Using diversity as a source of scientific innovation for the Web

The Web has become a resource that allows us to make sense of social phenomena around the world. This started the moment users became content creators, and has grown with the emergence of social platforms tailored to our need to connect and share with others. Throughout my work, I’ve come to appreciate how social media has democratized access to real-world news and social sentiment, while also witnessing the loss of trust created by fake information. As a computer scientist from Chile in Latin America, I have worked on a range of problems that were driven by local needs. Many times, I have tried to apply state of the art solutions to well-known problems, only to find that these don’t work outside of their initial evaluation dataset. In this talk, I’ll discuss how geographical, language, and social diversity have opened new avenues for innovation and better understanding the social Web. I’ll also show that to truly create useful technological solutions, we must develop inclusive research and resources.