Workshop: YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States, April 3-4, 2009

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

This workshop focuses on the impact of YouTube and Web 2.0 on the 2008 election cycle in the United States. It brings together scholar in Political Science, Computer Science, and related disciplines to examine this topic. At this time, most work concerning the impact of the web on politics is of an anecdotal matter. There does not exist agreed upon standards on how to approach this topic. One of the purposes of this workshop is to serve as a catalyst to develop baseline measures, metrics, integrative tools, and uniform repositories to facilitate the study of the impact of Web 2.0 on politics in a coherent manner. It will also serve to develop new teams and networks of scholars working on projects involving this subject matter. In addition, the research presented at and resulting from this workshop will demonstrate new technical and analytic opportunities and highlight where there is a need for more focusesd research and tool development. The results of the workshop might also be of interest to practioners.