Do you have a research idea that is both interdisciplinary and linked to the digital society? Would you like to present your research, meet other researchers with similar or complementary interests, and potentially start new collaborations? Then this event may be for you!
The 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society will be held on February 18, 2022 at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. We aim to bring together researchers interested in the intersection between digital technology and society.
Digital technology – from social robotics to smart mobile devices, from global social media networks to fluent natural language processing tools, from realistic virtual environments to knowledgeable virtual agents – is rapidly changing, and society is changing with it. At the same time, technological solutions are sought for new societal problems such as global social justice, climate change, human mobility and sustainability, or transnational (re)organization of politics and economy. To study how digital technologies and societal problems interact, we believe in supporting researchers who take on interdisciplinary approaches.
This workshop, organized by the Network Institute, aims to bring together researchers from different backgrounds interested in the Digital Society and to give them the opportunity to present their work, get to know and learn from each other, and initiate common projects. Participating researchers are invited to submit a research paper (either a previously published work or a “work in progress“). They will have the opportunity to show a poster and give a very short lightning presentation. During the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to interact and connect with colleagues from inside and outside the VU.
Submission Guidelines for researchers
We invite all researchers interested in interdisciplinary topics related to the Digital Society to contribute to our program. There will be a (lightweight) evaluation of all submissions. These should consist of a representative paper of your research (previously published or “work in progress” – the workshop is non-archival)
All submissions must be made in PDF format through the EasyChair platform: Submission Link
We highlight that, in order to facilitate participation, we are not requiring researchers to create new contents for the workshop: submissions can be previously-published work or “work in progress” papers.
Program
The workshop will take place on February 18 2022 and will follow the program below.
- Welcome and intro – 14:00-14:15
- Lightning talks – 14:15-14:50
- Poster session – 14:50-15:40
- Research “speed-dating” (on Zoom) – 15:40-16:30
- Closing and awards – 16:30-17:00
- Networking – Bring Your Own Drink (optional) – 17:00 onwards
Venue
According to the current COVID regulation, physical events are not yet allowed at the VU. Therefore, we have decided to arrange the workshop fully online. Should there be any changes in terms of possibility for a hybrid setup, we will inform you as soon as possible – for now the event is expected to take place fully online.
IWDS Research Vouchers
As a follow up of the event, to support interdisciplinary research within the theme of digital society, we are opening a call for research proposals.
By participating in the IWDS, all registered participants to IWDS are eligible to apply for research vouchers offered by the Network Institute by sending a short joint research proposal (2 researchers, possibly more). All proposals will go through a blind peer review process after which we will award vouchers to three of them.
The top three proposals will receive a research voucher of 1k, 1.5k, and 2.5k Euros, respectively, that can be spent in any research activity related to the project.
Requirements
- A research proposal can be considered for this call only if at least two authors were registered participants of IWDS
- The research proposal should not exceed a single A4 page
- While the research proposal needs to be anonymised by removing personal information, please state all departments (not research groups) represented
Criteria
- Relevance for the broader theme of digital society
- Novelty of the research question, methodology, and/or technology
- Interdisciplinarity in terms of topic and/or approach
- Feasibility in terms of a research plan, or additional funding
Deadlines
- Deadline for submission: Friday 25th March, 2022 at 23:59
- Submit by sending your anonymized research proposal in a pdf format to t.karacic@vu.nl
- Notification date: Wednesday 13th April, 2022
Best match @IWDS
During the event, we are going to have a research speed-dating session where participants can discuss and share ideas in order to spark new collaborations. Right after the session we will poll the most intriguing/interesting match and award the two researchers with a surprise gift from the Network Institute.
Register to the workshop
Participation to the workshop is completely free. Click here to register!
Talks and posters
During the event we will have the following lightning talks and poster presentations:
- Patricia Lago. Architecture Design Decision Maps for Software Sustainability
- Claudia Dictus, Jetske Erisman, Eric van Furth and Elena V. Syurina. New Media, New Approaches: development and evaluation of a model for Orthorexia Nervosa.
