Rebecca D Frank

Citizen-Based Monitoring for Peace & Security in the Era of Synthetic Media and Deepfakes

  • This project explores the evolving potential and limits of citizen-based monitoring and verification enabled by digital data. While there exists a variety of data sources that could be relevant for citizen-based monitoring, the primary focus of this project will be on satellite imagery, whose role is already significant and is likely to grow even more in coming years. It has so far been difficult to systematically assess the true long-term potential and limits of citizen-based monitoring in this context. This project seeks to close this gap by contributing to a better understanding of the potential of broad access to open data, transparency and the respective challenges for equity, privacy, and data authenticity. Funding/support from: Deutsche Stiftung Friedensforschung (German Foundation for Peace Research).
  • with: Felix Felix Bießmann (Berliner Hochschule für Technik, Einstein Center Digital Future), Alex Glaser (Princeton University, Einstein Center Digital Future)

SCoR-TDR: The Social Construction of Risk in Trustworthy Digital Repository Audit & Certification

  • In this research I examine Trustworthy Digital Repository audit and certificaton processes: TRAC/ISO 16363 and CoreTrustSeal. The goal of this research is to understand how stakeholders in these processes construct their understanding of risk for digital preservation. Funding/support from: Einstein Center Digital Future, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, & the University of Michigan.

Open Data for Public Infrastructure and the Social Construction of Risk

  • Through a partnership with the InfraLab Berlin, my team and I are investigating how individuals involved in data work at public utility companies understand risk as it relates to their data, and how they think about open data in the context of their work. Funding/support from: Einstein Center Digital Future & the InfraLab Berlin.
  • with: Max von Grafenstein (Universität der Künste Berlin, Einstein Center Digital Future)