All posts by molly

Workshop Reflections – Transparent Revenge

The Question

How do we balance the interests and privacy of victims of gendered online harassment with transparency regarding online content removal requests?

Our Solution(s)

Attendees first received an in-depth explanation of Gendered Online Harassment delivered by Crystal Nwaneri of the Women’s Law Association, covering specifically the Gamergate incident of 2014. Following some discussion, the Lumen Database was introduced as a way of streamlining takedown requests and other cyber legal matters.

We discussed how Lumen can aid many of the problems of Gendered Online Harassment, as well as inform the public about the frequency of these requests. Additional questions to consider are how public should requests be and how to handle copyright takedown requests in a more automated manner without losing fairness or accuracy.

What’s Up Next

Attendees became more familiar with both Lumen as a tool and as a database, and will incorporate it into future endeavors and discussions regarding cyber law.

Workshop Reflections – Policy in Pixels

The Question

How can data visualization answer questions about our world? What are interesting policy questions where data visualization could be easier?

Our Solution(s)

Rebekah Heacock of the Internet Monitor Project led the workshop. She first explained the concept of Internet Monitor, as well as its real-life applications and uses. Rebekah asked students to think about Internet public policy and where Internet Monitor could possibly be useful in making policy decisions. We created a huge brainstorming wall, grouping together similar concepts.

Then, students broke down into groups to tackle each policy-related topic, including Privacy, Access, and the Right to be Forgotten. They made quick sketches of possible visualizations and data plots that could help answer key questions in those topics.

IMG_5591 (1)

What’s Up Next

Students can now use Internet Monitor as resource of data visualization for their projects and assignments, and Internet Monitor will use the ideas generated by the workshop to direct their next areas of research.

Workshop Reflections – The Pipeline Problem: The Lack of Women in CS

The Question

Why are so few women entering CS fields – and how do we fix this problem?

Our Solution(s)

We first heard from three speakers: Michelle Danoff (WiCS co-president), Katharine D’Hondt (Master of Public Policy Candidate at HKS), Margo Seltzer (Herschel Smith Professor of Computer Science at SEAS). Their topics ranged from personal experiences as women in CS to statistical analysis of the CS pipeline at Harvard.

Following these talks, we broke into small groups to try to better analyze the current state of the pipeline. What does it look like? What is the output? What is the input? What are we trying to measure, and how are we measuring that? Both broken and ideal pipelines were created.

What’s Up Next

This workshop was a great opportunity to look at a long-standing problem through a slightly different lens, with the help of data and analytics. It is a jumping off point for more discussion and for pinpointing the exact problem quantitatively.

Policy in Pixels Workshop

Workshop Announcement – Policy in Pixels: Understanding the World through Data

The Question

How can data visualization answer questions about our world? What are interesting policy questions where data visualization could be easier?

The Plan

Food and mingling
Explanation by Rebekah Jones of the Internet Monitor Project
Presentation of the Question
Brainstorming in Groups
Present Possible Solutions

The Co-Sponsors

Researchers: Rebekah Jones
Undergrads: Developers for Development (D4D), International Relations Council (IRC)

The Time & Place

April 6, 2016
5:00 – 7:00 pm – Geological Museum 102

RSVP here!

The CS Pipeline Problem

The Question: Unfortunately, the lack of women entering computer science fields is not a new problem. We are asking why what’s already been done has not worked, what are new steps to fix the problem, and how do we measure the outcome of those steps?

The Plan:
Food and mingling.
Speaker: Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science
Presentation of the Question
Brainstorming in Groups
Present Possible Solutions

The Co-Sponsors:
Researchers: Jim Waldo, Margo Seltzer
Undergrads: Women in Computer Science (WiCS)

The Time & Place:
March 30, 2016, 5:00 – 7:00 pm – Place to be announced

RSVP here!