I’m pleased to announce that I have been working with Michele Marius on a call for proposals from the Stanford Internet Observatory. Late last year, the SIO requested proposals titled Expanding Online Trust & Safety Research. Fairly quickly, I proposed to Michele to see if she would be interested in participating as a fellow researcher, which she graciously accepted.
We have written our proposal so far, and it is in its final stages before submission. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to start a blog dedicated to the research to provide insight into a project like this and serve as an open discussion on the research we’re hoping to do. This will either be a one-post blog —in the case that our proposal is rejected— or it will be an ongoing journal of the work we’re conducting over the coming year.
What is the research question?
What key factors constrain the development of online safety skills in the Caribbean? Does uneven technology adoption in the Caribbean affect the vulnerability to online harms, what role does early education have in mitigating them, and do current multistakeholder collaboration initiatives have a significant effect?
We hope to expand the limited research carried out to date in the Caribbean concerning online safety and cybersecurity education in civil society and business.
We’ve all seen or even been affected by some of the high-profile cybersecurity incidents over the past couple of years, but have we all had formal or informal training or education on how to comport oneself on the internet? That is what we’re hoping to answer and analyse to provide qualitative research and recommendations on enhancing this area in the region.
You can follow along using this URL: https://matthewcowen.org/categories/research/
— Matthew Cowen
