The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) serves as a hub for

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several fields such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, economi ...

research, combining social and computer science to explore information, communication, and technology. It is an integral part of the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

's Social Sciences Division in England.

Overview

The OII is spread across three locations on

St Giles Saint Giles (, , , , ; 650 - 710), also known as Giles the Hermit, was a hermit or monk active in the lower Rhône most likely in the 7th century. Revered as a saint, his cult became widely diffused but his hagiography is mostly legendary. A ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, with its main hub at 1 St Giles, owned by

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

. This department focuses on exploring digital life to influence Internet research, policy, and usage. Founded in 2001, the OII explores how the Internet affects lives of people. Since 2021 its director is Professor Victoria Nash.

Research

Research at the OII covers a diverse range of topics, with faculty publishing journal articles and books on issues including

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

e-government E-government (known for electronic government) involves utilizing technology devices, such as computers and the Internet, for faster means of delivering public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offer ...

and

e-democracy E-democracy (a blend of the terms Electronic publishing, electronic and democracy), also known as digital democracy or Internet democracy, uses information and communication technology (ICT) in politics, political and governance processes. The ...

virtual economies A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergence, emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). Peop ...

smart cities A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

, digital exclusion,

digital humanities Digital humanities (DH) is an area of scholarly activity at the intersection of computing or Information technology, digital technologies and the disciplines of the humanities. It includes the systematic use of digital resources in the humanitie ...

, online gaming,

big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

and Internet geography. The OII currently has the following research clusters reflecting the diverse expertise of faculty: * Digital Politics and Government * Information Governance, and Security * Social Data Science * Connectivity, Inclusion, and Inequality * Internet Economies * Digital Knowledge and Culture * Education, Digital Life, and Wellbeing * Ethics and Philosophy of Information The research conducted at the OII covers a wide range of topics in Internet studies and the social impact of online technologies. Online politics, online education, social media and mental health, Internet-based collaboration, online dating, digital economy, the geography of the internet, and ethical and legal aspects of online technologies are among the main research topics followed at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Studies of Wikipedia

OII has published several studies on Internet geography and Wikipedia. In November 2011,

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Data Blog published maps of

geotagged Geotagging, or GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RgSSfeeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. This data ...

Wikipedia articles written in English,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian, or simply as Masri, is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic variety in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt. The esti ...

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

and

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

. OII researcher Mark Graham led the study and published the results on his blog, ''Zero Geography''. Graham also leads an OII project focused on how new users are perceived, represented, and incorporated into the Wikipedia community. In 2013, OII researchers led by

Taha Yasseri Taha Yasseri (born 6 September 1984) is a physicist and sociologist known for his research on crowdsourcing, collective intelligence and computational social science. He is a full professor at the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy at Tri ...

published a study of controversial topics in 10 different language versions of Wikipedia, using data related to "edit wars". The OII has also been involved in research on the effects of

computational propaganda Computational propaganda is the use of computational tools (algorithms and automation) to distribute misleading information using social media networks. The advances in digital technologies and social media resulted in enhancement in methods of pro ...

, the ethics of big data in different contexts, and the political implications of the Internet and social media. It collaborates with other institutions of the University of Oxford such as the

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) is a UK-based research centre and think tank founded in 2006, which operates Thomson Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme, also known as the Reuters Fellowship. History The institute ...

, the

Department of Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

, and the

Oxford Martin School The Oxford Martin School is a research and policy unit based in the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. It was founded in June 2005 as the James Martin 21st Century School and is located in the original building of the Indian ...

. In 2020, OII researcher

Fabian Stephany Fabian may refer to: People * Fabian (name), including a list of people with the given name or surname * Pope Fabian (died 250), Catholic saint * Fabian Forte (born 1943), 1950s American teen idol, singer and actor, known by the mononym Fabian * ...

and his colleague Hamza Salem published a study on using information-seeking behaviour patterns of Wikipedia users to predict US congressional elections. Their model accurately predicted the election outcome for 31 of 35 states in the

2020 United States Senate elections The 2020 United States Senate elections were held on November 3, 2020, with the 33 Classes of United States senators#Class 2, class 2 seats of the U.S. Senate, Senate contested in regular elections. Of these, 21 were held by Republican Party (U ...

