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The Community Data Science Collective is an interdisciplinary research group made of up of faculty and students at the University of Washington Department of Communication and the Northwestern University Department of Communication Studies.

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 is particularly focused on how the design of communication and information technologies shape fundamental social outcomes with broad theoretical and practical implications — like an individual’s decision to join a community, contribute to a public good, or a group’s ability to make decisions democratically.

Our research is deeply interdisciplinary, most frequently consists of “big data” quantitative analyses, and lies at the intersection of communication, sociology, and human-computer interaction.

The group is led by Benjamin Mako Hill and Aaron Shaw.

This Wiki

This is open to the public and hackable by all but mostly contains information that will be useful to collective members, their collaborators, people enrolled in their projects, or people interested in building off of their work. If you're interested in making a change or creating content here, generally feel empowered to Be Bold. If things don't fit, somebody who watches this wiki will be in touch.

Public Workshops

Community Data Science Workshops — The Community Data Science Workshops (CDSW) are a series of workshops designed to introduce some of the basic tools of programming and analysis of data from online communities to absolute beginners. The CDSW have been held four times in Seattle in 2014 and 2015. So far, more than 80 people have volunteered their weekends to teach more than 350 people to program in Python, to build datasets from Web APIs, and to ask and answer questions using these data.

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University of Washington Courses

• [Winter 2017] COM521: Statistics and Statistical Programming — A quarter-long quantitative methods course that builds a first-quarter introduction to quantitative methodology and that focuses on both the more mathematical elements of statistics as well as the nuts-and-bolts of statistical programming in the GNU R programming language.

• [Fall 2016] COM597A: Building Successful Online Communities — A quarter-long course taught by Benjamin Mako Hill on online communities and computer mediated communication with an emphasis on learning from research in social psychology, sociology, and behavioral economics. The course is taught in the University of Washington's Communication Leadership program.

• [Spring 2016] COM597: Programming and Data Science for Social Media — A quarter-long course taught by Tommy Guy that adapts and builds upon the CDSW curriculum to teach introductory programming and data science to absolute beginners in the context of the University of Washington's Communication Leadership program.

• [Spring 2016] HCDE598: Data Science for User Experience Researchers: A special topics course in the "Masters in Human Centered Design & Engineering" program covering the use of data science tools and concepts to conduct research with open online data taught by Jonathan Morgan.

• [Spring 2016] COM597F: Innovation Communities — A UW Communication Leadership’s elective in the “Masters in Communication in Communities and Networks” program covering using online communities to harness user innovation taught by Benjamin Mako Hill.

• [Spring 2016] COM528: Internet Research Methods — A MA/PhD class offering a survey of several Internet research methods taught by Benjamin Mako Hill.

• [Fall 2015] COM482: Interpersonal Media: Online Communities — A course on online communities and computer mediated communication taught by Benjamin Mako Hill.

• [Spring 2015] COM597: Programming and Data Science for Social Media — A quarter-long course taughted by Benjamin Mako Hill that adapts and builds upon the CDSW curriculum to teach introductory programming and data science to absolute beginners in the context of the University of Washington's Communication Leadership program.

Northwestern Courses & Workshop

• Online Communities & Crowds (COMMST 378, Fall 2016) — This advanced undergraduate course presents an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of online communities and crowds, with a particular emphasis on how and why some of these systems are so wildly effective at mobilizing and organizing people in ways that seem to have been impossible a few decades ago.

• Introduction to Graduate Research (MTS 501, Fall 2016) — The first of two required seminars in the Media, Technology & Society (MTS) and Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) programs, this course introduces first year Ph.D. students to research skills and gives guidance on how to be a productive and responsible scholar.

• Bring Your Own Research Workshop (BYOR) — A research workshop for CDSC affiliates and fellow travelers at Northwestern convened by Aaron Shaw. Participants present work and provide peer feedback/accountability in weekly meetings. Most members of the group are affiliates of the Media, Technology & Society and Technology & Social Behavior programs at Northwestern and study online communities, collective action, organizations, collaboration, and related topics.

• The Practice of Scholarship (MTS 503, Spring 2016) — The second of two required seminars in the Media, Technology & Society (MTS) and Technology and Social Behavior (TSB) programs, the goal for this course is simple: submit a piece of academic research for publication by the end of the quarter. The course and assignments are structured to help students cultivate (more of) the skills, wisdom, and experience necessary to publish independent, original, and high-quality scholarship in relevant venues for their work. The experience will probably feel like a combination of a writing bootcamp and an extended group therapy session.

Research Resources

If you are a member of the collective, perhaps you're looking for CommunityData:Resources which includes details on email, TeX templates, documentation on our computing resources, etc.