Innovative “Bite-Sized Lunchtime Talks” Offer Unique Opportunity for SICSS-Howard/Mathematica Participants To See Data at Work
This blog post is the fourth of nine in a series called “The Future of Computational Social Science is Black” about SICSS-Howard/Mathematica 2021, the first Summer Institute in Computational Social Science held at a Historically Black College or University. To learn more SICSS-H/M read the first post in the series.
SICSS-Howard/Mathematica participants had the benefit of novel Bite-Sized Lunchtime Talks during the inaugural SICSS at a Historically Black College or University. The purpose of this SICSS-H/M specific site innovation was to introduce participants to people and organizations carrying out impactful and complementary work with data.
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Will Kent & Savannah Cragin
The Bite-Sized Lunchtime Speaker series kicked off with Will Kent, Wikidata Program Manager, from Wiki Education, a small nonprofit organization that seeks to build a bridge between Wikipedia and academia. The talk highlighted Wikidata, “a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others.” Kent demonstrated how Wikidata could be used to gather data useful in “draw[ing] general conclusions about how the [Wikipedian] community is describing the world.”
During the live Q&A session, Kent was joined by Savannah Cragin, Wikipedian-in-residence at the Conference on College Composition & Communication. They discussed ways anyone can get involved in filling in the existing content gaps, which is “when people look to Wikipedia for information that isn’t there.” These content gaps “often include academic topics” as defined by WikiEdu. Cragin said, “There is so much power in everyone being able to edit...you have the power to make these changes and you are the people most qualified to do so,” encouraging participants to contribute to Wikipedia to help improve the space’s representation. According to WikiEdu, only 20% of those editing Wikipedia globally are women and even fewer are people of color.
Wednesday, June 16, 2021
Kasia Chielinski & Sarah Newman
Founders Kasia Chmielinski and Sarah Newman from the Data Nutrition Project were the next speakers, addressing the challenges faced in today’s use of datasets for AI. The Data Nutrition Project draws from nutrition labels on food, building labels for datasets that give insight into dataset ingredients like metadata in the same way that food nutrition labels describe key ingredients like salt and sugar. According to Newman and Chmielinski, this project will drive people to select better datasets for their AI projects and improve dataset creation practices. During the Q&A session, speakers and participants discuss the harms of AI and datasets taken out of context. “Not all AI is equal, in terms of its potential harms and impact,” said Chmielinski. The importance of fostering discussion about what the limits of AI should be when AI is negatively impacting certain communities cannot be overstated.
Thursday, June 17, 2021
April Chang, the Director of Data Partnerships and Privacy at the California Policy Lab, discussed the exceptional potential of administrative data and the common challenges researchers encounter trying to obtain it. The California Policy Lab works to build relationships with the government to improve the lives of Californians by generating datasets from administrative data that can influence California policy. During the Q&A session, participants posed questions about the connection between privacy and data sharing with the government and how they can get involved with policymakers that are directly impacting society. In an increasingly digital age, privacy concerns are growing, and Chang shared ways that data could be protected while still enabling larger numbers of people to help contribute to the projects.
Friday, June 18, 2021
Raymond Lee & Rabiu Alhassan
FakeNetAI and FactSpace West Africa presented a Bite-Sized Lunchtime Talk together. They discussed their efforts to establish GhanaFact, Africa’s first news section dedicated to detecting deepfakes, and fighting misinformation in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI). FakeNetAI is a cybersecurity firm that leverages AI to detect synthetic media. FactSpace West Africa tackles disinformation and propaganda across the West African sub-region. Raymond Lee, the CEO/founder of FakeNetAI, gave participants a closer look at what deepfakes are, how to identify them, and the associated harms such as defamation and deceptive propaganda. FactSpace West Africa founder Rabiu Alhassan then explained their newest project GhanaFact, emphasizing current efforts to quell misinformation online surrounding COVID-19 and Ghana’s recent elections. The Q&A session included discussion of the growing tension between deepfakes and trust in media. Raymond Lee noted ways that media could be verified and shared his views on legislation that could be put in place to prevent harmful deepfake circulation. As weaponized deepfake technology can have large consequences, Alhassan noted his desire to expand FactSpace West Africa's reach to the larger Black diaspora.
