Research Summary: From Web(logs) to Web(AI): Questions, Platforms, and Methods across Twenty Editions of ICWSM

An analysis of two decades of research presented at the ICWSM conference, spanning 2,139 contributions from 2007 to 2026, reveals a significant shift in focus within online social life studies. While platform mentions have transitioned from blogs to Twitter and more recently to Reddit, a notable increase in governance-related cues within online community research is observed. This trend coincides with the increasing influence of AI on online communication, indicating an evolving scholarly and practical focus on managing digital interactions.

Why it matters

This research provides a longitudinal perspective on how scholarly attention to online social dynamics has evolved alongside technological advancements, particularly the rise of AI. The increasing focus on governance and harm-related issues reflects critical challenges in managing digital platforms and their societal impact, necessitating proactive strategic responses from leadership and policymakers.

Key insights

• The International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM) community has examined online social life for twenty years, adapting to changes in platforms, interactions, and research methods.
• Analysis of 2,139 indexed contributions (2007-2026) identified topics via nonnegative matrix factorization and problem framings through textual cues.
• Platform mentions in research have shifted chronologically from blogs to Twitter, and most recently, to Reddit.
• The overall share of online community research topics has remained stable (10.5% to 10.0%) over the two decades.
• Governance-related cues within online community research have significantly increased from 4.0% to 34.3% over the study period.
• Harm-related cues also show an increase in abstracts after a specific filtering, indicating a growing focus on negative aspects of online interactions.

Source

arXiv — Computers and Society — https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00205