Oxford Internet Institute

Front door of the Oxford Internet Institute on St Giles, Oxford.

The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary institute, part of the University of Oxford, England. It is housed in buildings owned by Balliol College and is devoted to the study of the societal implications of the Internet, with the aim of shaping Internet research, policy, and practice. It is the main UK member of the World Internet Project.

The Oxford Internet Institute was founded in 2001 by Derek Wyatt, then MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, and Andrew Graham, Master of Balliol College. It had an initial endowment of £10 million from The Shirley Foundation and £5 million from the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Professor William H. Dutton served as Director of the OII from 2001 to 2011. Professor Helen Margetts has served as Director since 2011.

Since 2006, the OII has offered a doctoral degree in "Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences." Since 2009, it has offered a one-year Master of Science degree in "Social Science of the Internet".

Studies of Wikipedia

OII has published several studies in Internet geography and Wikipedia. In November 2011, the Guardian Data Blog published maps of geotagged Wikipedia articles written in English, Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, French, Hebrew and Persian. OII Senior Research Fellow Mark Graham led the study and published the results on his blog, Zero Geography. Graham also leads an OII project focused on how new users are perceived, represented, and incorporated into the Wikipedia community.

In 2013, OII researchers published a study of controversial topics in 10 different language versions of Wikipedia, using data related to "edit wars".

OII awards

For its 10th anniversary the OII launched the OII awards for lifetime achievement awards on the internet research field and the Internet & Society awards for significant recent contribution to develop the internet for public good.

Lifetime achievement awards winners

2014:

• Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• Dame Steve Shirley
• Barry Wellman

2013:

• John Seely Brown

2012:

• Professor Yochai Benkler

2011:

• Professor Manuel Castells
• Dr Vinton G. Cerf
• Dr David Clark
• Professor William H. Dutton
• Professor Dame Wendy Hall
• Mr. Joi Ito
• Mr. Niklas Zennström

Internet and society awards

2014:

• Beth Noveck
• Martha Lane Fox
• Laura Bates

2013:

• Chris Lintott and galaxy zoo
• Alec Ross
• Max Schrems

2012:

• Simon Rogers
• Raspberry Pi Foundation
• Jennifer Pahlka

2011:

• Tom Watson
• 38 Degrees
• Public Sector Transparency Board

See also

• World Internet Project
• Information Society Project at Yale Law School

External links

• Oxford Internet Institute