Internet Credibility and the User

Internet Credibility and the User: Next Steps Meeting Chicago, August 22nd and 23rd 2005

On August 22nd and 23rd ten participants from the April Symposium in Seattle met to discuss future directions for the Internet Credibility and the User project. The meeting started off with a synopsis of ideas for future work from the April meeting. PowerPoint slides

Dave Lankes demonstrated and presented his work on Reference Extract. Up to date information on this project can be found on the Reference Extract Blog site. PowerPoint slides

Kristin Eschenfelder and Miriam Metzger led the group on an exploration of potential research agendas dealing with Internet Credibility and the User.

Summary of Research Agenda

Publications

• Final Report – to be presented to the MacArthur Foundation
• White Paper
• ARIST research paper
• Handbook for teaching / reaching (about credibility)

Potential journals for publishing individual Internet Credibility papers:

• Dlib
• Journal of Digital Information
• Information Research – most likely and probably the best publication for our purposes

Tools

• credibilitycommons.org
• Tagging for identity and relationships
• SIM search

Research

• Multi-method; overtime
• Collaborative filtering, group
• Triggers, individual motivation, social construct, affective
• Comparison of efficacy of tools
• Consequences over time / context
• Kids / adults
• Nature of information

Drawing on experience gained creating the Copyright Handbook; Rick Weingarten led the discussion on publishing a handbook for Internet Credibility. It was agreed upon that providing the user with scenarios where Internet Credibility was a potential issue would be the most effective means of presenting the reader with information. This technique was used in the Copyright Handbook.

Potential Handbook scenarios include:

1. College students that are researching a topic (or any level of students)
2. K-12 media / visual information
3. Is Pluto a planet or not?
4. When is citing a Blog appropriate or inappropriate
5. What does it mean to use a definition from Wikipedia
6. Medical rare disease conditions / senior citizens
7. Parenting children’s curiosity “What are knots in wood?”
8. Bias - MLK.org / Stormfront website
9. Web developer for government agencies?
10. Fraud? Email scams?
11. Online shopping?
12. Amazon and book reviews
13. Internet safety, identity, misrepresentation

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Internet Credibility and the User
Email: kruns@ischool.washington.edu
Web Address: http://www.ischool.washington.edu/credibility