Monday, June 21, 2021
Sanmi Koyejo, Ezinne Nwankwo & Devin Guillory
AI disproportionately affects the lives of Black people, and Black in AI is looking to change how AI is discussed and who is in the room when AI is designed. Black in AI board members Devin Guillory, Ezinne Nwankwo, and Sanmi Koyejo shared how Black in AI grew to become a global movement advocating for greater Black representation in the field of AI during their talk. Founded in 2017 by Timnit Gebru and Rediet Abebe, Black in AI fosters community for Black scholars in the field of AI and machine learning. With their support, Black scholars attend workshops and conferences and present their research. “One of the ways we can move the needle the most is by being in the room when these system designs are being made,” said President elect Sanmi Koyejo. The Q&A session with UC Berkeley PhD student Devin Guillory furthered discussion on AI and industry accountability, explored his prior work in industry, the challenges of social science and computation science collaboration, and what it is like to attend an AI conference. Guillory’s insight provided a way for participants to become more familiar with the field of computer science and the burgeoning Black in AI movement.
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
Jeffrey MacKie-Mason
The University of California Publisher Negotiation Team is dedicated to transforming publishing agreements from subscription to open access, making research more accessible and free. UC is an early leader and advocate for open access agreements with publishers. Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, University Librarian, Chief Digital Scholarship Officer, and Professor at UC Berkeley, came to discuss the history and current state of open access efforts in the UC system. The participant Q&A session with MacKie-Mason brought to light the challenges the team he co-led faced when negotiating for open access agreements and how support came from the bottom up, beginning with faculty. As many SICSS-Howard/Mathematica participants are new scholars, MacKie-Mason also spoke about copyright and gave advice to participants on how they could find resources to publish their own works in an accessible manner. “Open access empowers social, scientific, and economic innovation,” said MacKie-Mason.
Thursday, June 24, 2021
Taylor Brown & Tina Law
The Bite-Sized Lunchtime speaker series concluded with SICSS alumni Tina Law and Taylor Brown, co-creators of vary CSS. According to their website “variation matters in more than just statistics!” They provide links to resources which are intended to “support new and emerging [Computational Social Science] scholars currently underrepresented in the field.” Vary CSS also hosts a database of emerging underrepresented scholars who can be reached to speak at conferences. The group is currently designing a model Computational Social Science (CSS) syllabus that’s anti-racist, feminist, and de-colonial. “We recognize that it is important to stay critical about who is referenced in discussions, which questions are asked, what ethics are engaged, and in general, what and who is missing from the dialogue,” said Brown during their presentation. The live Q&A session emphasized the need for greater representation in the CSS field, and how perceptions of what CSS entails can cause people to exclude themselves. Law and Brown hope that by showcasing a broader array of scholars, underrepresented scholars will feel included in the field of CSS. The Q&A session also touched upon the challenges of building and maintaining successful partnerships and how the beautiful friendship these incredible women have built has helped them overcome the challenges of online collaboration.
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About the authors
Maddy Chen is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, pursuing a degree in Computer Science. Maddy served as a research assistant, project lead, and co-lab manager in the AAC&U award-winning, Berkeley based Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy under PhD Candidate Naniette Coleman. Maddy served as an Event Assistant for SICSS-Howard/Mathematica 2021, focusing on participant experience and background research.
Naniette H. Coleman is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California Berkeley and a multi-year UC-National Laboratory Graduate Fellow (Los Alamos). She is the only social scientist selected for this distinction in the history of the program. Naniette is also the founder and lead organizer of the first Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at a Historically Black College of University, SICSS-Howard/Mathematica 2021. Naniette’s work sits at the intersection of the sociology of culture and organizations and focuses on cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy in the US context. Specifically, Naniette’s research examines how organizations assess risk, make decisions, and respond to data breaches and organizational compliance with state, federal, and international privacy laws. Naniette holds a Master of Public Administration with a specialization in Democracy, Politics, and Institutions from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and both an M.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Communication from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. A non-traditional student, Naniette’s prior professional experience includes local, state, and federal service, as well as work for two international organizations, and two universities.