- Hans Akkermans, Anna Bon and Jaap Gordijn. Perspectives on Digital Humanism
- Tilo Hartmann. I Know It Is Not Real (And That Matters): Media Awareness vs. Presence Shape the VR/XR Experience
- Claudia Raibulet. Facets of Adaptivity
- Marieke van Erp and Victor de Boer. A Polyvocal and Contextualised Semantic Web
- Myrthe Reuver, Nicolas Mattis, Marijn Sax, Suzan Verberne, Nava Tintarev, Natali Helberger, Judith Moeller, Sanne Vrijenhoek, Antske Fokkens and Wouter van Atteveldt. Are we human, or are we users? The role of natural language processing in human-centric news recommenders that nudge users to diverse content
- Ali Nihat Uzunalioglu, Tameem Adel and Jakub Tomczak. Semi-supervised Multiple Instance Learning using Variational Auto-Encoders
- Jie Luo, Aart Stuurman, Jakub Tomczak and Agoston Eiben. The Effects of Learning in MorphologicallyEvolving Robot Systems
- Mehdi Zamani and Andreu Casas. TWEETKEEPING: WHY POLITICALLY-INTERESTED IRANIAN ACCOUNTS GET SUSPENDED ON TWITTER
- Fuda van Diggelen, Eliseo Ferrante, Nihed Harrak, Jie Luo, Daan Zeeuwe and A.E. Eiben. The Influence of Robot Traits and Evolutionary Dynamics on the Reality Gap
- Tugay Alperen Karaguzel, Eliseo Ferrante and Ali Emre Turgut. Collective Gradient Perception in a Flocking Robot Swarm
- Daniel Preciado Vanegas and Elly Konijn. Reducing Loneliness in mentally healthy seniors through robotic companionship: Pilot towards a randomized clinical trial
- Urja Khurana, Antske Fokkens, Ivar Vermeulen and Eric Nalisnick. Reliable Hate Speech Detection
- Lea Krause and Piek Vossen. When to explain: Identifying explanation triggers in human-agent interaction
- Paulina Pankowska, Antske Fokkens, Martin Tanis and Ivar Vermeulen. Bigger, faster, cheaper, better? Quality of data obtained from online participant recruitment platforms, and ways to improve it
- Evgeny Vasilets, Tijs van den Broek, Anna Wegmann, David Abadi and Dong Nguyen. Measuring Perspective-Taking in Online Discussions
- Daniel Müller. Interactive decision-making in team sports
- Emma Beauxis-Aussalet. Error Variance, Fairness, and the Curse on Minorities
- Tina van der Linden. AI: What else is new?
- Ana Isabel Lopes, Edward Malthouse, Nathalie Dens and Patrick De Pelsmacker. Is webcare good for business? A machine learning approach to the effect of managerial response strategies to online reviews on hotel bookings
Important dates
Submission deadline: Jan 21, 2022
Registration deadline: Feb 16, 2022 (register here)
Event date: Friday Feb 18, 2022 @ 14:00-17:00
Organization
The workshop is organized and sponsored by the Network Institute, the hub for interdisciplinary research on the Digital Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Organizing committee
- Kim Baraka — VU, Department of Computer Science (Social AI group)
- Martina Testori — VU, Department of Organization Sciences (Force of Gossip group)
- Ioana Vrabiescu — VU, Department of Organization Sciences (Organizational Ethnography)
- Kousar Aslam — VU, Department of Computer Science (Software and Sustainability group)
- Tomislav Karačić — VU, KIN Center for Digital Innovation (AI@Work group)
- Antske Fokkens — VU, Dept. of Language, Literature and Communication (Computational Linguistics and Text Mining Lab) / Eindhoven University of Technology (Algorithms, Geometry and Applications cluster)
- Ivano Malavolta — VU, Department of Computer Science (Software and Sustainability group)
Tweets from IWDS
With more than 60 registered participants, the IWDS workshop was a great success and a fun event for us! Here is a slide deck presenting the event and all presented posters https://t.co/vXXyXwBQMC @communicationVU @VU_FGB @VUamsterdam @VU_Science @KINresearch @AthenaInst @OrgVU
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 23, 2022
Had fun hosting the 1st Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Digital Society (IWDS)! Registered participants, stay tuned for an open call for funding your generated research ideas https://t.co/uDqQamZrFm https://t.co/4tw33VrSs4
— Kim Baraka (@kimbaraka) February 22, 2022
And the winners of our research speed dating session are… 🥁🥁🥁… @victordeboer and @anna_wegmann with their match on #DeepLearning and #NLP!! Congrats! 🏆🏆🎉🎉
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
The research speed dating session is just over at #IWDS2021, here are the keywords of the new emerging collaborations, we discussed about #conversationalagents, #NLP, #evolutionarycomputing, #selfadaptation, and many more! pic.twitter.com/WJOMz9j5m0
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
And now it’s time for the poster session 🙂 pic.twitter.com/2OYRO3hD6d
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Is #webcare good for business? Research by Ana Isabel Lopes at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/VYlk5UST1A
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
#AI, what else is new? Research presented by Tina van der Linden at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/BbvTD77F8M
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Error variance, fairness, and the curse on #minorities – this is the research presented by @emma_beauxis at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/mEjvRpJxDM
