Activists have long asked, “Is another world possible?”
We ask:
IS ANOTHER WEB POSSIBLE?
The technologies we build to communicate with one another have a significant impact on how we define, organize, and solve problems as a society.
Founded by Joan Donovan, PhD, CISI is an organization whose goal is two-fold. We detect, document, and debunk how our current internet infrastructure is exploited by those looking to disrupt social institutions and derail democracy. We also work with practitioners to coproduce a "Public Interest Internet," an infrastructure that would support the distribution of TALK (Timely Accurate Local Knowledge) and be responsive to community concerns.
CISI fosters knowledge mobilization with the goal of turning intelligence into action. This is through organizing advocacy to design a public interest internet: one that puts safety and privacy at the core of its design. In order to find different strategies to combat misinformation-at-scale and make a public interest internet possible, CISI implements unique public engagement projects with exceptional research collaborators and creative educational programs. We aim to generate a whole-of-society approach to combating hate, harassment, and incitement.
It’s no longer enough to point out what is wrong with technology and hope the message reaches key stakeholders. We must also build capacity across sectors – from journalism, civil society, academia, technology, to policymaking – so that we can develop institutional resilience and bring about the web we deserve.
Joan Donovan, PhD
Founder
Joan Donovan, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University. Dr. Donovan is a sociologist of knowledge, who examines internet and technology systems, online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns. She is the coauthor of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.
Dr. Donovan’s research explores how media manipulation is a means to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. She conducts research, develops methods, and facilitates workshops for journalists, policy makers, technologists, and civil society organizations on how to detect, document, and debunk media manipulation campaigns.
Dr. Donovan's research can be found in academic peer-reviewed journals such as Social Media + Society, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Information, Communication & Society, Social Studies of Science, and Online Information Review. Her contributions can also be found in the books, Data Science Landscape: Towards Research Standards and Protocols and Unlike Us Reader: Social Media Monopolies and Thier Alternatives. Dr. Donovan's research and expertise has been showcased in a wide array of media outlets including NPR, Washington Post, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, MIT Technology Review and more.
Prior to joining Boston University, Dr. Donovan was the Research Director at the Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy, where she led a world-class lab addressing media manipulation and disinformation's impact on public health, national security, and global politics. From 2017-2018, she was the Research Lead for Data & Society’s Media Manipulation Initiative, where she led a large team of researchers studying efforts to manipulate sociotechnical systems for political gain.
Dr. Donovan received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Science Studies from the University of California San Diego, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she studied white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology. Her post-doc research won awards in 2020 from the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Social Studies of Science.
She also co-created the beaver emoji 🦫.
Contact: Joan@publicinterestinter.net
On social media as BostonJoan
ALL donations support research and public education.