances social theory, and contributes to policy—on topics including online harassment, pro-social behavior, misinformation, and algorithmic accountability. We will also discuss open questions and challenges around public participation in the research on our digital environments.

Dr. J. Nathan Matias (@natematias) is a social and computer scientist who organizes community/citizen behavioral science to understand our digital environments. A Guatemalan-American, Nathan is an assistant professor in the Cornell University Department of Communication.

Matias is the founder of the Citizens and Technology Lab at Cornell, which is the home for his community science research. He has published research in Nature, PNAS, Nature Human Behavior, Social Media + Society, CHI, CSCW, FACCT, and the International Journal of Communication. Toward this end, he co-founded the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, a nonprofit that supports and defends independent research on technology and society.

Matias has held positions at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy and Psychology department, and the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. He is the recipient of the Mozilla Rise25 Award for his work for a safer, more ethical, and just Internet.

Dr. Sarah Gilbert (she/her/hers) is a research associate at Cornell University and Research Director of the Citizens and Technology Lab. Her work focuses on understanding and designing healthy online communities, studying topics like what influences participation, how people learn in online communities, how volunteer moderators’ labor impacts community governance, and data ethics. Dr. Gilbert’s award-winning research has been published in CSCW, Big Data & Society, Social Media + Society, and New Media & Society, and she has been quoted in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNBC, CBSNews, and by the Associated Press.