Skip to main content

Farida Vis elected to Big Boulder Initiative Board of Directors!


Farida Vis, Faculty Research Fellow, has been elected to the Big Boulder Initiative Board of Directors. The Big Boulder Initiative is dedicated to the advancement of social data in businesses and organizations of all kinds. The BBI bring together representatives from companies within the ecosystem to collectively address key challenges in order to establish the foundation for the long-term success of the social data industry.

Alongside Farida, two other new board members were elected: Justin De Graaf, Global Media Insights Director at The Coca-Cola Company and Mark Josephson, CEO of Bitly.

The BBI board is chaired by Chris Moody, VP for Data Strategy at Twitter. In an official press release he welcomed the new board members by stating: “On behalf of myself and the entire board of directors, we are excited to have three new voices join the discussion as we kick-off 2015. With these additions, we have strong representation from the social data ecosystem that will help us drive our mission forward.”

The board is further strengthened through additional formidable support from representatives from Brandwatch, IBM, NetBase and Twitter.

Being part of this board as the only academic and only member from Europe is an important and exciting opportunity, not just for Farida and the Information School, but also for The University of Sheffield, in terms of profile and impact potential in this rapidly growing area of research. Having someone on board who has an understanding of the key issues concerning academia is a positive development.

The Big Boulder Initiative organizes an annual conference at which Farida spoke last summer and which also offered the opportunity to launch her exciting new research initiative: The Visual Social Media Lab, which is supported through funding from the ESRC.

Farida will attend her first board meeting in San Francisco next week and we look forward to following Farida’s progress on the BBI Board of Directors! Farida tweets as @flygirltwo. The full press release can be viewed here: bitly.com/BBI2015

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Time in Sheffield as a Visiting Researcher - Dr Abdulhalik Pinar

Returning to Sheffield after more than a decade has been a mixture of nostalgia and new opportunities. I first came here in 2011 to complete my MA in Librarianship, and now, I find myself back as a visiting scholar at the Information School. My time as a visiting researcher at the University of Sheffield has been truly rewarding. I am an academic staff at Harran University in Turkey supported for this visit by Tubitak (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). This visit has been a great opportunity for my academic and professional development. I am conducting research on artificial intelligence within GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) institutions. I have especially valued the support of my supervisor Dr. Andrew Cox who has guided me through this process. He is an extremely helpful, supportive and understanding person. The University of Sheffield has provided me with an excellent working environment, surrounded by helpful staff and dynamic research...

Dr Kate Miltner joins UK Young Academy

We are pleased to announce that Dr Kate Miltner has joined the UK Young Academy, an interdisciplinary network of early-career professionals and researchers working together to tackle pressing global and local challenges and promote lasting change. Dr Miltner is among the 42 emerging leaders from across the UK selected as the newest members of the UK Young Academy. The new members come from a wide range of sectors, with backgrounds in political science, engineering, government, communications and the creative and performing industries, and more. As members of the UK Young Academy, they will have the opportunity to take action on both local and global issues. Through interdisciplinary projects and working across sectors, they will bridge gaps, drive innovation, and develop the solutions needed to address critical challenges – all while advancing their professional development and contributing to a global network of Young Academies focused on achieving positive outcomes. "I'm tru...

Tools for Life: Data Sharing and Public Health

 Data is the lifeblood of our digital society, but how our personal information is stored and shared is an understandably contentious issue. ‘ Tools for Life: Data Sharing and Public Health ’, a 20-month public engagement project which concluded in March 2021 and was headed by Information School Lecturer Dr Jonathan Foster, looked into the issues surrounding this idea in the context of patient data, with consideration of this issue being particularly important against the backdrop of the current NHS opt-out system for consent. Dr Jonathan Foster Alongside Dr Foster, the project involved fellow Information School Lecturer and expert in Health Informatics Dr Laura Sbaffi, and Professor Suzanne Mason, a clinician academic and Professor of Emergency Medicine based at the University’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR). With Jonathan’s expertise being in Information Management, the project had a broad knowledge base from both the health and the data side of the equation. The...