#wirvsvirus — Public Fediverse posts

In crises, people naturally self-organize by helping in their communities, volunteering, or working with professionals. Technology plays a crucial role in crisis management and volunteering, with tools like social media and specialized software, such as COVID tracing apps, facilitating collaboration. The PhD thesis of Steffen Haesler explores how individuals spontaneously volunteer during crises, utilizing both familiar and new technologies for disaster response. It addresses the challenge of technological dependence when ICT infrastructure fails or becomes overloaded during crises. The focus is on designing resilient, user-friendly technology aligned with people’s mental models and capabilities.

Beyond traditional crisis support, the thesis examines caregiving and mental health needs, employing quantitative and qualitative methods, human-centred design principles, and user studies. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in digitization and showcased innovative solutions from tech-savvy volunteers. Decentralized communication technologies like Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) are proposed to enhance neighborhood resilience by reducing reliance on distant servers.

On Wednesday, September 18, 2024, Steffen Haesler successfully defended his PhD thesis, marking the final milestone towards achieving his Dr. rer. nat. degree at the Department of Computer Science at Technical University of Darmstadt.

The entire PEASEC team extends its heartfelt congratulations to our new Dr. rer. nat. Steffen Haesler!

His dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter, who also acted as first referee. Prof. Dr. Carman Neustaedter (Simon Fraser University, Canada) served as second referee. Prof. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Hollick (Secure Mobile Networks) and Prof. Dr. Jan Gugenheimer (Human-Computer Interaction) joined the examination committee.

Citizens in Crises: Behavior, Dependencies, and Technological Support of Digital Self-Organization

In times of crisis, individuals spontaneously engage in various forms of self-organization, whether within their neighborhoods, by volunteering, or alongside professional responders. Technology is established in crisis volunteering and management, with people using tools to collaborate, such as social media or integrating new software for disaster response, exemplified by COVID tracing apps. However, this dependence on technology hinders reliable digital actions because of common disruptions or overload of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure during crises.

This thesis addresses digitized crisis handling of individuals regarding resilience, usability, and social integration by supporting decentralized concepts of connectivity. It explains why neighborhoods are important as a cell of self-organization, how to integrate public warnings in smart homes to create an environment of resilience locally, and how volunteering encapsulates digital actions. As people are vulnerable in a crisis and have limited mental capacities, it is not only about the resilience of used tools but also about having a human-centered perspective on technology by ensuring usability and acceptance through integrity, integrating social structures, and trust.

Findings show that decentralized communication protocols can uphold collaboration during disruptions and have advantages within the scope of neighborhoods, which match both technical dependencies of protocols like disruption-tolerant networks (DTN) and established social behavior of digital self-organization in crises. Complementary smart homes have the potential to enhance resilience further by not only integrating public warning messages but also allowing for automation as a direct crisis reaction. The works conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate how volunteers from the tech community introduce innovative solutions to mitigate crisis effects. Harnessing the technological expertise within civil society is a vital aspect of crisis volunteering that should be supported. Based on these findings, a human-centered design approach suggests a resilient neighborhood environment that empowers and supports self-organization. Overall, this thesis advocates for the central role of digital resilience as a holistic concept surrounding citizens.

Selected Publications within the PhD thesis:

Projects:

https://peasec.de/2024/promotion-dr-haesler/

#WirVsVirus

Navigating the complex digital information landscape is increasingly challenging due to the overabundance of both reliable and false information, especially on social media. Technologies to help users navigate within this information have the potential to have a positive impact on users‘ abilities to handle the situation. Katrin Hartwig’s thesis Navigating Misinformation: User-Centered Design and Evaluation of Indicator-Based Digital Interventions focuses on user-centred digital misinformation interventions, such as smartphone apps and browser plug-ins, to help users manage misinformation in various forms. It employs a human-centred design approach to analyse and categorise existing interventions systematically, as well as to design new interventions and evaluate their effectiveness through user studies. Key findings include the identification of valuable and comprehensible indicators for different content modalities (text, audio, video), designing and testing a simulated TikTok app, and recognising both the potential and limitations of these interventions, such as users‘ blind trust in them. The research also offers insights into the transferability of these findings to cybersecurity contexts.

On Wednesday, August 28, 2024, Katrin Hartwig successfully defended her PhD thesis, which marks the final milestone towards achieving her Dr.-Ing. degree at the Department of Computer Science at Technical University of Darmstadt.

The entire PEASEC team extends its heartfelt congratulations to our new *Dr.-Ing.* Katrin Hartwig!

