[Air-L] WhatsApp methodologies and platform frameworks

[Cherry Mathew Philipose]

Hi Padmini

Recently I attended a talk by Dr. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru
<https://www.iiitd.ac.in/pk> (PK) of IIIT, Delhi. He had/has a couple of
interesting Online Social Network (OSN) Projects and the latest in the list
I think is the problem of WhatsApp forwards. In India particularly, the
forwards have revealed their potential to instigate mob violence and even
lynching. He displayed a WhatsApp number to which he said if people forward
those messages which they think are fake, then PK's team will analyse and
get back.

I tweeted about it and you can see it by clicking here
<https://twitter.com/cherrymp/status/1021991328572493826>.

PK's research group keeps a web resource page for sharing all the OSN study
resources that they use which can be seen by clicking here
<http://precog.iiitd.edu.in/resources.html>.

I am marking a copy of this mail to PK as well so that in case you or he
can get in touch with each other and take this forward.

One of the challenges of getting hold of WhatsApp messages is the
end-to-end encryption that the platform uses. Unless your data respondents
are willing to share the forwards with you, I don't think you will be able
to get any.

Like PK you can also think of a WhatsApp number to which your participants
can forward the messages. That's my suggestion.

Thanks for listening.

Best,

Cherry Mathew Philipose
Assistant Professor of English
SSN College of Engineering
Kalavakkam - 603 110

On Fri, 3 Aug 2018 at 19:25, Padmini Ray Murray <p.raymurray at srishti.ac.in>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I have two queries:
> a. Has anyone had success with studying WhatsApp -- especially what
> motivates users to share and forward content? If so, what sort of
> methodologies worked?
> b. I am working on a research project looking at ethics frameworks for
> digital platforms - if you have any suggestions for examples of existing
> platforms and open source communities, consultancies (business and
> developmental), research institutes or social enterprises that have
> demonstrated best practice in governance models and foundational
> principles, I'd love to know.
>
> Thanks so much,
>
> All best,
> Padmini.
> ---
> Padmini Ray Murray, PhD
> Digital Humanities,
> Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology,
> Bangalore.
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-- 
*best regards*

Cherry Mathew Philipose, PhD