Appearances:
In Discourse

Presenter: Sohan Dsouza
2024/NOV/26–2024/NOV/28
at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPIB), Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany
for the MPIB's Center for Humans and Machines (CHM)

This workshop will introduce researchers to different forms of and agents involved in manipulative practices on the internet; equip them with a basic open-source intelligence (OSINT) toolkit to investigate and gather data on these; and point them to resources for further study and practice.

The first section will cover the different features of adversaries – their typical profiles, goals, strategies, and tactics through different paths of manipulation. We will also look at some allies – individuals and organisations working to counter these adversaries; spreading awareness, education and media literacy; building tools; and establishing practices. We will then go over some definitions, terminology, and acronyms in common use within the community: CIB, MDM, astroturfing, influence operations, etc.

In the second section, we will go over investigation methods and tools.

• Uncovering and linking identities and identifiable information, starting with on-platform transparency features and third-party services for platforms like Facebook and Twitter/X.

• Advanced searches and other methods for finding links among content across platforms. This will include image content techniques and tools for reverse image search and image feature search off-platform to find content on-platform.

• Investigating and uncovering connections among websites, including source code scanning, scanning using browser tools, sitemap scanning, reverse analytics, and metadata scanning services.

• Detecting and investigating advertisements – both on websites; and on platforms, including Google/YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok.

• Geolocation, including analysis of satellite imagery, matching images, and more.

• Detecting media manipulation, including visual and computational analyses of images, audio, and video, and services for this purpose.

• Basic scripting and scraping using in-browser JavaScript and Python/Colab; relevant libraries, and third-party services.

• Useful native and third-party application programming interfaces for OSINT investigation.

• Investigation of and using financials, corporate directories, tax filings, and such.

• Web archive exploration, and archiving of evidence uncovered in investigation.

The third section will cover issues of concern outside of investigation methodology, including best practices and techniques for reporting and visualising findings from OSINT investigations; safety and privacy for investigators; current and expected laws and regulations surrounding online platform/service transparency, and investigative ethics. Interested participants may then avail of individual sessions to discuss situations or ambitions specific to them, and be accordingly offered pointers to resources most useful to them.

➤ MPIB Visting Researcher profile

Presenters: Snehalkumar ‘Neil’ S. Gaikwad, Sohan Dsouza, Oana Vuculescu, Andrew Mao, Iyad Rahwan
2017/JUL/10
at Maternushaus, Kardinal-Frings-Straße, 1 Cologne, Germany
for the International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) 2017

Historically, scientific experiments have been conducted at a small scale either with artificial environments or with the expertise of limited number of scientists. While social science literature investigates very deep questions to understand human behavior, many experiments are usually limited by the number of participants and duration of a study. On the contrary, computer science literature exploits advanced computational techniques to crunch voluminous datasets, but research designs are generally not experimental, which limits the opportunity to generate causal inferences.

In this tutorial, we demonstrate how crowdcomputing can enable computational social scientists to engage with millions of users on the Internet and study human behavior at scale for a longer time. We showcase pitfalls and lessons learned from various crowdcomputing and citizen science projects.

Furthermore, we provide insights about how to build a sustainable citizen science community to scale science beyond the traditional laboratories. We envisage this tutorial will help computational social scientists effectively use crowdcomputing to investigate deep research questions and longitudinally validate their hypotheses in large scale experiments.

➤ MIT Media Lab event page

➤ IC2S2 page on the tutorial

Presenters: Sohan Dsouza, Donald Derek Haddad, Pinar Yanardag Delul, Iyad Rahwan
2016/AUG/29–2016/SEP/02
at Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, UAE
with the MIT Media Lab, Wamda, Community Jameel, and IDEO

Cities are rising at a fast pace. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has seen this with Dubai, and shortly after, Masdar City. In the meantime, millions of refugees are being displaced within cities throughout the UK, Europe, Middle East, and beyond, with nowhere to live and no infrastructure to support basic daily needs. How do we rebuild and redesign an ancient city like Damascus, while maintaining and honoring its history? In order to accommodate these needs we have to develop innovative approaches to urban planning, design, architecture, mobility, agriculture, and so much more.

From August 29 to September 2, the MIT Media Lab, Community Jameel and Wamda will come together to convene 30+ designers, engineers, scientists, and artists at Alserkal Avenue in Dubai. The goal is to bring together a vast range of skill sets, cultures, and areas of expertise to tackle big questions and prototype designs during a multi-day workshop focusing on redefining cities. Building strong relationships within a community of entrepreneurs and technologists who are able to build, redesign, and prototype for a future that is undeniably urban, in the process. Attendees will have a chance to build new prototypes while receiving advice and mentorship from MIT Media Lab faculty, such as Iyad Rahwan, associate professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab; J. Philipp Schmidt, director of learning innovation at the MIT Media Lab; and Ashley Shaffer, design researcher at IDEO, who is also supporting with on-the-ground organization and facilitation of the workshop. At the end of the week, each working group will present findings and outcomes. Ideally, some of the projects will be deployed with the help of regional collaborators.

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Track 2: Digital tools for a cooperative society
Teams will investigate regional urban ecosystems facing a youth bulge and a shifting social and political landscape. They will work on finding ways to motivate citizens to collaborate while building communities. Topics will include safety, infrastructure, conservation, commerce, and education.

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➤ MIT Media Lab event page

➤ Workshop announcement at Wamda News

2016/JUL/07–2016/JUL/15
in Hyderabad+Mumbai+Nashik, India
with the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) programme for India

JULY 2016 - THE MIT TEAM VISITED HYDERABAD, MUMBAI, AND NASHIK

The team visited Hyderabad, Mumbai and Nashik.  

Innovators gathered at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad to focus on imaging the eye with vast implications for predictive health and health in the emerging world.

We met with collaborators at the We School, Mumbai (Welingkar School of Management) to brainstorm pressing challenges to impact billions of lives.

We visited the newly opened innovation center, DISQ Digital Impact Square in Nashik, met with innovators, synced on current projects, and ran an in depth brainstorming session.

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Sohan Dsouza - MIT Scientist - Scalable Cooperation

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➤ Post at Emerging Worlds about the team and workshop series