Her dissertation was supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Christian Reuter, who also acted as first referee. Prof. Dr. Amanda Lee Hughes (Brigham Young University, USA) served as second referee. Prof. Dr. Justus Thies (3D Graphics & Vision) and Prof. Dr. Martin Steinebach (Media Security and IT Forensics) joined the examination committee.

Navigating Misinformation: User-Centered Design and Evaluation of Indicator-Based Digital Interventions

Informed navigation of the complex digital information realm constitutes a major challenge for society and individuals, which is constantly growing due to the overabundance of reliable and false information. This includes dealing with misinformation on social media, a central source of information procurement and exchange, in everyday life and in times of crisis. Complementing efforts like educational measures in classrooms or critical journalism, the research field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) suggests digital misinformation interventions as a user-centered countermeasure.

This dissertation provides (1) a structured understanding of the state-of-the-art of misinformation interventions within a developed taxonomy. This encompasses diverse intervention designs, active and passive user interaction types that do or do not require an engagement of the user with the intervention, and various timings. The dissertation demonstrates that the current research is mostly U.S.-based, addresses higher-educated participants, and particularly targets platforms like Twitter/X and Facebook. There is a lack of research regarding trending platforms that focus particularly on multimodal content and are highly relevant for specific user groups. It further highlights trends toward transparent and comprehensible interventions in contrast to top-down approaches.

The findings informed (2) the design, implementation, and evaluation of a simulated smartphone app for TikTok, an intervention for misleading voice messages, and a web app for Twitter/X content as indicator-based interventions. Therefore, (3) the dissertation identified user-centered misinformation indicators for various modalities that were perceived as useful and comprehensible by adult and adolescent participants in empirical studies. The dissertation empirically demonstrates that (4) indicator-based interventions are positively received overall, particularly due to their transparency in contrast to less comprehensible top-down approaches. However, they also come with severe limitations and challenges, such as users’ blind trust and lack of realistic assessments of potential errors or biases. This research outlines chances, limitations, and implications for future research on misinformation interventions.

Selected Publications within the PhD thesis:

Projects:

https://peasec.de/2024/promotion-dr-hartwig/

#WirVsVirus

Könnt ihr euch noch an #WirVsVirus oder #WeVsClimateCrisis erinnern?

Bekommen wir ein #WeForEducatiion als nationalen #Hackaton auf die Beine gestellt, um mithilfe der #Bildung und #Digitalisierung rechter Hetze und populistischen #FakeNews im Netz etwas entgegenzusetzen. #NetzVerbindet trennt nicht!

@derPUPE

Vom #wirvsvirus Hackathon bis zur EUid-Wallet Konsultation: Ein Erfahrungsbericht aus der Zivilgesellschaft

#rp24

Dito ;)

"Innovating Democracy?
Analyzing the #WirVsVirus #Hackathon"

Neues @Weizenbaum_Institut Research Paper von @thothiel @Seberg Niklas Rakowski und Veza Clute-Simon

"Therefore, our overall assessment of the democratic potential of civic hackathons is skeptical"

https://ojs.weizenbaum-institut.de/index.php/wjds/article/view/3_1_4/76

"Broadly speaking, the hackathon format certainly has democratic potential. However, to realize this potential, it is imperative to move away from ..

Just published: new article #wjds, titled "Innovating Democracy". It concerns the case of #WirVsVirus, a civic hackathon organized in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and officially endorsed by Germany’s federal government @Bundesregierung. Read the entire article by @thothiel, @Seberg, Veza Clute-Simon, Niklas Rakowski: https://ojs.weizenbaum-institut.de/index.php/wjds/article/view/3_1_4/3_1_4 @WZB_Berlin

Nimm Java, haben sie gesagt. Niemand nimmt im Jahr 2020 noch PHP, haben sie gesagt. Auf dem #wirvsvirus-Hackathon haben sie das gesagt.

Ein Glück, dass wir den Schund nicht auch noch in die Testlabore ausgerollt haben damals. Dann hätten wir jetzt ein Riesenproblem in der Pandemie. #log4j ^

Der @TspBackgroundDi:

"Bei den #WirVsVirus- und #wirfürschule-Hackathons im Sommer 2020 entstanden zahlreiche Projekte, doch die wenigsten davon kamen erfolgreich im deutschen Bildungssystem an"

Fehlende Kompetenzen in der Verwaltung: So wird das nix 🤷‍♀️
https://background.tagesspiegel.de/digitalisierung/huerden-fuer-soziale-bildungsinnovationen

»Luca-App: Forschende halten Risiken der Luca-App für "völlig unverhältnismäßig"«

https://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2021-04/luca-app-sicherheitsluecken-datenschutz-kritik-corona

Besonders ärgerlich: im Rahmen von #WirvsVirus im März 2020(!) wurden bereits vergleichbare Konzepte angeregt - aber wozu Ressourcen nutzen, für Wahlkampf ist ein Popstar halt brauchbarer.

