People

This would not have been possible without the many people and organizations that, and is a result of years of collaboration with and feedback from many people and organizations. This page highlights a few of the most important people to this project.

Arvin Jagayat​

Arvin Jagayat is a PhD student working with Dr. Choma. The original version of this tool was developed for a study in his SSHRC-funded dissertation research, which focuses on developing ways to disincentivize the spread of misinformation. The Mock Social Media Website Project was spun out of the idea of making the website useful for more than just the needs and study design of his dissertation. Arvin is the lead of the project and involved in every capacity.

Gurkaran Boparai​

Gurkaran Boparai is a recent graduate of the University of Waterloo's Bachelors in Computer Science program. Gurkaran was the main fullstack developer behind the current version of the tool.

Carson Pun​

Carson Pun is the Research Operations Administrator and IT Specialist in the Psychology Department at Ryerson University. Carson was instrumental to helping structure and develop the prototype version of the tool, and giving feedback throughout the development process.

Other key partners​

Dr. Becky Choma is an Associate Professor in Psychology at Ryerson University and Director of the Social and Political Psychology Lab. Dr. Choma is Arvin Jagayat's PhD Supervisor and has been critical in helping steer and give feedback on the project as it has evolved over time.

John Beebe is an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Dean of Arts, as well as the founder of the Democratic Engagement Exchange at Ryerson University. As Principal Investigator of the Mitigating Disinformation at the Frontlines project which helped fund development of the project, John was critical in helping realize the tool.

Isabella Lam is the Lab Manager of the Social and Political Psychology Lab. Isabella has assisted in shaping and thoroughly testing the tool throughout the duration of the project.

Lastly, we would like to thank the various research assistants who have helped this project at one stage or another: Maisha Ahasan, Viktoria Arazyan, Jonah Davids, Morgan Lindsay, Samantha Lu, Alessandra Miceli, Jasmine Philip, David Sumantry, and Robert Valela.

Want to contribute?​

The open-source nature of this tool means that we are constantly looking for and want to encourage people to contribute to the tool, or make us aware of funding opportunities that can help us fund its future development. If you are interested in contributing or know of funding opportunities, please don't hesitate to e-mail Arvin and let him know!

Funding​

We are extremely grateful that funding for the development of this tool was provided by the Digital Citizen Contribution Program by the Department of Canadian Heritage of the Government of Canada. Additionally, Arvin Jagayat is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.