Dear colleagues, Along with my AoIR Ethics Working Group co-chairs, Charles Ess and Anja Bechmann, I am excited to announce the Web Science 2018 Ethics Workshop: “Confronting Ethical Challenges in Web Science Research“, scheduled for Sunday 27 May 2018 at VU Amsterdam. https://websci18ethicsworkshop.wordpress.com/ This half-day workshop, organized by the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Ethics Working Group in partnership with the PERVADE: Pervasive Data Ethics project, will foster community engagement with the ethical challenges faced by web science researchers working with big data sources, including from social media platforms, health apps, internet of things, and related pervasive data sets. The growing prevalence of data-rich networked information technologies, such as the internet of things, wearable devices, ubiquitous sensing, and social sharing platforms, brings a similar increase in the flow of rich, deep, and often identifiable personal information. These data flows— across devices, platforms, and between users—are increasingly available to computational and web science researchers to capture and process to discover new insights about how all these domains intersect. The growth in the scale, scope, speed, and depth of data-intensive computational activities, however, requires that we continuously confront the ethical frameworks and assumptions that guide web science research agenda now, and in the future. The Web Science 2018 Ethics Workshop builds on substantive lessons learned and insights gained from recent workshops organized by the AoIR Ethics Working Group in Aarhus, Denmark, Tartu, Estonia, and Oslo, Norway. Call for Papers and Participation: https://websci18ethicsworkshop.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/ ** Participants need not submit papers or cases to attend the workshop — all are welcome to attend and contribute to the conversation! We are accepting two types of submissions for participation in this workshop: Position Papers: Position papers should focus on an ethical challenge in web science research, as introduced above, including but not limited to: (a) in-depth discussion of one’s research that brought unique ethical dilemmas to bear, and how such concerns were (or might be) addressed; (b) research studies specifically related to ethics in the web science community; or (c) description of a particular approach to research ethics and/or resolving ethical concerns within the web science context. Position papers should be no more than 5-8 pages and should be submitted in ACM double-column format. Accepted papers will be included in the WebSci’18 Workshop Proceedings. Case Studies: Case studies should be no more than 3 pages, and include the description of (real or hypothetical) cases that present particular ethical challenges among web science researchers. Cases will not be included in the workshop proceedings, but if accepted will be shared on the workshop website for other participants. Submission Instructions Position Papers must be formatted according to the official ACM SIG Conference Proceedings. See http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template (From the zip files provided, please select the SIGCONF version.) All submissions should be emailed to websci18ethicsworkshop@gmail.com. The submission deadline is Sunday 25 February 2018 at 20:00 EST. Important Dates • Sunday 25 February 2018 – Submission deadline • Sunday 25 March 2018 – Notification of acceptance • Sunday 29 April 2018 – Camera-ready papers due for WebSci’18 Workshop Proceedings (Position Papers only) • Sunday 27th May 2018 – Workshop date We hope to see many of you there! Workshop Organizers Michael Zimmer, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, USA Charles Ess, University of Oslo, Norway Anja Bechmann, Aarhus University, Denmark -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu<mailto:zimmerm@uwm.edu> w: www.michaelzimmer.org<http://www.michaelzimmer.org>