Sérgio Nunes
@snunes.bsky.social
Professor at FEUP, University of Porto. Researcher at INESC TEC. Web, Media and Information.
I start a sabbatical research year this September, will be doing contacts for short visits (still open to invites). As automation of reasoning expands, the contributions expected from humans will also be more ambitious. August, calm before the storm.
The provocation for this talk was: "How can IR be a force for societal good?". I chose to begin by reflecting on one of IR's inconvenient truths: Our work is often motivated by grand ambitions about information access but IR has been a testing ground for user surveillance and attention farming. 5/
📣 Come visit us in Seville! Submit your work to the 2026 ECAT research workshop. Deadline 17 August 📣 #genAI #DSA #ECAT
ECAT Research Workshop 2026: Call for Contributions
ECAT is hosting its third annual research workshop in Seville on 25 November 2026, with a particular focus on how generative AI is changing platform design, user experiences and impacting systemic ris...
algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu
An IEEE conference has published a plagiarised version of a paper I wrote with @seph.bsky.social. I already reported it to the conference chairs and the IEEE Ethics Reporting Line 3 months ago, and nothing happened. Original: arxiv.org/abs/2409.14252 Plagiarised: ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/113...
Collaborative Text Editing with Eg-walker: Better, Faster, Smaller
Collaborative text editing algorithms allow several users to concurrently modify a text file, and automatically merge concurrent edits into a consistent state. Existing algorithms fall in two categori...
arxiv.org
#ECIR2027 is going to Southampton Football Club, England, UK in 2027! We encourage you to join us at www.ecir2027.co.uk and follow this page for updates. #IR #InformationRetrieval
Do you have a basic shared hosting plan? You can now host a #Fediverse instance on that plan. Check out #Starling: https://github.com/dfaria-eu/Starling #activitypub #Fediverse #LAMP #selfhosting
GitHub - dfaria-eu/Starling: Lightweight ActivityPub for small and independent servers.
Lightweight ActivityPub for small and independent servers. - dfaria-eu/Starling
github.com
#ECIR2026 again: Sérgio Nunes presented the #IRRJ paper "Evaluating Dense Model-based Approaches for Multimodal Medical Case Retrieval" https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5000-6333
Europe’s only Summer School on Informatics Education Research returns! 🚀 🗓 7–11 Sep '26, co-hosted by IE & @uofgcompsci.bsky.social 📍Glasgow, UK Join peers & experts from across Europe for a transformational experience in #InformaticsEducation research. Apply now⏩ tinyurl.com/32s4m8rt
I’ve been a journalist for 27 years. I’ve reported major stories about mass surveillance, torture, war, the military-industrial complex, police black sites, etc. But this is the most important story I’ve ever had the horror/honor to work on. For it is a story about the current phase of a genocide.
The Ghosts of Al-Shifa Hospital
Months into a supposed ceasefire in Gaza, doctors still have to smuggle in basic medical supplies—and treat new casualties of war.
wired.com
Here's where you go to tell GitHub that it can’t train CoPilot on your code & interactions: https://github.com/settings/copilot/features Just sayin’ #GenAI
Google is now screwing with the 10 blue links in traditional search and rewriting headlines - including ours - to be the worst kind of slop. This sucks so bad www.theverge.com/tech/896490/...
RE: https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/116261526543583522 The reason I joined the Android team in 2010, and that since 2008 I’ve carried Android not iOS devices, was that I could just download software. And other people could download mine. This new process is a massive breaking of faith with […]
Original post on cosocial.ca
cosocial.ca
I will try not to cry. Knowing it would happen doesn’t make it any less sucky. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
Whistleblower claims ex-DOGE member says he took Social Security data to new job
The Social Security inspector general’s office is investigating allegations that the former DOGE engineer took sensitive data on a thumb drive in a major potential security breach, said people familia...
washingtonpost.com
The presentations for the #IRRJ session at the at the 48th European Conference on Information Retrieval #ECIR2026 are now in the conference schedule at: https://ecir2026.eu/programme/program-schedule/program/detail/38/irrj-papers-presentations
IRRJ Papers Presentations
irrj papers presentations
ecir2026.eu
Have you tried to find a specific topic in a municipal meeting minute? Endless pages. Slow searches. And giving up halfway through? That’s where CitiLink comes in. Led by #INESCTEC, the project uses AI to transform dense municipal minutes into clear, searchable and meaningful data. 🖇️: t.ly/6BXIa
Greater transparency in local government decisions – CitiLink project puts AI at the service of democracy
The right of any citizen to access decisions taken in municipal council meetings, the main issues discussed, the way votes
t.ly
You don't have to dirty your soul to be a successful academic or a scientist. Have some fucking pride. Have some fucking principles. If you think you DO need to do that, all I can say is that I beg you not to go into academia or science.
