Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

Abstract

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 31st ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, held from July 13-15, 2020. The ACM Hypertext conference is a premium venue for high quality peer-reviewed research on hypertext theory, systems and applications. It is concerned with all aspects of modern hypertext research including social media, semantic web, dynamic and computed hypertext and hypermedia as well as narrative systems and applications. Hypertext 2020 was originally intended to be held in Orlando, Florida, USA, between July 13 and 15th at the University of Central Florida's downtown campus. However, due to the global pandemic, it has been moved to a virtual format. The conference will be 'virtually' co-located with the Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Arts Festival, with engagement events targeted at creating transdisciplinary conversation. This year's theme is Hypertext for Social Good, a theme exemplified by the work of our plenary speakers Safiya Noble, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, and Stuart Moulthrop. We briefly describe the conference below, and hope to see many of you 'online' at Hypertext 2020! Conference Website: http://ht.acm.org/ht2020 Twitter: @ACMHT https://twitter.com/ACMHT Hashtag: #ACMHT20 https://twitter.com/hashtag/ACMHT20 We will be focusing on building community in this time of crisis. Hosted by the University of Central Florida, the conference was originally intended to take advantage of the proximity to the theme park capital of the world: an international crossroad where hypertext narratives come to life in mixed reality experiences inviting play but also demanding reflection on the changing landscape of the web. Now, it will bring these same questions into a virtual combination of synchronous and asynchronous discourse. The theme of Hypertext 2020 is 'HYPERTEXT for Social Good'. This motto of the 31st ACM Hypertext conference goes hand in hand with the growing importance of ensuring technological inventions and innovations have a positive impact on the users, as well as the society at large. We are particularly interested in work that is timely, activist, or community-centered. Hypertext 2019 turned some important stones to reunify different hypertext research directions and communities. Hypertext 2020 will proudly carry forward this aim. To advance this interdisciplinary conversation, we will feature three plenary speakers drawing on different fields and addressing different aspects of social good and the changing web: Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Information Studies where she serves as the Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She also holds appointments in African American Studies and Gender Studies. She is the author of a best-selling book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been featured in the New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults (non-fiction).