Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Virtual event starting soon! My lab @communitydata.science is hosting a discussion about new research on organizing software communities. Sign up & join us! wiki.communitydata.science/The_Impacts_...

The Impacts of Organizational Interventions in Open Source Software Engineering - CommunityData

wiki.communitydata.science

November 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Hey how's it going here? been a minute.

November 7, 2025 at 3:13 PM

Reposted by Aaron Shaw

Petter Törnberg

@pettertornberg.com

LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text

But... can they? We don’t actually know.

In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.

And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵

Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...

arxiv.org

November 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Defending public information goods and online communities under attack. zenodo.org/records/1560... A @communitydata.science strategy brief led by @zarine.net (with @mako.cc and me riding shotgun)

Online Community Resilience: Governing Public Information Goods Under Attack

Online communities steward a complex set of public information goods. These goods face a range of urgent threats: strategic information pollution and governance capture; legitimacy attacks by external...

zenodo.org

June 5, 2025 at 9:49 PM

Reposted by Aaron Shaw

Zarine Kharazian

@zarine.net

a new short research brief with @mako.cc and @aaronshaw.bsky.social synthesizes some of the work I presented at @communitydata.science Science of Community Dialogues back in April! zenodo.org/records/1560...

Online Community Resilience: Governing Public Information Goods Under Attack

Online communities steward a complex set of public information goods. These goods face a range of urgent threats: strategic information pollution and governance capture; legitimacy attacks by external...

zenodo.org

June 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM

Reposted by Aaron Shaw

Claes de Vreese

@claesdevreese.bsky.social

Important message from @ethanvporter.bsky.social @aaronshaw.bsky.social @emmaspiro.bsky.social

“NSF has accepted a dangerous myth that misinformation research (and research more generally) is really just partisan activism […] Nothing could be further from the truth”

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Misinformation research continues to be urgent science

By one account, roughly 70% of Americans regard misinformation as a major threat, outpacing fears about climate change and infectious disease (1). This is true although the current and longer-term imp...

www.science.org

June 3, 2025 at 6:30 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Misinformation research continues to be urgent science. By @ethanvporter.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and me. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Misinformation research continues to be urgent science

By one account, roughly 70% of Americans regard misinformation as a major threat, outpacing fears about climate change and infectious disease (1). This is true although the current and longer-term imp...

www.science.org

June 3, 2025 at 3:12 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

A policy brief on what generative AI simulations of people might be good for! (based on work with the amazing team of @joon-s-pk.bsky.social @cqzou.bsky.social @mako.cc @robbwiller.bsky.social @mbernst.bsky.social Merrie Morris, Carrie Cai, and Percy Liang)

Stanford HAI @stanfordhai.bsky.social · May 21

AI agents that can simulate human behaviors and attitudes can help test ideas in social science. Our latest brief introduces a generative AI agent architecture that simulates the attitudes of 1,000+ real people. Read more: hai.stanford.edu/policy/simul...

May 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

🧵🧵🧵 effective commons governance doesn't mean you get the equilibrium you want...

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · May 11

1. This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breathtaking perversity, told in this thread. (There’s a one-page version at the bottom). 🧵

May 11, 2025 at 4:58 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

That part of the timeline where I'm watching the White Sox game and realize maybe I'm in solidarity with the pope 🧦

May 10, 2025 at 2:23 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Find me a better Bluesky thread. Go ahead, I'll wait.

rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · May 9

Pope Leo's first sermon and, uh, his using the phrase "be ever more fully a city set upon a hill" and cf'ing it to Rev 21:10 instead of any of the others before saying "many baptized Christians" are "living in a state of practical atheism" is. Well. Shots fired!

www.npr.org/2025/05/09/g...

Read Pope Leo XIV's first homily as pope

During his homily, delivered in Italian, Leo XIV said that Christians must serve a world that is often hostile to their beliefs.

www.npr.org

May 10, 2025 at 2:19 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

University leaders are looking for capital. They have political capital. As with their endowments, they are inclined to sit on it. The thing about political capital though, is that if you spend it wisely it grows.

Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · May 9

New AP poll on Trump/higher education:

Maintain fed'l funding for scientific/medical research?
62% approve

Remove colleges' tax-exempt status?
30% approve

Withhold fed'l funds unless they comply w/ Trump's demands?
27% approve

Overall on Trump/colleges?
56%👎, 42%👍

apnorc.org/projects/few...

May 9, 2025 at 11:55 PM

Reposted by Aaron Shaw

Nathan Schneider

@ntnsndr.in

New interview up at the Protocol Oral History Project—Camille Acey on organizational closures: protocol.ecologies.info/interviews/a...

Camille Acey: Organizational closures

Organizations too often fail to prepare for their inevitable end; The Wind Down shares best practices for healthy closures.

protocol.ecologies.info

May 9, 2025 at 9:32 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

dailynorthwestern.com/2025/05/08/c...

