User-Centered Social Media

Running 2015-2020.

The Research Training Group “User-Centred Social Media” (UCSM) is an interdisciplinary Research Training Group (Graduiertenkolleg) at the Department of Computer Science and Applied Cognitive Science of the University of Duisburg-Essen. This programme is funded by DFG and starts on October 1, 2015.

The emergence of Social Media marks a significant step in the application of information and communication technology with a profound impact on people, businesses, and society. Social Media constitute complex sociotechnical systems, encompassing potentially very large user groups, both in public and organizational contexts, and exhibiting features such as user-generated content, social interaction and awareness, and emergent functionality. While Social Media use is widespread and increasing, significant research gaps exist with respect to analyzing and understanding the characteristics and determinants of user behaviour, both at the individual and the collective level, as well as regarding the user-centered design of Social Media systems, aiming at empowering users to better appropriate, control and adapt systems for their individual goals. There is a growing demand in academia and in industry for scientifically trained experts that are knowledgeable both in the human-oriented and the technical aspects of Social Media.

More information can be found at the User-Centred Social Media Homepage.