NASIG volunteers are in a busy season of preparation for welcoming you to NASIG 2024 to be held in Spokane, WA, from 3-7 June at the beautiful Spokane Davenport Grand hotel. Go to https://nasig.org/Conference to register for this in-person conference.
We are especially thrilled to highlight vision speaker, Dr. Francesca B. Tripodi, who will present on the timely topic of "Data Voids and Echo Chambers: The Transformative Journey of Search and Its Consequences." This topic is of great importance to all of us in the information community including publishers, librarians, vendors, and anyone interested in or involved with scholarly communication.
In an era dominated by information accessibility, the question of how we search is paramount. "Doing our own research" has become a ubiquitous facet of daily life, but the world of search is dramatically changing. This presentation delves iinto the intricate dynamics shaping the way we perceive and interact with the world of search. It scrutinizes how our worldviews impact keywords and how these phrases shape the information returned to us. It will also explore the interconnected nature of various online platforms, explaining how absence of information on Wikipedia can reverberate, impacting prominent search engines like Google. Central to the discussion is the concept of "data voids" — instances where information vacuums are created and exploited for political or corporate gain. By examining these voids, the presentation aims to unravel the complex interplay between user-driven content generation and the manipulation of information landscapes by external forces.
Dr. Tripodi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information and Library Science and a Principal Investigator at the Center for Information Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has twice testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining to senators how relevance is gamed to drive ideologically based queries and spread conspiratorial logic. In addition to her research on search engines, Dr. Tripodi’s work has documented how cis-gender women who meet the threshold for inclusion on Wikipedia are nearly twice as likely to be considered non-notable subjects than their cis-male peers. In 2023, Dr. Tripodi received the Award for Impact and Excellence from the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington in recognition of her research on fostering an informed society.
Look out for an upcoming issue of the NASIG Newsletter <https://nasig.org/Newsletter> where you can learn more about Dr. Tripodi, and plan to join our community for this thought-provoking talk and for many others on topics relating to AI, community-driven publishing, DEI, shared print repositories, digital preservation, BIBFRAME, and much more. A full schedule is available at https://nasig2024.sched.com <https://nasig2024.sched.com/>.
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NASIG is an independent, non-profit organization working to advance and transform the management of information resources.
posted by Steve Oberg, NASIG Social Media Coordinator
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