Research Collaborative 2024

TSF’s second annual Research Collaborative will build on last year’s event, Co-Designing Research to Benefit Online Moderators. This year’s Collaborative will be centered around co-design in a much more applied way. It will consist of three private virtual sessions and a final public virtual session. Private sessions will bring together community and content moderators, researchers, and civil society experts. The culminating public session will be free and open to everyone (registration required). 

The application for the private sessions has closed. Stay tuned for date and time information for the public session!

Who can join?

Qualifying participants for our private sessions include individuals 18 years of age or older who are:

  • Online moderators engaged in the daily tasks of frontline digital moderation either by virtue of their employment (for example, paid content moderators who work at a platform or for a BPO) and/or their community involvement (for example, volunteer community moderators who contribute to Wikipedia, Reddit, Discord, etc.);
  • Academic researchers whose research agendas focus on online moderation;
  • Industry researchers whose research agendas focus on online moderation and/or are employed by platforms that rely on frontline digital moderation performed by humans; 
  • Civil society experts with evidenced expertise and/or experience in working with/for online moderators.

Our private sessions are not intended for policymakers, members of the press, and/or individuals who have not in the past and/or are not currently involved in research related to online moderation. Individuals who have past experience as a moderator but who do not currently meet the criteria listed above do not qualify for our private sessions.

If you meet the criteria above and want to participate in our private sessions, you can apply here. The application deadline is September 6, 2024. Decision notifications will be communicated to applicants by September 20, 2024.  

If you would like a registration invitation for our public session (free and open to everyone), please email us.

Why is TSF hosting the Collaborative again?

Last year’s Collaborative resulted in both informal and formal connections and collaborations between individuals and stakeholder groups that may not have arisen organically or on their own—as well as new resources, like the Online Moderation Zotero Library. And it was a lot of fun!

Continued goals from last year’s Collaborative include providing an opportunity for:

  • Online moderators to meet with one another, share their expertise, experiences, and stories, and leverage their collective power to advocate for research that centers their needs;
  • Academic, industry, and civil society researchers who are working in this space to meet with one another, share their expertise and resources, and establish connections for potential informal or formal future collaborations;
  • Online moderators, researchers, and civil society experts to have discussions about the kinds of research that moderators would like to see conducted about them and their work.

New goals for this year’s event include:

  • Build on the relationships, insights, and collaborations established last year;
  • Ideate and agree on executable plans for creating resources that benefit online moderators, researchers, and/or research about moderation;
  • Determine the future of the Collaborative. 

What’s the schedule of events?

Note: The anticipated timeframe for the Collaborative is October – December 2024. Exact dates and times will be added in the coming weeks. 

Time Commitment

Collaborative participants should expect to devote a minimum of 6 – 8 hours and a maximum of 10 – 12 hours to the event. This time commitment will include the following activities:

  • New participants will be asked to complete a survey (estimated time 10 – 15 minutes);
  • All participants will be asked to review a brief introduction to co-design (estimated time 30 – 45 minutes);
  • All participants will be asked to attend three 60 minute private sessions (180 minutes);
  • In addition to the sessions listed below, participants will be expected to meet with their co-design teams (estimated time 60 – 90 minutes). 
  • All participants will be invited to attend and/or present at the closing public session (60 minutes);
  • All participants will be invited to complete a follow-up survey after the closing public session (estimated 10 -15 minutes).

Note: If you cannot meet the expectations noted above, please do not apply to participate in the Collaborative’s private sessions. For co-design to work, all stakeholders need to fully engage in the process and honor each other’s commitments.

Session 1: Date & Time TBD (Private, Invite-Only)

The first session will be private, invite-only and dedicated to introductions, a quick review of co-design, team selection, and framing the problem(s).

Session 2: Date & Time TBD (Private, Invite-Only)

The second session will be private, invite-only and be dedicated to co-design teams sharing their initial ideas and receiving feedback.

Session 3: Date & Time TBD (Private, Invite-Only)

The third session will be private, invite-only and dedicated to co-design teams sharing their final idea and receiving feedback. We will also discuss next steps for the public session and the future of the Collaborative.

Session 4: Date & Time TBD (Public, Registration Required)

The fourth and final session will be free and open to everyone (registration required). During this session, co-design teams will share their projects and receive feedback. We will also vote on which projects to pursue.

FAQs

How do I get involved?

Note: If you cannot meet the time commitments outlined above, please do not ask to participate in the private sessions. You are, however, more than welcome to email us with ideas and/or join the public session.

  • If you want to participate in our private sessions, you can apply here. The application deadline is September 6, 2024. Decision notifications will be communicated to applicants by September 20, 2024.  
  • If you would like a registration invitation for our public session (free and open to everyone), please email us.

What are the expected deliverables or outcomes?

TSF will publish a public report (under Chatham House Rule), sharing the conversations and outcomes of the Collaborative. 

The Collaborative may also produce a range of other deliverables, depending on the stakeholder groups and individual participants involved and their wants and needs. Some possible deliverables could include: a private, password protected list of shared contact information for future conversations and collaborations, a private or public list of resources (including academic literature) related to the topic, a microsite featuring the design concepts created by participants. 

TSF expects this event to result in two specific outcomes: (1) executable plans for creating resources that benefit online moderators, researchers, and/or research about moderation; (2) a clear path for the future of the Collaborative. Additional outcomes will be determined by Collaborative participants.

Will online moderators be compensated for their time?

Yes. In our experience, the majority of researchers and civil society experts participate in the Collaborative as a part of their full-time employment (they are indirectly paid for this work) and/or they are incentivized to participate in these kinds of activities as either professional development or as a way to further existing projects. Online moderators, however, participate in the Collaborative either in their role as volunteer or community (unpaid) moderators or as commercial content (paid) moderators outside of their working hours. Therefore, this year, we are leveraging a generous donation to compensate moderators for their time. If you are accepted to participate, you will learn more about compensation ahead of the first session.

How many people can participate?

In total, we will invite a maximum of 40 participants. However, we will prioritize balancing invited participants so that all stakeholder groups are represented and so that online moderators are not out-numbered by researchers and/or civil society experts.