Is ja nur Pandemie.

Wisst ihr noch, der Hackathon #WirvsVirus? xD

Es war uns eine Freude, 34 Projekte aus @WirVsVirus gemeinsam mit dem @BMBF_Bund unterstützen zu dürfen! 🤗
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RT @BMBF_Bund
#WirvsVirus war der weltweit größte Hackathon gegen das Coronavirus: Mehr als 28.000 Menschen machten mit! Das BMBF hat die Entwicklung & Umsetzung von 34 Ideen mit insgesamt rund 1,5 Mio Euro gefördert. Heute endet die Umsetzungsphase 👉 https://www.bmbf.de/de/karliczek-digitale-loesungen-fuer-pandemiebedingte-hera…
https://twitter.com/BMBF_Bund/status/1311586663785693184

Nicht vergessen: Morgen ab 10 Uhr feiert @WirVsVirus seinen Abschluss. Alle Infos und den Link zur Anmeldung findet ihr hier:
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RT @WirVsVirus
🏁 FINALE 🏁

Nach 6 intensiven Monaten feiert die #WirVsVirus Community am Do, 01.10.2020, den Abschluss des Umsetzungsprogramms - zusammen mit der Bundesregierung und allen Projektteams. Agenda & Anmeldung 👉 https://wirvsvirus.org/finale/ @HBraun @DoroBaer @BMBF_Bund @AnjaKarliczek
https://twitter.com/WirVsVirus/status/1309066826333278209

Seid am Donnerstag ab 10.00 Uhr beim großen Finale von @WirVsVirus dabei!✨💫💥
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RT @WirVsVirus
Am 01.10.2020 feiern wir Finale! Die #WirVsVirus Community zieht erste Bilanz, teilt Highlights & blickt in die Zukunft von #OpenSocialInnovation. Wir freuen uns auf Beiträge von @HBraun, @AnjaKarliczek, @DoroBaer und #Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. 👉 http://wirvsvirus.org/finale/
https://twitter.com/WirVsVirus/status/1309519031901315077

📬Lesetipps: WirVsVirus, neues von FBI und NSA, Schwarzmarkthandel auf Telegram📬 https://tarnkappe.info/lesetipps-wirvsvirus-neues-von-fbi-und-nsa-schwarzmarkthandel-auf-telegram/ #FreeFortnite #AndreiPyzh #WirVsVirus #Lesetipps #Hackathon #Umweltsau #Fortnite #Telegram

Auffällig oft gehen Förderungen an 'traditionelle' Empfänger*innen. In #Unna auch: Schützenvereine und Tennisclubs, aber keine Projekte mit Fokus Rassismus, Umweltschutz oder LGTB werden gefördert (afaik). Zufall?
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RT @Peng
Ich habe mir geschworen solange es kein offizielles Statement von #WirvsVirus / der Bundesregierung kommt alle Kanäle damit vollzuballern. Von daher enjoy:
Vom 20.-22.3.2020 fand ein Hackathon der Bundesregierung zu L…
https://twitter.com/Peng/status/1273281907497852936

Nichts regelt hier der Markt. Gar nichts. 🤮

RT @[email protected]

Die Automobilhersteller Volkswagen und BMW schlagen staatliche Anreize für Autokäufer vor, um die #Coronakrise zu überwinden. #Coronavirus #WirvsVirus

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/tagesschau/status/1249662850643132416

Brauchst Du oder Nachbarn #Hilfe?
Kannst Du etwas geben?

#Covid19 Coronavirus Tool :
app: https://redaktor.ushahidi.io

#flattenthecurve & #StopTheSpread

#Nachbarschaft #solidarität #Nachbarschaftshilfe #WirvsVirus #covid_19DE #QuarantineAndChill #supportyourlocal #unterstützen #wirgemeinsam #Quarantäne #StayAtHome #wirbleibenzuhause

Es lebt Durch Eure Inhalte :

https://redaktor.me

Brauchst Du oder Nachbarn #Hilfe?
Kannst Du etwas geben?

#Covid19 Coronavirus Tool :
app: https://redaktor.ushahidi.io

#flattenthecurve & #StopTheSpread

#Nachbarschaft #solidarität #Nachbarschaftshilfe #WirvsVirus #covid_19DE #QuarantineAndChill #supportyourlocal #unterstützen #wirgemeinsam #Quarantäne #StayAtHome #wirbleibenzuhause

Es lebt Durch Eure Inhalte :

--> https://redaktor.me

Ein Ergebnis des #wirVsVirus Hackathons.
Bringt Maker und Taker zusammen.