From: NASIG Social Media Coordinator <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:10:07 -0500

NASIG volunteers are in a busy season of preparation for welcoming you to
NASIG 2024 to be held in Spokane, WA, from 3-7 June at the beautiful
Spokane Davenport Grand hotel. Go to https://nasig.org/Conference to
register for this in-person conference.

We are especially thrilled to highlight vision speaker, Dr. Francesca B.
Tripodi, who will present on the timely topic of "Data Voids and Echo
Chambers: The Transformative Journey of Search and Its Consequences." This
topic is of great importance to all of us in the information community
including publishers, librarians, vendors, and anyone interested in or
involved with scholarly communication.

In an era dominated by information accessibility, the question of how we
search is paramount. "Doing our own research" has become a ubiquitous facet
of daily life, but the world of search is dramatically changing. This
presentation delves into the intricate dynamics shaping the way we perceive
and interact with the world of search. It scrutinizes how our worldviews
impact keywords and how these phrases shape the information returned to us.
It will also explore the interconnected nature of various online platforms,
explaining how absence of information on Wikipedia can reverberate,
impacting prominent search engines like Google. Central to the discussion
is the concept of "data voids" — instances where information vacuums are
created and exploited for political or corporate gain. By examining these
voids, the presentation aims to unravel the complex interplay between
user-driven content generation and the manipulation of information
landscapes by external forces.

Dr. Tripodi is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information and
Library Science and a Principal Investigator at the Center for Information
Technology and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill. She has twice testified
before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining to senators how
relevance is gamed to drive ideologically based queries and spread
conspiratorial logic. In addition to her research on search engines, Dr.
Tripodi’s work has documented how cis-gender women who meet the threshold
for inclusion on Wikipedia are nearly twice as likely to be considered
non-notable subjects than their cis-male peers. In 2023, Dr. Tripodi
received the Award for Impact and Excellence from the Center for an
Informed Public at the University of Washington in recognition of her
research on fostering an informed society.

Look out for an upcoming issue of the *NASIG Newsletter
<https://nasig.org/Newsletter>* where you can learn more about Dr. Tripodi,
and plan to join our community for this thought-provoking talk and for many
others on topics relating to AI, community-driven publishing, DEI, shared
print repositories, digital preservation, BIBFRAME, and much more. A full
schedule is available at https://nasig2024.sched.com.

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NASIG is an independent, non-profit organization working to advance and
transform the management of information resources.