NU Faculty Senate joins Big Ten peers, signs Mutual Defense Compact

Northwestern’s Faculty Senate voted to sign an amended version of the Mutual Defense Compact signed by faculty senates at several Big Ten Academic Alliance universities at its meeting Wednesday evenin...

dailynorthwestern.com

May 8, 2025 at 3:55 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Northwestern faculty Senate has passed a version of the Rutgers mutual defense compact tonight, making it (I think) a dozen faculty governance bodies around the country to do so. Go cats!

May 8, 2025 at 12:56 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

AI-generated from a model prompted with someone's truth social feed?

Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · May 6

🚨🚨 Deranged letter from Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Harvard’s president, cutting off federal funding for any new grants.

Worth reading in full. It is NUTS.

THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
WASHINGTON, DC 20202
May 5, 2025
Dr. Alan Garber
Office of the President
Harvard University
Massachusetts Hall
Cambridge, MA 02138
Dr. Garber,
The Federal Government has a sacred responsibility to be a wise and important steward of American taxpayer dollars. Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion dollar endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these "students" come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country—and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?
Harvard University has made a mockery of this country's higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus. In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor. It had scrapped standardized testing requirements and a normalized grading system. This year Harvard was forced to adopt an embarrassing "remedial math" program for undergraduates.
Why is it, we ask, that Harvard has to teach simple and basic mathematics, when it is supposedly so hard to get into this "acclaimed university"? Who is getting in under such a low standard when others, with fabulous grades and a great understanding of the highest levels of mathematics, are being rejected?
Harvard has even been embroiled in humiliating plagiarism scandals, exposed clearly and plainly in the media, with respect to your then…

$running the institution in a totally chaotic way. Harvard alumnus and highly successful hedge fund manager Bill Ackman noted that, under her leadership, Harvard has become "a political advocacy organization for one party." Ackman has called for the resignation of Pritzker, concluding that the "[t)he mismanagement here is Penny Pritzker" and noting that any serious corporation would have removed her after a litany of recent failings and the fact that, incredibly, "Harvard is not in a good financial position." According to Ackman, one of the world's foremost finance experts, Harvard's so-called S53 billion endowment is "massively overstated as far as what it's really worth," and Harvard has irresponsibly taken out $8 billion in debt. If this is true, it is concerning evidence of Harvard's disastrous mismanagement, indicating an urgent need for massive reform-not continued taxpayer investment. If Harvard prefers not to change, then Harvard should have no problem using its overflowing endowment to fund its bloated bureaucracy. At its best, a university should fulfill the highest ideals of our Nation, and enlighten the thousands of hopeful students who walk through its magnificent gates. But Harvard has betrayed this ideal. Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court's ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans. The above concerns are only a fraction of the long list of Harvard's consistent violations of its own legal duties. Given these and other concerning allegations, this letter is to inform you that Harvard should no longer seek GRANTS from the fede…$

Federal Agencies. The Administration's priorities have not changed and today's letter marks the end of new grants for the University.
These requests will advance the best interests of Harvard University, so it can reclaim its status as a respected educational institution for the future leaders of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Sincerely,
Linda E. McMahon
Secretary of Education

May 6, 2025 at 1:43 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

👀👀👀

Holiday Ryan @ryanboyd.bsky.social · May 4

Incredible reporting from USC student journalists about how a ginned-up financial crisis is being used to crush faculty and staff power.

ANALYSIS: USC deliberately escalated ‘structural deficit’

A doubling debt and egregious management growth place blame on the university.

www.uscannenbergmedia.com

May 5, 2025 at 1:41 AM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Person trailing after a car shouting "Uber STOP" as if the driver would respond to it like their name

April 26, 2025 at 10:16 PM

Reposted by Aaron Shaw

ragesoss

@ragesoss.bsky.social

the fascist Trump admin is coming after Wikipedia now. the letter reads like a crowd-sourced listicle.

Sarah McLaughlin @sarahemclaugh.bsky.social · Apr 25

New Ed Martin letter—this time to Wikipedia about its tax-exempt status. In it, he asks about topics including its editorial practices, editor anonymity, "hateful content and conduct by editors," and content used to train LLMs. www.thefp.com/p/trump-pros...

Letter: drive.google.com/file/d/1ocNy...

