Unfortunately, I suspect that when the Seattle Repertory Theater says "Pick 4 Plays. We'll Cover Parking," it's not a promise to provide me with a better location to lock my bike on rainy days.

Visited the ophthalmologist. Pleased to report my macula is immaculate.

How can we not use AI to fight climate change?

Ran Tang just posted a recap of a workshop series at @ufowa.uw.edu that ran earlier this year on troubleshooting in computational research design by Yibin Fan. Ran's post has some great ideas for anybody who'd like to borrow the model! blog.communitydata.science/troubleshoot...

Troubleshooting in Computational Research Design: Report from a Workshop Series

Visualization of the messy process that turns into the polished paper. Image generated by claude.ai. This winter quarter, a small group of CDSC students at the University of Washington participated…

blog.communitydata.science

So refreshing to talk with hacktivist and computer science professor Benj. Mako Hill, @mako.cc, about the distinctive dynamics of online collaboration. Many insights into corporate & political enclosures of digital commons, too. More on my 'Frontiers of Commoning' podcast: tinyurl.com/c56v62np

Benjamin Mako Hill on the Distinctive Dynamics of Online Collaboration | Frontiers of Commoning, with David Bollier

Benjamin Mako Hill has spent years studying the distinctive social dynamics and governance structures of collaborative websites, from open source software (GNU/Linux), wikis (Wikipedia), collaborative...

tinyurl.com

Broke my keyboard and thought I would dig out #75514, from one of the previous times this happened, from the QDB snapshot (RIP bash.org). mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Finally blogged about two papers led by @kayleachampion.bsky.social that show how taboo shapes the production of knowledge on @wikipedia.org. mako.cc/copyrighteou... It was the "not safe for work" work meeting for a couple of years. I miss it dearly.

copyrighteous

rebel with rather too many causes

mako.cc

May this serve as a corrective for all of us who have apparently been mispronouncing Google chatbot's name. (sound on)

Finally blogged about my paper (led by @zarine.net) that seeks to explain why Croatian Wikipedia spent a decade captured by a cabal of political extremists and became a site for Holocaust revisionism, while other similar Wikipedia languages seemed to have fared much better. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

I'm doing a talk and panel discussion for Open Knowledge Initiatives - India's "Future of the Commons" program tomorrow in honor of @wikipedia.org's 25th birthday. I'll be talking about some of my research on peer production projects' governance and lifecycles. Join me! foc.oki-india.org

Super interesting blog / paper with a core thesis - that people go to social communities for information, community, or reach, and that social networks generally can deliver only two of these. Good blog by the other Cory here: pluralistic.net/2026/02/16/f... (h/t @bnewbold.net)

Benjamin Mako Hill@mako.cc · 6mo ago

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist.cc) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Cory does a better job of explaining my research than I do. 😅

Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow – No trackers, no a…@pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy · 6mo ago

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper (led by @groceryheist.cc) that explains why people often engage in multiple groups with overlapping topic and membership, and which helps explain why competition between online groups seems to be rare. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Why do people participate in similar online communities?

Note: I have not published blog posts about my academic papers over the past few years. To ensure that my blog contains a more comprehensive record of my published papers and to surface these for f…

mako.cc

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an old paper led by @kayleachampion.bsky.social that developed a new method (forensic qualitative analysis) to understand the nature and value of @torproject.org users' contributions to @wikipedia.org. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Me: Do you want your coffee in a Japanese or Western style tea cup? M: Yunomi. Me: Apparently not as well as you think I do!

This is an interesting complement to the finding that even adding fair risk scores can increase human decision bias (dl.acm.org/citation.cfm...). Context matters and a priori prediction of human-algorithm compositional behavior is difficult.

Disparate Interactions | Proceedings of the Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency

You will be notified whenever a record that you have chosen has been cited.

dl.acm.org

Benjamin Mako Hill@mako.cc · 7mo ago

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an "old" paper led by @groceryheist.cc that uses data from a @wikipedia.org system to show how the introduction of a biased AI flagging system can still lead to more fairness because the humans without the system are even more biased. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

ICYMI: Finally blogged about an "old" paper led by @groceryheist.cc that uses data from a @wikipedia.org system to show how the introduction of a biased AI flagging system can still lead to more fairness because the humans without the system are even more biased. mako.cc/copyrighteou...

