It currently feels like we have reached the peak of the autumn conference season. An array of events of interest to those of us working in Social Informatics and related areas are taking place this week. These include: Continue reading
Category Archives: Projects
All set for #asist20
Following three days of virtual pre-conference workshops and the annual doctoral colloquium, the annual meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology 2020 ‘proper’ opens today. The opening keynote speaker is Houman Haddad, Head of Emerging Technologies, United Nations World Food Programme (Nobel Peace Prize winner). He will present to the online audience on blockchain technology for humanitarian assistance at 09:00 EDT (13:00 GMT in the UK).
Several members of the Centre for Social Informatics are making co-authored contributions to ASIST 2020: Continue reading
SFC COVID-19 funding for two new projects in the Centre for Social Informatics
On 6th May 2020, the Scottish Government announced a ‘£75 million boost for Scottish university research’ to contribute to the mitigation of effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Scottish university research base. This recognised the wide range of impacts to both the income and activity of university research in the short, medium and longer term. The Scottish Funding Council then announced the allocation of this funding to the Scottish universities on 12th June, and in recent months each institution has considered the best use this investment to meet the objectives of: Continue reading
RIVAL goes virtual on 19th November 2020
After two unsuccessful attempts to postpone the third of our RSE-funded RIVAL network events, Dr Bruce Ryan and I have admitted defeat. With the support of the RIVAL project board members, we have decided to keep Thursday 19th November 2020 as the date for RIVAL event 3 and run it as a virtual meeting that afternoon. Continue reading
Using social media during job search: paper now available as PDF from Sage
The article ‘Using social media during job search: the case of 16-24 year olds in Scotland‘, which I co-authored with Dr John Mowbray (University of Glasgow), is now available as a PDF from the Journal of Information Science. Continue reading
Centre for Social Informatics contributions to Information Seeking in Context 2020 #isic2020
Hosted by the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, Information Seeking in Context 2020 (#isic2020) takes place as a virtual conference between 28th September and 2nd October 2020. As has been the case in the past (e.g. 2018 in Kraków, Poland, 2016 in Zadar, Croatia), colleagues from the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University are looking forward to the opportunity of presenting some of their research at the ISIC conference. Continue reading
Paper accepted for #ASIST2020 on the development of a network for LIS researchers and practitioners in Scotland
My Centre for Social Informatics colleague Dr Bruce Ryan and I are delighted that our short paper ‘Research Impact Value and Library and Information Science (RIVAL): development, implementation and outcomes of a Scottish network for LIS researchers and practitioners‘ has been accepted for presentation at the (virtual) 83rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST2020). We are grateful to our Centre for Social Informatics Visiting Professor Brian Detlor for providing internal peer review feedback on an early draft of our paper, especially since the acceptance rate for short papers at the conference this year was just 48% this year. Continue reading
Activity Theory to explore transitioning to agile methods: contribution to #XP2020
The 21st International Conference on Agile Software Development XP2020 takes place this week between Monday 8th and Friday 12th June. Normally delegates would be gathering in Copenhagen to participate in the event. Like many conferences this year, however, the conference has switched to a virtual format.
Amongst the work to be presented at the conference is a paper by Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Pritam Chita, Peter Cruickshank and Dr Colin Smith, with Dr Kendall Richards of Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Computing Education Research. Continue reading
Bruce Ryan and Gemma Webster present on information avoidance and diabetes at Information Science Trends: Health Information Behavior

Next week on Monday 8th June Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Dr Bruce Ryan and Dr Gemma Webster are presenting a poster at Information Science Trends: Health Information Behavior. This free virtual event takes place over 3 days between 8th and 10th June in three 3-hour sessions. It has been organised by the European Chapter of the Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIST). Continue reading
Rachel Salzano contributes to the work of the Alan Turing Institute
The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. It was established in 2015 with headquarters at the British Library in London. The work of the Institute is achieved through collaborations between universities, businesses, and public and third sector organisations to address some of the biggest challenges in science, society and the economy.
Currently Rachel Salzano, a PhD student within the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University, is contributing to the institute’s research on detecting and understanding harmful content online. She has been employed by the Institute in two roles. Continue reading