April 24, 2025

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. AKA Wikipedia
P.O. Box 98204
Washington, DC 20090-8204
VIA EMAIL: business@wikimedia.org
legal@wikimedia.org
To Whom it May Concern,
As the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, I regularly receive requests for
information, clarification, and official comment. I regard such inquiries with the seriousness they
warrant and respond appropriately through formal correspondence, such as this letter.
It has come to my attention that Wikipedia, which operates via its fiscal sponsor, the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations under
Section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. As a nonprofit corporation, which is
incorporated in the District of Columbia, the Wikimedia Foundation is subject to specific legal
obligations and fiduciary duties consistent with its tax-exempt status. In addition, the public is
entitled to rely on a reasonable expectation of neutrality, transparency, and accountability in its
operations and publications.
In its 2023 IRS Form 990, the Wikimedia Foundation describes its mission as, “empower[ing]
and engag[ing] people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free
license or in the public domain and to disseminate it effectively and globally. . . [.]”
As you know, Section 501(c)(3) requires that organizations receiving tax-exempt status operate
exclusively for “religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational
purposes. . . [.]” It has come to my attention that the Wikimedia Foundation, through its wholly
owned subsidiary Wikipedia, is allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread

propaganda to the American public. Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its
platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current
and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the
interests of the United States. Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise
of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s “educational” mission.
In addition, Wikipedia’s operations are directed by its board that is composed primarily of
foreign nationals, subverting the interests of American taxpayers. Again, educational content is
directionally neutral; but information received by my Office demonstrates that Wikipedia’s
informational management policies benefit foreign powers.
Moreover, we are aware that search engines such as Google have agreed to prioritize Wikipedia
results due to the relationship that Wikipedia has established with these tech platforms. If the
content contained in Wikipedia articles is biased, unreliable, or sourced by entities who wish to
do harm to the United States, search engine prioritization of Wikipedia will only amplify
propaganda to a larger American audience.
Lastly, it has come to our attention that generative AI platforms receive Wikipedia data to train
large-language models. This data is now consumed by masses of Americans and American
teachers on a daily basis. If the data provided is manipulated, particularly by foreign actors and
entities, Wikipedia’s relationship with generative AI platforms have the potential to launder
information on behalf of foreign actors.
In light of these concerns, my Office seeks information pertaining to Wikimedia’s compliance
with the laws governing its tax-exempt status. To assist with our investigation of this matter, I
request the following documents and information, covering the time period of January 1, 2021 to
the present, as soon as possible but no later than May 15, 2…

5. What policy does the Foundation have in place to ensure that content submissions,
editorial decisions, and article revisions reflect a broad spectrum of viewpoints, including
those that may be in tension with the views of major financial or institutional backers?
6. What is the Foundation’s official process for addressing credible allegations that editors
or contributors have materially misled readers, engaged in bad-faith edits, or otherwise
manipulated content in ways that undermine Wikipedia’s commitment to neutrality?
Similarly, what is the Foundation’s official process for auditing or evaluating the actions,
activities, and voting patterns of editors, admins, and committees, including the
Arbitration Committee, in order to ensure the Foundation’s policies and the policies of its
projects are enforced? Detail all instances in which these processes have been utilized in
the last six years.
7. Does the Foundation maintain a public, formally adopted policy explicitly prohibiting
hateful content and conduct by editors? If so, what enforcement mechanisms are in place
to ensure compliance and accountability, and which namespaces and content on the
platform do these mechanisms apply to? Further, how does the Foundation ensure that
sources used in writing content on Wikipedia and elsewhere do not violate its policies,
including but not limited to those against discrimination?
8. Given growing public concerns regarding the large-scale manipulation of particular
categories of content by ideologically motivated editors, what safeguards exist to detect
and prevent undue influence by individuals or coordinated networks who use editorial or
administrative authority to systematically distort content? Provide details regarding
actions taken by the Foundation using these safeguards over the last six years.
Additionally, detail any changes over time to these safeguards.
9. In view of public criticisms, including those expressed by Wikipedia Co-Founder Dr.
Lawrence M. Sanger, r…

effects of that content on search results and data already used to train LLMs? What
measures does the Foundation take to ensure that these companies, as well as the broader
public, understand misinformation, bias, and other problems across its projects, including
Wikipedia?
I look forward to your cooperation with my letter of inquiry after request. Thank you in advance
for your assistance. Please respond by May 15, 2025. Should you have further questions
regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to call my office or schedule a time to meet in
person.
All the best.

Edward R. Martin, Jr.
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia

April 25, 2025 at 10:31 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

"With Rogers’ arrest, there have been nine firearm-related busts in or near the Naperville Topgolf parking lot this year, Krakow confirmed."

whet moser @whetmoser.com · Apr 25

this is amazing, there’s even a graphic of topgolf parking lot gun arrests by month

Nicholas Wallace @wallace.bsky.social · Apr 25

One of my favorite ongoing Chicagoland bits: the suburban topgolf where people can’t stop violating gun laws

April 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

I had at least 17 hours worth of material queued up for my most recent flight

Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · Apr 25

So it turns out that if for several days you say "I'll do that on the plane," you can end up with a 2.5 hour flight and like 5 hours of work you said you'd do.

April 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

thank you for bringing this to our attention

bryan newbold @bnewbold.net · Apr 25

@sorry.it.s.really.hard.to.type.with.b.igpa.ws

nice handle

April 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM

Aaron Shaw

@aaronshaw.bsky.social

Smart strategic investment and political gesture, but let's not pretend these one-offs will save American science and research. Multiple orders of magnitude too small. www.theguardian.com/education/20...