Martin Dittus worked as a Data Scientist at the OII between 2017 and 2020. He is a digital geographer and data scientist with more than a decade of experience in social computing, mass-participation platforms, digital geography, and big data. In his research he applies quantitative and statistical methods, augmented with deep domain understanding, to analyse and visualise emerging online practices at large scale.
Together with Mark Graham he researched the information geographies of Wikipedia, Google Maps, and other large online knowledge platforms. Which places in the world are represented on these sites, and who in the world participates in the creation of this knowledge? How equitable are the processes that shape it, and which populations are left out? Previously he researched the economic geography of darknet markets, collecting and analysing market data to better understand what kind of trading takes place where in the world.
Martin has worked with a wide range of online platforms and community organisations as a researcher, organiser and facilitator. He has produced research for the Humanitarian OpenStreetmap Team, a large crowdsourcing community where volunteers produce maps for humanitarian purposes; and for Cosm (formerly Pachube), one of the first crowdsourced platforms for DIY environmental sensing. He is a trustee of Local Welcome, a brand new charity building community and solidarity in the 21st century. Previously he was a trustee at the London Hackspace, a non-profit community workshop space which grew from a meet-up to a large volunteer organisation with 1,200 members and growing. From 2006, he was employed as a software developer and project manager at Last.fm, an online music platform with millions of participants, and one of the first commercial users of modern big data technologies.
In 2017 and 2018, his research was awarded Honorable Mention at the ACM conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), in recognition of the quality of his work, and its significance for the field.
Mass-participation platforms, community engagement, social implications of internet technology.
By Mark Graham and Martin Dittus
Today's urban environments are layered with data and algorithms that shape how we perceive and move through space. But are our digitally dense environments continuing to amplify inequalities rather than alleviate them?
This project evaluates the state of the world’s languages online, seeking to determine which global languages are currently underserved by popular online platforms.
As digital augmentations of our world become ever more embedded into everyday life, this project asks where they are, what they are, and who owns, controls, and can shape them.
This project investigates the economic geographies of illegal economic activities in anonymous internet marketplaces.
My current research on the state of the internet’s languages is funded by non-profit Whose Knowledge?. My research on the information geography of Wikipedia and Google Maps in 2018-2020 was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Previous research on the economic geography of darknet marketplaces was funded by The Alan Turing Institute and Google from 2017-2018. My PhD on community engagement in crowdsourced mapping was funded by the EPSRC and Intel from 2013-2017. I received a salary by Nokia Bell Labs in Cambridge, U.K. for three months in 2016 to produce research on community engagement techniques in online and offline settings. I am an unpaid advisor to several small startups and non-profits, and a trustee of the U.K. charity Local Welcome CIO.
20 January 2022
Professors Mark Graham and Martin Dittus publish their book, Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and Inequality, a culmination of 10 years research into data inequalities from around the world.
18 September 2020
28 April 2020
Wikipedia traffic and darknet drug market data can help shed light on the opioid epidemic
30 July 2018
