Oxford Internet Institute

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary department of social and computer science dedicated to the study of information, communication, and technology, and is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford, England. It is housed over three sites on St Giles in Oxford, including a primary site at 1 St Giles, owned by Balliol College. The department undertakes research and teaching devoted to understanding life online, with the aim of shaping Internet research, policy, and practice.

Front door of the Oxford Internet Institute on St Giles, Oxford.

Founded in 2001, the OII has tracked the Internet's development and use, aiming to shed light on individual, collective and institutional behaviour online. The department brings together academics from a wide range of disciplines including political science, sociology, geography, economics, philosophy, physics and psychology.

The current director is Professor Philip N. Howard.

Research

Research at the OII covers a huge variety of topics, with faculty publishing journal articles and books on issues including privacy and security, e-government and e-democracy, virtual economies, smart cities, digital exclusion, digital humanities, online gaming, big data and Internet geography. The OII currently has the following research clusters reflecting the diverse expertise of faculty:

Digital Politics and Government
Information Governance and Security
Social Data Science
Connectivity, Inclusion and Inequality
Internet Economies
Digital Knowledge and Culture
Education, Digital Life and Wellbeing
Ethics and Philosophy of Information

The research conducted at the OII covers a wide range of topics in Internet studies and social impact of online technologies. Online politics, online education, social media and mental health, Internet-based collaboration, online dating, digital economy, geography of the internet, and ethical and legal aspects of the online technologies are among the main research topics followed at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Studies of Wikipedia

OII has published several studies in Internet geography and Wikipedia. In November 2011, the Guardian Data Blog published maps of geotagged Wikipedia articles written in English, Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, French, Hebrew and Persian.[1] OII Senior Research Fellow Mark Graham[2] led the study and published the results on his blog, Zero Geography.[3] Graham also leads an OII project focused on how new users are perceived, represented, and incorporated into the Wikipedia community.[4] In 2013, OII researchers led by Taha Yasseri published a study of controversial topics in 10 different language versions of Wikipedia, using data related to "edit wars".[5] As of late, the OII has, amongst other things, been involved in research on the effects of computational propaganda, the ethics of big data in different contexts and the political implications of the Internet and social media. It closely collaborates with other institutions of the University of Oxford such as the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the department for computer science and the Oxford Martin School.

Teaching

Since 2006, the OII has offered a DPhil (doctoral) degree in "Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences."[6] Since 2009, it has offered a one-year Master of Science (MSc) degree in "Social Science of the Internet".[7] From 2015, prospective students can apply to study the MSc degree part-time over two years.[8] In addition, the department also runs an annual Summer Doctoral Programme which brings outstanding PhD students to study at the OII for two weeks each July.[9] From 2018, prospective students also have the option to apply for a one-year Master of Science degree in Social Data Science[10] with the related DPhil in Social Data Science available from 2020 onward.[11]

History

The Oxford Internet Institute was made possible by a major donation from the Shirley Foundation of over £10m, with public funding totalling over £5m from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The idea originated with Derek Wyatt MP and Andrew Graham, then Master-Elect of Balliol. Two Balliol Alumni, who knew Dame Stephanie from The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, persuaded Dame Stephanie to meet Andrew Graham and it was following their meeting that she agreed to give the idea her support. A full account of the history of the OII is available at https://www.balliol.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/andrew_graham_origins_of_the_oii.pdf

The Oxford Internet Institute is part of a small network of research centres that includes the centres like the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Information Society Project at Yale Law School. But it is the only one that functions as a fully functioning, degree-granting department.

Directors

Andrew Graham Acting (2001–2002)
William H. Dutton (2002–2011)
Helen Margetts (2011–2018)[12]
Philip N. Howard (2018–present)

Faculty

OII awards

For its 10th anniversary the OII launched the OII awards for lifetime achievement awards on the internet research field and the Internet & Society awards for significant recent contribution to develop the internet for public good.[13]

Lifetime achievement awards winners

2016:

Lawrence Lessig

2014:

2013:

John Seely Brown

2012:

Professor Yochai Benkler

2011:

Professor Manuel Castells
Dr Vinton G. Cerf
Dr David Clark
Professor William H. Dutton
Professor Dame Wendy Hall
Mr. Joi Ito
Mr. Niklas Zennström

Internet and society awards