wearenew_public

wearenew_public, 3 months ago to random

Research: Can small changes to the metrics used for algorithmically curated content affect the beliefs people form?

Yes! This study finds observable differences in belief accuracy and consensus.

More:

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/5yfbt

wearenew_public, 3 months ago to random

HIRING: We're seeking a researcher to research local communities and institutions, what is and isn’t working in local digital public spaces, and the needs of local leaders and the people they serve.

https://newpublic.org/jobs/contract-researcher-local

wearenew_public, 3 months ago to random

Many moderators and admins are spending tons of time creating their own guides and resources for stewarding their communities.

Could we help them by creating in-context, recommended actions or step-by-step stewardship guides?

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/empowering-community-stewards-to

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

"We are about to see the biggest reshuffling of power on the internet in 25 years, in a way that most of the internet’s current users have never seen before ... a few of the most important changes haven’t gotten any discussion at all."

–@anildash

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

"Nearly 1 in 10 Gen Zers are more likely to rely on TikTok than Google as a search engine."

Top categories include finding new recipes, music and DIY tips

https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/using-tiktok-as-a-search-engine

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

Check out Bonfire's experiment based on a design pattern documented by the Prosocial Design Network: adding a feature that allow moderators to label posts misleading, reliable, or related.

https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/content_labelling_in_bonfire/

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

After you've regulated social media, what comes next?

Well, if you're Europe, you make a public option to compete with for-profit social media.

@openfuture calls Public Digital Infrastructure, Digital Commons and interoperability.

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/beyond-regulation-building-europes

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

Love this from @restofworld: How people around the world show that they're amused in online conversation

https://restofworld.org/2023/how-people-laugh-online/

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

@verge on how Google Search has reshaped the web over decades:

"The problem with setting up an ever-scaling system of winners and losers is that someone will always try to cheat and, at least for a bit, they’ll get away with it."

https://www.theverge.com/c/23998379/google-search-seo-algorithm-webpage-optimization

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

In the US, it's hard to imagine robust regulation of social media. In Europe, that's just the beginning.

@openfuture wants Europe to build an open and sustainable ecosystem offering alternatives to existing commercial social platforms.

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/beyond-regulation-building-europes

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

.@anildash: "While this new, more diffuse set of social networks sometimes requires a little more tinkering to get started, they epitomize the complexity and multiplicity of the weirder and more open web that’s flourishing today."

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/

wearenew_public, 4 months ago to random

It's worth considering why this massive, global online community of women has stuck with Facebook Groups for eight years:

1. It is cheap and accessible in Africa
2. It is story-structured
3. They keep building more useful stewardship tools

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/building-a-digital-lifeline-for-women

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Research: In the US, "across six major social media platforms, the 2022 annual advertising revenue from youth users ages 0–17 years is nearly $11 billion."

Charting the incentives that keep platforms addicted to youth engagement.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295337#sec005

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Survey: support for banning TikTok has fallen dramatically overall. About a quarter of those surveyed oppose a government ban, but half of the teens surveyed do.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/12/11/a-declining-share-of-adults-and-few-teens-support-a-us-tiktok-ban/

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Six months after their large-scale moderator uprising, Reddit may have "won" while losing many veteran community stewards

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/dec/30/reddit-moderator-protest-communities-social-media

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

If you have resolved to read more books this year and want an alternative to Amazon-owned Goodreads...

look no further than Bookworm, a social book tracker app in the process of becoming a reader-owned cooperative https://www.bookwormreads.co/

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Please treat yourself to our hand drawn holiday card ⭐️ ❄️ ☃️

The back is filled with prosocial and public-spirited innovations to fill up your tabs and get you as energized as we are about 2024.

We're logging off for the rest of year. Happy Holidays!

https://newpublic.org/holidaycard

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Some neat AI thinking from our friends at Collective Intelligence Project. We can be far more intentional about how we put LLMs to work for our institutions.

https://www.ai4institutions.com/project-cards

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Pew Pew! More excellent research about how teens spend their time online, with few changes from last year.

• YouTube still dominates
• TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are still popular
• FB and Twitter are far less popular than 10 years ago

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/12/11/teens-social-media-and-technology-2023/

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Making the case for the fediverse:

"One of the best things about embracing ActivityPub is that it sticks a crowbar into a single Voltron-ic product like Facebook or Twitter or Snapchat and pries it apart into its component pieces, each one ripe for innovation and new ideas."

https://www.theverge.com/23990974/social-media-2023-fediverse-mastodon-threads-activitypub

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

Sarah Jeong faced tremendous harassment on Twitter years ago.

For the @verge, she reflects on some of the affordances that made Twitter particularly susceptible to toxic, antisocial behavior, including a lack of tools for community stewardship.

https://www.theverge.com/c/features/23997516/harassment-twitter-sarah-jeong-canceled-social-change

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

In reviewing the research on norms, we found that one of the key topics is visibility.

Developers can proactively reward or increase the visibility of prosocial norms and behavior on platforms with these visibility-centric design features:

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/understanding-how-norms-shape-digital

wearenew_public, 5 months ago to random

We’ve been doing a lot of reading about norms, the principles that determine what behavior is acceptable in a group.

Here's what you need to know about norms if you're building new social products and spaces.

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/understanding-how-norms-shape-digital

wearenew_public, 6 months ago to random

Want to help with an experiment in online community governance?

@axz and PolicyKit are seeking builders to help with platform integrations, as well as stewards who might want to try out PolicyKit in their communities.

https://newpublic.substack.com/p/democratizing-power-in-online-communities

wearenew_public, 6 months ago to random

Loving this from Signal:

"To put it bluntly, as a nonprofit we don’t have investors or profit-minded board members knocking during hard times, urging us to 'sacrifice a little privacy' in the name of hitting growth and monetary targets."

https://signal.org/blog/signal-is-expensive/