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Overview¶
Welcome to the Lab Manual for the Information Ecosystems Lab (InfoEco).
Our lab investigates the structure and dynamics of information ecosystems. An ecosystem is a social system that meets the following criteria:
Actors must exchange information. Just as natural ecosystems function around the exchange of energy, information ecosystems are those centered around the distribution of information.
It must be massive, think millions of actors, not just dozens.
It must be complex, with non-trivial social structure and heterogeneous actors
Its a broad category. The following can be considered information ecosystems:
The global institution of science
A social media website, such as Reddit
The official news
An open source software community
An example of relevant questions:
How does information spread and how do differences in social structure affect it? How do scientists find relevant work,
How do new LLM technologies affect their ability to stay up-to-date with the literature? - To what extent do malicious agents, such as misinformation bots, shape the discourse on social media? Questions like these are what we aim to understand.
Are there any types of institutions or technical changes that can foster a healthier information ecosystem, one where verified information can reach where it is needed most?
Using the docs¶
This site acts as a repository for useful information about the InfoEco Lab. Think of it as a lab manual. As you work in the lab, you will likely be tasked with adding or editing content. If you are new to the lab, please read the following pages: