The Data Institute at Univ. Grenoble Alpes is an interdisciplinary research Institute focusing on how data change science and society. It combines three fields of data-related research in a unique way : data science applied to spatial and environmental sciences, biology, and health sciences; data-driven research as a major tool in Social Sciences and Humanities; and studies about data governance, security and the protection of data and privacy.Fostering research using social media as an observatory of society.

With my colleague Eric Gaussier I am involved in coordinating the Work Package of the Data Institute devoted to fostering research using social media as an observatory of society. Research conducted in this work package aims at developing original computational methods to gather, analyze and visualize online data and to promote a computational social science approach to social issues. We support research projects based on the extraction and analysis of large datasets from social networks where information, opinions, life experiences, career patterns and other social characteristics are shared by people. We also produce tools and methods to help researchers extract data from social media, reduce the complexity of the datasets produced, analyze and visualize the dynamic structure of social media, assess the reliability of social media as a source for the study of society. We finally organize seminars to gather participants regularly and invite keynote speakers to present their research.