Today the members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded RIVAL network are meeting formally for the penultimate time at part 1 of RIVAL Event 4. As has been the case for so many professional activities since mid-March 2020, Dr Bruce Ryan, Rachel Salzano, Katherine Stephen and I are not hosting this event as originally envisaged. Rather than gathering face-to-face, at Edinburgh Napier University’s Sighthill campus for a full day on July 9th 2020, the RIVAL network members will be logging onto Teams for two half day meetings, the first of which is this afternoon, with the second on the morning of Friday 12th February. Continue reading
Tag Archives: CSI
Registration opens for ‘digital proxies’ workshop for information workers
Are you an information worker who supports citizens in their use online systems by accessing digital services on their behalf as their ‘digital proxy’? Perhaps this kind of activity has become part of your role working in local government, a public library service, civil society, and/or a third sector organisation?
If so, my Centre for Social Informatics colleagues Dr Gemma Webster, Dr David Brazier, Peter Cruickshank and Dr Bruce Ryan would like to invite you to participate at one of three free half-day online workshops next month. Continue reading
Farewell 2020

The way we were, December 2019. L to R: John Marshall, Peter Cruickshank, Lyndsey Middleton (now graduated with PhD), Katherine Stephen, Rachel Salzano, Marina Milosheva, Laura Muir (now retired), Hazel Hall, Leo Appleton (now graduated with PhD), Ella Taylor-Smith, David Haynes, David Brazier, Frances Ryan (now Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen), Colin Smith, Wegene Demeke, and Bruce Ryan.
Just over a year ago, on 22nd December 2019, I summarised the the previous six months of activities of the members of the Centre for Social Informatics. I illustrated this account with a jolly photograph of us all bunched closely together around the table a few days earlier in room C34a of Edinburgh Napier University’s Merchiston campus. Continue reading
Information Research December 2020 issue available with six contributions from the Centre for Social Informatics
The December 2020 issue of Information Research is now available. Alongside the ‘regular’ papers and book reviews, this issue incorporates all the papers and posters from the Information Seeking in Context (ISIC) conference hosted online by the Department of Information Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa in September. Continue reading
iConference acceptances for Marina Milosheva and Rachel Salzano #iConf2021 #iconf21
Last week two of our Centre for Social Informatics PhD students learnt that they will be contributing to iConference 2021. Continue reading
Research group highlights of 2020, and hopes for 2021
This time last year on 18th December 2019, following our usual tradition, the Centre for Social Informatics staff and students marked the end of the year with an ‘All centre’ celebration of their achievements of the previous six months. This kind of get-together is completely impossible under the current pandemic restrictions. So, instead of the usual hilarity in room C34a of Napier’s Merchiston campus, during which I use my enormous egg timer to time five minute updates from everyone around the table over the course of two hours (glass of wine in hand), yesterday afternoon we gathered online for just 30 minutes of social fun. Continue reading
The Data Foundry at the National Library of Scotland: a presentation by Dr Sarah Ames
Last Wednesday on 9th December the Digital Scholarship Librarian at National Library of Scotland – Dr Sarah Ames – was a visiting speaker at the weekly (online) gathering of staff and PhD students of the Centre for Social Informatics. On this occasion we were also joined by some of our other colleagues from the wider School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University. Continue reading
RIVAL network event 3: preview
After two postponements and a decision to move to virtual delivery, we (myself, Dr Bruce Ryan and our Edinburgh Napier PhD student helpers Rachel Salzano and Katherine Stephen) will (finally) be hosting the third RIVAL network event next week on Thursday 19th November 2020. Continue reading
Newly published: version 11.2 of the Centre for Social Informatics flyer (autumn 2020)
The Centre for Social Informatics flyer (version 11.2) has just been updated for the new academic year. Follow the link to read about the work of our group, including details of research expertise, funders, recent PhD completions, and recent publications. The flyer includes profiles of the group’s academic and research staff: Continue reading
Nominations announced for the ENSA Excellence Awards 2020
Congratulations to all Edinburgh Napier University colleagues who have been nominated for the Edinburgh Napier University Students’ Association (ENSA) 2020 Excellence Awards, and especially to the 18 members of staff from the School of Computing. Continue reading