CALL FOR PAPER:

Exploring the Shifting Sands: Accounting for Evolution In Analyzing Data from Social Media Platforms Workshop (http://www.socialmediaevolution.org/)

AOIR 2018 – Montreal, Canada
Oct 10th, 2017

We invite 1-page extended abstracts for participation in our workshop on social media data evolution.

Researchers are drawn to the magnitude of social media data available today. Yet, social media are not static, often undergoing numerous changes to user interfaces, default settings, affordances, algorithms, policies, and APIs. While social media data has opened new opportunities in research, researchers often struggle with the question of contextualizing the evolution of the research site. Changing platforms and changing data structures can fix conclusions to narrow points in time. So how do we account for this 1) amalgamation of data, its 2) evolution, and 3) the impact platform and design changes have on the kinds of data sets produced and analyzed by researchers. In addition, how do we draw conclusions based on these three factors?

The goal of this half-day workshop is to explore the problems of studying social media platforms and data while accounting for their evolution. Participants interested in attending the workshop should submit a 1-page extended abstract to platformevolutions@gmail.com by July 10th, 2018 (see important dates). Submissions will be evaluated by the Organizing Committee on the basis of quality and fit to the workshop theme. We will invite authors of a select portion of the abstracts to give a short presentations

Abstracts should address some facet of social media platform evolution while conducting research. This might include (for example):

• Creating histories of social media sites (SMS) evolution to contextualize SMS research.
• Identifying open questions on how to account for biases in academic research arising from platform evolution.
• State-of-the-art tools and methodologies that mitigate bias when studying evolving media platforms.
• Identifying issues arising from reliance on historical data in rapidly evolving platforms.
• Developing a theoretical basis or methodology to account for historical data.

There will be no formal Proceedings for the work submitted. Notification about accepted proposals will be issued on July 20th.

—Important Dates—

Proposal Submission: July 10th, 2018

Proposal Notification: July 20th, 2018

Please send any questions and submit workshop extended abstract to platformevolutions@gmail.com.

More information about the workshop can be found at

http://www.socialmediaevolution.org

More information about AOIR 2018, Montreal can be found at:

https://aoir.org/aoir2018/

Workshop Co-Chairs:

Emi Moriuchi, @emoriuchi, Rochester Institute of Technology
Christian Newman, @sourceslicer, Rochester Institute of Technology
Nicholas Proferes, @moduloone, University of Kentucky
Kristen Shinohara, @kristenshino, Rochester Institute of Technology
Shawn Walker, @walkeroh, Arizona State University

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