Featured - Information Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic has tragically claimed the lives of over 7 million people globally. This toll has been exacerbated by widespread suspicions information regarding the origins and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to the proliferation of false beliefs and conspiracy theories. The dissemination of misinformation and disinformation (MIDI) has further fueled this phenomenon throughout the pandemic.

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May 17, 2024 Quinn Remington

Resource “Accessibility” Is More Than Just “Posting It Online”

Not everyone has the time and money to book a flight across the world to look at an artifact in person, so how do researchers with limited funding access one-of-a-kind resources? The Internet is a godsend for collaboration, letting us share photos of ancient pottery fragments, 3D scans of mummified tissue, and create virtual tours of ancient Egyptian tombs. However, sharing becomes a little more complicated when that artifact contains thousands of individual pages in 61 diaries, handwritten by a steamship clerk living in nineteenth-century Iraq. The Svoboda Diaries Project (SDP) focuses on exactly that. For nearly two decades, this project has used new and exciting digital preservation methods and extensive collaboration to make these diaries accessible to everyone.

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May 16, 2024 Yhna Therese Santos

Harmonizing Strong Voices: A Case for Collaborative Interpretation

The beauty of qualitative research is that it allows flexibility and embraces nuance in interpretation. Of course, this comes with the recognition that reflexivity is essential to interpretation. However, interpretation becomes challenging when it involves varying perspectives. We (Irish, Gerard, and Yhna) provide an account of our collaborative interpretation experience in, analyzing the Out of the Box Media Literacy Initiative’s Media and Information Literacy for Democracy Handbook.

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May 16, 2024 Theresa Kneppers

Collaborative Audio Responses to an Online Collection/Archive

I am the curator of A David Bomberg Legacy – The Sarah Rose Collection, a group of Modern British artworks by selected members of the David Bomberg and the Borough Group. In my role as the curator of the collection, I have expanded the site of curatorial production to include the Internet, and the archive of digitised material associated with the collection. One of the methods I have experimented to engage users in interpreting the digital collection is to create polyvocal audio recordings.

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May 15, 2024 Jo McKenna-Aspell

Facilitating Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Collaborative Research: How Elicitation Storyboards Help

How can we foster equitable discussions between different groups of people with very different backgrounds and experiences? In our study on embedding equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in usability testing we used storyboards to facilitate collaboration between people who are underrepresented in usability testing with usability researchers. We discuss how storyboards were used to ensure everyone has a voice and can take an active part in discussions.

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May 14, 2024 Najeem Olawale Adelakun

Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Information Retrieval Systems

The study aims to comprehensively explore the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on information retrieval systems, analysing the evolution, challenges, and future directions. It explores the role of AI in enhancing search relevance, user experience, and ethical considerations in information retrieval contexts. The findings highlight AI’s transformative capabilities in enhancing relevance, personalisation, and semantic understanding within information retrieval systems. Ethical considerations, such as bias mitigation and data privacy, are also addressed.

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May 14, 2024 Andrej Zwitter

Cybernetic Governance

As rapid technological advancements blur the boundaries between digital and physical worlds, balancing innovation with ethical standards becomes the greatest challenge. The new paradigm of “cybernetic governance” promises innovative regulatory strategies but also raises questions about control and individual freedoms. The article “Cybernetic Governance: Implications of Technology Convergence on Governance Convergence,” explores the pressing need for governance frameworks to adapt in the face of rapid technological advancements.

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May 2, 2024 Anuoluwa Akinsola

Human-Centered Security: Bridging the Gap between People and Technology

Human-centred security is no longer an option in a world where technology is advancing at dizzying speed; it is a must. To strengthen and make substantial strides toward safeguarding our digital lives, it is essential to identify and tackle the human aspect of information system design.

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April 30, 2024 Christine Urquhart

Making Sense of Sense-making

“Do you see,” “I hear you,” “It doesn’t feel right,” “I smell a rat,” “it tastes funny”—all common phrases we use to express whether or not we are making sense of our situations and interactions. Sense-making involves not only the five senses, but physical, emotional, spiritual, and intuitional responses. We strive to make better sense of our situations and our dealings with other people as uncertainty makes us anxious.

Featured Translation

April 30, 2024 Wenjing Pian

Health Information Craving: A Force to Cyberchondria

Imagine encountering news about COVID-19 for the first time or experiencing unexplained bodily discomfort. Some individuals remain calm, while others instinctively turn to the Internet for answers. However, the digital realm can be both a blessing and a curse. The more information we seek, the greater our anxiety tends to grow. It’s a paradox: the quest for knowledge can inadvertently fuel worry and apprehension.This situation can be described as “cyberchondria”: the compulsive and obsessive health information seeking associated with anxiety, worry, and other negative consequences.