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David R. Karger. Zhang, Amy Xian. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2020-03-09T18:58:57Z 2020-03-09T18:58:57Z 2019 2019 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124122 1142634456 This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2019 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 285-316). The internet was supposed to democratize discussion, allowing people from all walks of life to communicate with each other at scale. However, this vision has not been fully realized--instead online discourse seems to be getting worse, as people are increasingly drowning in discussion, with much of it unwanted or unpleasant. In this thesis, I present new systems that empower discussion participants to work collectively to bring order to discussions through a range of curation tools that superimpose richer metadata structure on top of standard discussion formats. These systems enable the following new capabilities: 1) recursive summarization of threaded forums using Wikum, 2) teamsourced tagging and summarization of group chat using Tilda, 3) fine-grained customization of email delivery within mailing lists using Murmur, and 4) friendsourced moderation of messages against online harassment using Squadbox. In a world of abundant discussion and mass capabilities for amplification, the curation of a social space becomes as equally essential as content creation in defining the nature of that space. By putting more powerful techniques for curation in the hands of everyday people, I envision a future where end users are empowered to actively co-create every aspect of their online discussion environments, bringing in their nuanced and contextual insights. by Amy Xian Zhang. Ph.D. Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 316 pages eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Systems for collective human curation of online discussion Thesis application/pdf 2020-03-09T18:58:56Z Publication Doctoral EECS unknown unknown <Publication xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/1.1/" id="92ebcf3e-f275-4135-914e-b03791bbc0d9"> <Type xmlns="https://www.openaire.eu/cerif-profile/vocab/COAR_Publication_Types">http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843</Type> <Language>eng</Language> <Title>Systems for collective human curation of online discussion</Title> <PublishedIn> <Publication> </Publication> </PublishedIn> <PublicationDate>2019</PublicationDate> <Authors> <Author> <DisplayName>Zhang, Amy Xian.</DisplayName> <Affiliation> <OrgUnit> </OrgUnit> </Affiliation> </Author> </Authors> <Editors> </Editors> <Publishers> <Publisher> <DisplayName>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DisplayName> <OrgUnit /> </Publisher> </Publishers> <License>http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582</License> <Keyword>Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.</Keyword> <Abstract>The internet was supposed to democratize discussion, allowing people from all walks of life to communicate with each other at scale. However, this vision has not been fully realized--instead online discourse seems to be getting worse, as people are increasingly drowning in discussion, with much of it unwanted or unpleasant. In this thesis, I present new systems that empower discussion participants to work collectively to bring order to discussions through a range of curation tools that superimpose richer metadata structure on top of standard discussion formats. These systems enable the following new capabilities: 1) recursive summarization of threaded forums using Wikum, 2) teamsourced tagging and summarization of group chat using Tilda, 3) fine-grained customization of email delivery within mailing lists using Murmur, and 4) friendsourced moderation of messages against online harassment using Squadbox. In a world of abundant discussion and mass capabilities for amplification, the curation of a social space becomes as equally essential as content creation in defining the nature of that space. By putting more powerful techniques for curation in the hands of everyday people, I envision a future where end users are empowered to actively co-create every aspect of their online discussion environments, bringing in their nuanced and contextual insights.</Abstract> <Access xmlns="http://purl.org/coar/access_right" > </Access> </Publication>