About

What is the CDSC?
The Community Data Science Collective is an interdisciplinary research group made up of faculty and students at the University of Washington Department of Communication, the Northwestern University Department of Communication Studies, the Carleton College Computer Science Department, and the Purdue University School of Communication.

We are social scientists applying a range of quantitative and qualitative methods to the study of online communities. We seek to understand both how and why some attempts at collaborative production — like Wikipedia and Linux — build large volunteer communities and high quality work products. Our research frequently consists of “big data” quantitative analyses, and lies at the intersection of communication, sociology, and human-computer interaction.

What makes the CDSC unique?
Built around the work of a few of our core faculty members (see Mako, Aaron, and Jeremy's pages), our group opperates with the same values of openness and collective peer-production as the communities we study. This means we welcome anyone to join and participate in our group in whatever ways work best for them. As a result, the CDSC functions not only as a (somewhat dispersed) research lab but also as a collective of researchers and practitioners interested in peer production, online communities, and data science scholarship.

Who is the CDSC for? How can you be involved?
There are a number of ways to be involved!
 * If you're just interested in learning more or keeping up with our work, consider joining our IRC channel (CommunityData:IRC), following our blog or out social media, or attending a workshop.
 * If you're a prospective graduate student interested in joining one of our departments, consider attending one of our meetings or reaching out to one of our faculty or core student members.
 * If you're a community member or outside scholar, consider attending one of our meetings, reaching out to one of our faculty members, signing up for an email channel, or consider selecting a "community member" role from our roles page.
 * If you're ready to regularly be part of the collective, visit our roles page, select a participation role that works for you, and be a part of our work!

Important Links

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