mapping and governing the online world
workshops
program
We will meet in three concurrent workshops during the conference to discuss topics of interest to the broader community. All conference participants are encouraged to participate in one of the workshops. The workshop topics will be outlined to the conference participants on Monday evening, and the workshops will meet at least twice (Tuesday & Wednesday at 9:00, with a third optional meeting on Thursday at 9:00). One workshop will present its results in a panel discussion Thursday at 9:00. The leaders of the two other workshops will present results to the plenary on Thursday at 18:00.
Open Science & Data Trade-Offs
led by Christian Peukert, HEC Lausanne
The focus of this workshop will be on generating socially desirable knowledge using data often withheld due to strategic interests and legal barriers. We will particularly cover legal aspects governing/enabling/restricting data access and data sharing, the role of data editors at top journals in shaping open science, and how open science initiatives can be effectively implemented within the existing legal framework. We have invited panelists who are data editors from leading academic journals and academics deeply engaged in open science initiatives. We further invite conference participants to join the working group who are empirical researchers and/or legal scholars specializing in copyright, database, and privacy law. We will have an “off-stage” brainstorming session for workshop members and invited panelists, followed by a formal panel session. After the conference, we plan to compile a joint position paper that summarizes the panel's insights and offers actionable recommendations.
Protecting the Independence of Research Using Private Platform Data
led by Filippo Lancieri, ETH Zurich
This workshop will focus on discussing what are the proper terms and boundaries for researchers working with private/internal platform data—as done voluntarily and as foreseen by the Digital Services Act. Working with internal platform data can be an essential way to answer complex and important research questions, but it can also be a way through which companies exploit academic reputation to promote their policy preferences by limiting access to “favorable” researchers, limiting research questions, or limiting the type of data scholars can access. This working group will aim to map the dos and don’ts of this relationship, and issue an MGOW statement or position paper on minimum ethical and independence principles scholars must follow when partnering with companies to pursue research projects (e.g., no right to veto results).
Reproducibility of Web Measurement
led by Karel Kubicek, ETH Zurich
Existing empirical web privacy (compliance) studies expose a high prevalence of privacy-invasive techniques, yet most are confined to one-time measurements. Challenges such as a lack of documentation, limited code availability, and software aging create obstacles to reproducibility, hindering researchers from assessing web privacy trends over time. This working group will discuss how to improve the situation by reproducing a significant number of privacy measurement studies. We will discuss the design choices and challenges, including studies selection, reproducibility issues like crawling with outdated browsers, and interpretation of result variances. We will finish with avenues for the application of long-term and multifaceted web privacy (compliance) measurements.
