New Publications

Online platforms offer new opportunities to study human behavior. However, while social scientists are often interested in using behavioral trace data—data created by a user over the course of their everyday life—to draw inferences about users, many online platforms only allow data to be sampled based on user activities (leading to data sets that are biased toward highly active users). Here, we introduce a simple method for reweighting activity-based sample statistics in order to provide descriptive (and potentially model-based) estimates of the user population. We illustrate these techniques by applying them to a case study of an online fitness community (Strava) and use it to explore basic network properties. Last, we explore the weights effect on model-based estimates for count data.
Field Methods, 2019

CHI, 2019

Publications

More Publications

. Unbiased Sampling of Useres from (Online) Activity Data. Field Methods, 2019.

PDF Project

. Keeping Rumors in Proportion: Managing Uncertainty in Rumor Systems. CHI, 2019.

PDF Project

Dr. Spiro will participate in a panel on Detecting, Combating, and Identifying Dis and Misinformation at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington this week. Her talk on “Misinformation in the Context of Emergencies and Disaster Events” will review recent learnings from research over the past decade.

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This week Dr. Spiro will join colleages from the Center for an Informed Public on a panel at the Seattle Town Hall. The panelists will explore questions and solutions for building our trust in modern media.

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PhD student Li Zeng is scheduled to give an invited research talk “Understanding Social Behavior Using Digital Traces” at Peking University this week.

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Today, we launched the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public! The event featured the presidents of the University of Washington and Washington State University, celebrated the launch of the CIP with the announcement of a new statewide partnership to battle misinformation.

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Peaks Krafft will join the faculty of the Oxford Internet Institute, the Social Sciences Division, of the University of Oxford this June. Read more in its blog post, New Research Fellow Joins the Oxford Internet Institute. Congratulations, Dr. Krafft!

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Research

Teaching

Information School: Informatics

  • INFO 300 Research Methods
  • INFO 495 Informatics Internship
  • INFO 499 Independent Study

Information School: Imformation Management

  • IMT 570 Analytic Methods for Information
  • IMT 571 Social Network Analysis
  • IMT 573 Data Science I - Theoretical Foundations
  • IMT 600 Independent Study
  • IMT 589 Special Topics: Problematic Information

Information School: Library and Information Science

  • IMT 598 Special Topics: Problematic Information

Information School: Ph.D. Program

  • INSC 565 Teaching Practicum
  • INSC 575 Research Practicum
  • INSC 576 Research Practicum
  • INSC 599 Independent Study
  • INSC 600 Independent Study
  • INSC 800 Doctoral Dissertation

Information School: Interdisciplinary

  • INFX 573 Data Science I - Theoretical Foundations
  • INFX 576 Social Network Analysis

Department of Sociology

  • SOC 495 Honors Senior Thesis in Sociology
  • SOC 600 Independent Study
  • SOC 800 Doctoral Dissertation

Human Centered Design and Engineering

  • HCDE 596 Directed Research Group (co-taught with Dr. Kate Starbird)

Students

Prospective Students: I have a general policy not to speak to prospective students in advance of the admissions process. This allows me to treat candidates equitably. I will reach out to any candidates who submit an application to UW’s Information Science PhD program who make our short list so that we can discuss your research interests and so that I can share more about our current research projects with you. I can advise students admitted to both Ph.D. program at the Information School and in the Department of Sociology at the UW; I am currently accepting new students in both programs. If you apply to the Department of Sociology and would like to work with me, please send me an email to let me know. I encourage you to browse our current research projects and published work as listed on our lab website and here.

Emily Porter

Information School, University of Washington

Leo Stewart

Information School, University of Washington

Peaks Krafft

Oxford Internet Institute

Li Zeng

Information School, University of Washington

Nina Cesare

Digital Data Researcher, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Shawn Walker

Assistant Professor of Social Technologies, School of Socal & Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University

Logan Walls

Data Scientist, nuunum

Contact