It is my last week of DREU research! I truly have had a great experience and I have learned a lot about what my interests are. I have had not great experiences before, and I’ve learned that the people I work with truly are what makes me feel happy and able to work hard. I really enjoyed working with Dr. Cora, N, A, and B. I feel proud of the work I was able to complete this summer, and despite the online format of this research program, it was still a lot of fun.

We pulled a lot of data from Twitter. I’m not sure if I will be able to finish analysis by the end of next week, but we used up the monthly limit, which is great! No data was wasted. I have also been working on coming up with other avenues of research related to the chilling effect, and documenting those. Those notes along with some code that I have written for them will be available to N. This week, instead of reading a weekly paper, we attended a (virtual) talk called “City of Portland Digital Services: Open data, privacy, and surveillance technologies” by Hector Dominguez. I am not a local resident of Portland, so I did not have prior knowledge of its digital services and thus this presentation was very interesting to me! I learned about city-wide data collection, costs, and different projects that people are working on in order to make people’s way of life seamless. There is a lot of processes that are hidden away and simplified, like traffic.

N and I are collecting data using the Twitter API. We are still trying to find sources that will definitively justify our choices for querying locations. I have also finished my final presentation for the weekly DREU meetups at Oregon State University. I am working on making a poster presentation for VGHC21 to present this chilling effect project.

I am still working on the Twitter script, but I did expect it to take awhile since it is a major contribution to our research discovery. Meanwhile, I am planning to present a poster at the GHC21 conference for this project. At first I was worried that I do not have much to show for results, but I think just educating people on chilling effects is important. I feel really happy with what I have learned and how it has expanded my understanding of the intersection of law and technology.

We are finally at the data collection stage! Dr. Cora seems to think our plan is good, now all we need to do is start gathering some evidence of a Chilling Effect. Then we can use that data to support an application for a grant. I am currently working on a Twitter script and N is looking into Tor data research. Dr. Cora had us spend a lot of time doing research to understand the Chilling Effect and I think it has paid off in a robust project design.

N and I went over our project proposal with A, a fifth year graduate student. There were a lot of aspects of the project that we didn’t consider, like funding. I haven’t worked on such a complex project before and we need access to multiple API’s in order to gather the necessary data. I tried using the free version but unfortunately it does not encompass the kind of data I need (meaning we need the paid version). A said that perhaps after N and I speak with our advisor, we may need to submit a project proposal to receive funding.

N and I have made a lot of progress in planning our research. As usual, I am surprised by how much we don’t know. Every time we think we have a good idea, there’s a new angle to approach our problem, our an idea that’s way more convoluted and difficult than we expected. Normally I would be frustrated by roadblocks, but I’m weirdly exhilirated. Even though sometimes I think, I wish I had thought about reading case law and understanding it sooner, I’m still excited about the fact that I know to think about it at all. I’m so excited about what I get to learn!

This week I am continuing with the spreadsheet mapping. N and I are getting to potential project proposals and are now doing research on ways to test the Chilling Effect. Maybe we don’t have the resources to do the project ourselves, but perhaps it could serve as a starting point for others. Overall, I really really enjoy what I am learning! My project is very different from other people’s (there is a research group meeting through OSU that I am attending) research, but I think this topic is unique and really aligns with my own interests. During our meeting I realized how much I learned. I had been struggling to grasp the different concepts and contexts of Chilling Effects, but when I did a presentation on it, I felt confident in what I know. I’m excited to see where this research goes.

I am working on creating a mapping of Jonathon W. Penney’s “Understanding Chilling Effects” with the graduate student, N. The more we discuss and read literature related to the Chilling Effect, the more complex our mapping becomes, but I think it also really helps to clarify the new topics that Penney has introduced in this paper as opposed to the last paper we were relying on, “Chilling Effects: Online surveillance and Wikipedia.” There are many types of Chilling Effects, but I hope we get to focus on either the social media, surveillance, or legal chilling. We also have been delving into legal papers which are difficult to read.

I have met with Dr. Glencora Borradaile last week to go over the expectations for this project and the rest of their team. I will be working with a graduate student, N, on a project researching the Chilling Effect. This week, I have begun to familiarize myself with the topic of the Chilling Effect by reading papers and engaging in discourse with the team. I am also exploring some of the Twitter API capabilities in preparation for gathering data. I am also using Zotero, a software that easily collects papers and makes references for them. On the topic of new technologies, I am now using Signal and Keybase that offer end-to-end encrypted communication.