🎓 Thinking about starting a PhD or taking your research career further? This could be your moment! The “la Caixa” Foundation has opened applications for 60 Doctoral INPhINIT Fellowships, and #INESCTEC may be one of the host institutions. 🔬 All the details here: bip.inesctec.pt/en/noticias/...
Dutch public broadcaster NOS quits X over disinformation reut.rs/3KpybRU
Dutch public broadcaster NOS quits X over disinformation
Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Tuesday said it had stopped posting on Elon Musk's social media platform X, as it said it did not want to facilitate the spreading of disinformation.
reut.rs
Cory Doctorow na #WebSummit: A Internet está uma m*rda. Que fazer? "Juntem-se a grupos de defesa de direitos digitais". A Gália não está toda ocupada, apenas parece. Muitos ainda resistem. 💪 «“Merdificação” em curso: porque é que a Internet está pior?» www.publico.pt/2025/11/19/p...
📣 If you are a researcher interested in studying the risks of online platforms, this is for you! 🧐 Check the FAQ here: algorithmic-transparency.ec.europa.eu/news/faqs-ds... ✍️Apply here: data-access.dsa.ec.europa.eu/home #DSA #Article40 #DataAccess
DSA - Data Access Portal
Empowering Researchers with unprecedented Data Access
data-access.dsa.ec.europa.eu
Henna Virkkunen@hennavirkkunen.wsocial.eu · 9mo agoAs of today, new rules under the #DSA give researchers access to data from very large online platforms and search engines to study their societal impact. Independent researchers will be able to analyse how platforms operate and assess the potential risks they pose to users.
📣THREAD: It’s surprising to me that so many people were surprised to learn that Signal runs partly on AWS (something we can do because we use encryption to make sure no one but you–not AWS, not Signal, not anyone–can access your comms). It’s also concerning. 1/
Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 10mo agoPSA: we're aware that Signal is down for some people. This appears to be related to a major AWS outage. Stand by.
The wind doesn’t blow this far right Some terrors are born out of nature Some terrors are born overnight Some terrors are born out of leaders With their eye on a different prize
Lisa O'Neill - The Wind Doesn't Blow This Far Right
YouTube video by Lisa O'Neill
youtube.com
In 1996, Brewster Kahle wrote "Preserving the Internet" for Scientific American. Nearly 30 years later, it’s striking how many of his predictions about digital preservation came true—and how many challenges remain. Let’s compare 1996 vs 2025 🧵
I thought something seemed off about the the image posted below: it's a photo that's been edited and colorized by AI. Please don't do that.
タイトー公式@taito.co.jp · 10mo ago最近どう？ あ、本日は #ダライアスお披露目の日 初代『ダライアス』が 1986年10月7日・8日に開催された 第24回AMショーにて 初めてお披露目された日 水棲生物をモチーフとした ボスキャラたちのデザインが 登場から人気でした🐳
![Comic. Panels up to the 10-year point are grayed out. New panels since the Ten Years comic, which chronicles the first ten years of PERSON 1's journey with cancer: (1) [two people in bed] PERSON 1 (woman): One more chapter? PERSON 2 (man): Don’t we both have to get up early? PERSON 1: Nnnnnggggh PERSON 2: Sure, good point. (2) [many people wearing masks, walking while looking at graphs on their phones] (3) [birds landing on people] PERSON 2 in beanie and scarf: Hah! They like *my* seeds best. PERSON 1 in scarf holding phone with a bird sitting on it: Wait, how do I take a picture of this one? (4) [two people rowing boats with tree landscape] (5) [Person 1 carries overflowing stack of things to Person 2 in bed] PERSON 1: I brought you honey lemon tea, more pillows, a cinnamon roll, Tylenol, another blanket, a– PERSON 2: It was just Appendicitis, I’m really– PERSON 1: *It is my turn to take care of you and I am going to do it right!* (6) [Two people in car] (7) [still in car) PERSON 1: Oh my god. PERSON 2: Oh my god. (8) [car driving] PERSON 1: Pull over! PERSON 2: I am! (9) [both people get out of car] (10) [Large colored panel of aurora borealis over water with both people looking on] (11) [Person 1 sits against tree while Person 2 lies on the ground] PERSON 1: Fifteen years. No sign of the cancer. (12) I *am* having some weird symptoms. Joint pain. Fatigue. I think I’m losing my close-up vision. PERSON 2: Yeah. Me too. (13) PERSON 2: I think we’re getting old. (14) PERSON 1: I guess that’s okay. PERSON 2: It’s all I wanted.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreihwhjblp5lyiwp63ouar7ocfea7evmckytoeo7rkfuoo4gw5rnrra)