Abstract: Social computing researchers increasingly need to question the nature of "truth" in our day-to-day work. In this talk, I’ll review ideas from philosophy, especially social epistemology, to give us practical, working definitions of "truth" and "knowledge." I'll apply these ideas to explain why a popular Wikipedia page is arguably the most reliable form of information ever created. Finally, I’ll explain how these ideas help us to be better social computing researchers, and more thoughtfully address controversies about what kind of content is appropriate.

Bio: Amy Bruckman is Professor and Senior Associate Chair in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on social computing, with interests in collaboration, social movements, content moderation, and internet research ethics. Bruckman is chair of the ACM CSCW Steering Committee. She is an ACM Fellow and a member of the ACM CHI Academy. Bruckman received her Ph.D. from the MIT Media in 1997, and a B.A. in physics from Harvard University in 1987. Her book “Should You Believe Wikipedia?” is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2021.