Effects of Algorithmic Flagging on Fairness: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Wikipedia

Note: I have not published blog posts about my academic papers over the past few years. To ensure that my blog contains a more comprehensive record of my published papers and to surface these for f…

mako.cc

I'm teaching a course on how to build great online communities and am hoping to pair up a few students with people who want to build, improve, grow, or change a new or existing online group. Drop a DM or email if you'd be interested in having one of my students consult (for free)!

Register to join me and @communitydata.science Friday (November 7) for our next free/public science of community dialogue on "The Impacts of Organizational Interventions in Open Source Software Engineering" with talks from Matt Gaughan and Igor Steinmacher: blog.communitydata.science/science-of-c...

Science of Community Dialogue: The Impacts of Organizational Interventions in Open Source Software Engineering

This dialogue will take place on November 7th at 12pm CT and will explore how free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) projects adapt their work processes to recruit new contribut…

blog.communitydata.science

Last chance to register for an event my research group (@communitydata.science) is organizing tomorrow on AI chatbots that respect privacy boundaries. Our own Hsuen-Chi (Hazel) Chiu will present along with @JasmineMcNealy. Join us! blog.communitydata.science/community-di...

Community Dialogue – AI Boundaries: Refusal and Privacy

Join the Community Data Science Collective (CDSC) for our 12th Science of Community Dialogue! This Community Dialogue will take place on October 17th, 2025 at 12:00 pm CT. This dialogue explores ho…

blog.communitydata.science

Interested in doing graduate research with me and the rest of @communitydata.science? My research group (now with faculty at six campuses!) is organizing a PhD and MS recruiting event and Q&A. Join us! Details and a registration link is here: blog.communitydata.science/prospective-...

Prospective PhD Student Q&A – September 26th

Thinking about applying to graduate school? Wonder what it’s like to pursue a PhD or M.S.? Interested in understanding relationships between technology and society? Curious about how to do research…

blog.communitydata.science

For the cover of my next book? Thanks @mako.cc‬ , who found this while biking, as in like pedaling-biking!, through a big chunk of Africa (pic taken en route into Nairobi from Ngong)

UW published this really nice article about my work on governance challenges and lifecycles faced by peer-produced online communities—the work supported by my NSF CAREER grant. Check it out if you want to know what I've been thinking about and working on!

The Challenge of Peer-Produced Websites | UW College of Arts & Sciences

Communication professor Benjamin Mako Hill studies why successful peer-produced websites (like Wikipedia) eventually struggle to maintain their openness to new contributors.

artsci.washington.edu

If you're in Denver for the International Communication Association's annual meeting, see work by and connect with CDSC people. @yibin.bsky.social, @callofdyuti.bsky.social, @mako.cc, Haomin Lin, and Jeremy Foote are all around! #ICA25 blog.communitydata.science/come-check-o...

Come check out the CDSC at ICA 75!

A number of our CDSC folks will be attending the 75th Annual International Communication Association Conference “Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research” in Denver, Colorado…

blog.communitydata.science

a new short research brief with @mako.cc and @aaronshaw.bsky.social synthesizes some of the work I presented at @communitydata.science Science of Community Dialogues back in April! zenodo.org/records/1560...

Last chance to register for this public event on online governance that my research group (@communitydata.science) is organizing tomorrow as part of our Science of Community Dialogues series.

@communitydata.science · last yr.

We're hosting another Community Dialogue discussing the Role of Community Governance with @zarine.net and @paulgowder.bsky.social on April 4th @ 12pm CT! You can learn more and register here: blog.communitydata.science/community-di...

The New Yorker says Wikipedia is a beacon of hope, with quotes from me and @mako.cc www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

Elon Musk Also Has a Problem with Wikipedia

Lately, Musk’s beef has merged with a general conviction on the right that the site is biased against conservatives.

newyorker.com

My current playlist is this diorama of Lulu the Piggy channeling Tupac Shakur in a toy vending machine in the basement of New World Mall in Flushing Chinatown.

While in Tokyo, nutritional epidemiologist @mikazilla.bsky.social realizes that "if I am what I eat..." The situation in Seoul is similar, albeit less fried and more confident.