Studies of Internet Economics

Several researchers at the OII study the digital economy. The OII is home of the Online Labour Index (OLI), the first

economic indicator An economic indicator is a statistic about an Economics, economic activity. Economic indicators allow analysis of economic performance and predictions of future performance. One application of economic indicators is the study of business cycles. ...

measuring the activity of the global online

gig-economy The gig economy is the economic system by which a workforce of people (known as gig workers) engage in freelance and/or side-employment. Description The gig economy is composed of corporate entities, workers and consumers. The Internal Reven ...

, which was created and is administered by the OII researchers

Otto Kässi Otto is a masculine German given name and a Otto (surname), surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name i ...

Vili Lehdonvirta Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and Professor of Technology Policy at the Department of Computer Science, Aalto University. He is also a senior ...

, and

. The index is a globally recognised reference for the measurement of the online freelance economy. Since 2021, the Online Labour Index is hosted on a new research hub, the Online Labour Observatory jointly administered by the OII and the

International Labour Organisation The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

. In 2020, OII researchers initiated the CoRisk Index, the first

of industry

risk assessment Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...

s related to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

Teaching

Since 2006, the OII has offered a

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

(doctoral) degree in "Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences." Since 2009, it has offered a one-year

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

(MSc) degree in "Social Science of the Internet". From 2015, prospective students can apply to study the MSc degree part-time over two years. In addition, the department also runs an annual Summer Doctoral Programme which brings outstanding PhD students to study at the OII for two weeks each July. From 2018, prospective students also have the option to apply for a one-year Master of Science degree in Social Data Science with the related DPhil in Social Data Science available from 2020 onward.

History

The Oxford Internet Institute was made possible by a major donation from the Shirley Foundation of over £10m, with public funding totalling over £5m from the

Higher Education Funding Council for England The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engl ...

. The idea originated with Derek Wyatt MP and Andrew Graham, then Master-Elect of Balliol. Two Balliol Alumni, who knew Dame Stephanie from The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, persuaded Dame Stephanie to meet Andrew Graham and it was following their meeting that she agreed to give the idea her support.

Directors

* Andrew Graham Acting (2001–2002) * William H. Dutton (2002–2011) *

Helen Margetts Helen Zerlina Margetts (born 15 September 1961), is Professor of Internet and Society at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford and from 2011 to 2018 was Director of the OII. She is currently Director of the Public Policy Prog ...

(2011–2018) * Philip N. Howard (2018–2021) * Victoria Nash (2021–present)

Faculty

Luciano Floridi Luciano Floridi (; born 16 November 1964) is an Italian and British philosopher. He is the director of the Digital Ethics Center at Yale University. He is also a Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna ...

* Philip N. Howard *

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (born 1966) is Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He conducts research into the network economy. Earlier he spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard's ...

Gina Neff Gina Neff is the executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge. Neff was previously Professor of Technology & Society at the Oxford Internet Institute and the Department of Sociology at the ...

* Sandra Wachter

OII awards

For its 10th anniversary, the OII launched the OII awards for lifetime achievement on the internet research field and the Internet & Society awards for significant recent contribution to develop the internet for public good.OII Awards , OII Awards
. Blogs.oii.ox.ac.uk (18 July 2013). Retrieved 2014-04-12.

References

External links

Oxford Internet Institute website
{{coord , 51.7578, -1.2595, type:edu_region:GB-OXF, display=title 2001 establishments in England Research institutes established in 2001 Internet Institute Internet Institute Balliol College, Oxford Information technology research institutes Internet in England