Bernie Hogan (PhD Toronto, 2009) is an Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and Research Associate at the Department of Sociology. With training in sociology and computer science, Hogan focuses on how social networks and social media can be designed to empower people to build stronger relationships and stronger communities.
Hogan’s theoretical work was among the first to identify the role of the social media platform as curator and to distinguish certain social media as the ‘real name web’. His practical work has shown how network visualisations can reveal new information to individuals from their social media data. He believes that the way networked information comes us in feeds is akin to being given a route through social space. This might get us where we want to go, but to truly empower people we need to see the map, not only the route along the way.
Hogan has published in a wide variety of venues, from peer-reviewed papers in sociology journals (such as Social Networks, City and Community, Bulletin of Science Technology and Society, and Field Methods), in computer science proceedings (such as CHI, ICWSM, and CSCW) and related disciplines, particularly geography (with papers in Environment and Planning B, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie) and communication (with papers in New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, International Journal of Communication, and Information, Communication and Society). This is in addition to many chapters in books, grey literature reports and public opinion pieces. He is on the editorial boards of Social Media + Society, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Networks.
