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From CASCI

What is CASCI?

The Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information (CASCI) is a multi-disciplinary research center intent on understanding and transforming community interactions. Our focus is on harnessing the power of novel technologies to support the needs of real and virtual communities and social networks. CASCI is physically located at the iSchool at Maryland, but includes members from across the University of Maryland from a variety of disciplines. The center was introduced in 2008 and is actively recruiting collaborators from across campus.

Why CASCI?

Recent advances in information technologies have affected nearly every aspect of our lives and every domain of scholarly inquiry. These technologies enable the formation of new social arrangements and types of social interaction. We feel an urgent need to employ and extend these ideas for the betterment of the local communities in which we live and the distributed communities with which we interact. The University of Maryland is ideally positioned to take on these important challenges, as evidenced by the research activity already occurring across campus, some of which is spotlighted on our Projects page.

How Can I Get Involved?

See our Activities page for a current list of activities. We also have an email list where we share ideas, identify collaborators for grants and research projects, and announce events and news items of interest. Please email Derek Hansen at dlhansen@umd.edu if you would like to be added to the list. Faculty, students, and practitioners are all encouraged to join.

You may also want to help us maintain pages on relevant Conferences and Journals, Social Network Analysis Datasets, and Centers of Excellence. To do so, create an account and send Derek Hansen an email so he can give you editing rights.