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Interactive decision-making in team sports – very nice reseearch by Daniel Mueller presented at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/wCZK5SxqPj
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Measuring perspective-taking in online discussions, this is the research presented by Anna Wegmann at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/RvHL78aAM7
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Struggling to find participants for your research? Maybe you are interested in Panl, presented by Ivar Vermeulen at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/l9LFpSH3g4
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Lea Krause is presenting her research on explanation triggers in human-agent interaction at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/8rcXBIBsvm
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Robust and reliable #hatespeech detection? This is Urja’s research presented today at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/srkoI3qqsz
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Daniel Preciado presenting his research on reducing loneliness through robotic companionship for mentally healthy senior citizens at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/5q73AI6b8C
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Tugay Karaguzel presenting his research on flocking robot swarms a #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/bHNydXbf1W
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Fuda van Diggelen presents his research on the influence of robot traits and evolutionary dynamics on the reality gap at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/g11NopikIB
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Geo-politicized deplatforming presented now at #IWDS2021 by Mehdi Zamani pic.twitter.com/0bOCa4zEcI
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
The effects of learning in morphologically evolving robots, presented by Jie Luo at #IWDS2021, so cool! pic.twitter.com/hupPfJqabO
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Are we humans or are we users? This is the essence of @myrthereuver‘s research presented at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/tnllCRXO8y
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Polyvocal and contextualised semantic web presented now by @victordeboer at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/vxRm2Y9qgz
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Software that adapts itself? Here it is by Claudia Raibulet, presented at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/jAlULKsLQY
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
“I know it’s not real (and that matters)” by Tilo Hartmann at #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/iKKvI56EOF
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
Perspectives on Digital Humanism are being presented by Hans Akkermans now #IWDS2021#digitalhumanism pic.twitter.com/skC1cIUhvC
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
aaaand… we are getting more and more :)) #IWDS2021 pic.twitter.com/FrGwR4jbVU
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
IWDS 2021 is just starting, we are all very excited to hear about the interdisciplinary research done by our VU researchers! https://t.co/MZbtDJgdes
#IWDS2021 @VUamsterdam@VU_Science@communicationVU@KINresearch@AthenaInst@OrgVU@VU_FGW pic.twitter.com/3zG1sTUiar— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 18, 2022
LAST DAY to register for our IWDS workshop on the Digital Society! Register here: https://t.co/MZbtDJgdes
Our rich and fully online program involves lightning talks, poster sessions, and even research matchmaking where the most interesting matches will receive surprise gifts!
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 16, 2022
As a follow up of IWDS, we will open a call for 3 research vouchers for a total of €5,000 for the most promising collaborations within IWDS.
The call is reserved to the participants of IWDS. You are still on time, registrations are open until Feb 16! https://t.co/MZbtDJgdes
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 11, 2022
During IWDS we will poll the most intriguing/interesting matches emerging from the research speed dating session and will award the matched researchers with surprise gifts 🏆🏆🏆
You are still on time for this, registrations are open until Feb 16! https://t.co/MZbtDJgdes
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 11, 2022
Last week to register for our IWDS workshop on the Digital Society!
Register here by the Feb 14: https://t.co/MZbtDJgL40With 48 submissions, our rich and fully online program involves lightning talks, poster sessions, and research matchmaking (“speed-dating” inspired)!
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 9, 2022
Registrations are open for our IWDS workshop on the Digital Society! Register here by Feb 14: https://t.co/MZbtDJgdes
With 26 submissions, the (fully online) program is very rich and it involves: lightning talks, poster sessions, and speed dating!
— Network Institute (@networkinstvu) February 1, 2022