publications

2026

1. GROUP

   Understanding Social Media Users’ Perspectives for Content Reuse

   Riya Sinha and Hanlin Li

   Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., Mar 2026

   Abs DOI

   Social media users create immense value for various technologies such as search engines, content platforms, and most recently, generative AI models. Among social media users, those who produce content professionally, such as artists and creative workers, have expressed strong concerns about unauthorized reuse of their content; however, it remains unclear how the vast majority of casual users perceive content reuse, in particular for AI training. To gain a comprehensive understanding of users’ perspectives, we surveyed 478 Instagram users from a university network about how much they value their content for commercial reuse and their acceptance of specific content reuse scenarios. We found that under reverse auction, in which the lowest bidder wins, respondents’ evaluation of their content for commercial reuse is highly skewed, with a median of $62 and a long tail of more than thousands of dollars. A nontrivial percentage of respondents found content reuse for search engine display, education, and academic research acceptable. Conversely, content reuse for commercial or non-profit generative AI models was a negotiable scenario for most respondents. Most notably, compensation was likely to make almost all scenarios more acceptable to users. Our work highlights the diverse, contextually dependent perspectives that users have. We discuss how design, policy, and market practices might support contextually aware content reuse.

2025

1. CSCW

   Data Work in Memory Institutions: Why and How Information Professionals Use Wikidata

   Riya Sinha, Amelia Acker, and Hanlin Li

   Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact., Oct 2025

   Abs DOI

   Wikidata, an open structured database and a sibling project to Wikipedia, has recently become an important platform for information professionals to share structured metadata from their memory institutions-organizations that maintain public knowledge and cultural heritage materials. While studies have investigated why and how peer producers contribute to Wikidata, the institutional motivations and practices of these organizations are less understood. Given Wikidata’s potential role in linking and supporting knowledge infrastructures and open data systems, we examined why and how information professionals in memory institutions use Wikidata as part of their organizational workflow. Through interviews with 15 participants, we identified the three archetypal roles of Wikidata users within memory institutions-providers, acquirers, and mutualists-and the different types of contributions that these institutions bring to Wikidata. We then explored potential collaboration opportunities between memory institutions and other volunteers in Wikidata, discussed the value of the data work conducted by these professionals, and examined how and why they track their contributions. Our work contributes to the wider discussions around collaboration and data work in CSCW by 1) studying the motivations and practices of information professionals, their differences from those doing volunteer work, and opportunities for the Wikidata community to promote more collaborative efforts within memory institutions and with other volunteers and 2) drawing attention to the important data work done by memory institutions on Wikidata and pointing out opportunities to support the contributions of information professionals.

2024

1. CSCW

   Understanding Creators’ Acceptance of Content Reuse

   Riya Sinha and Hanlin Li

   In Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, San Jose, Costa Rica, 2024

   Abs DOI

   Content creators’ work has long been reused by various technology developers and researchers; recently joining the ranks of content reusers are emergent generative AI models. However, creators’ perspectives and acceptances of these use cases were often overlooked in the process. We present our initial findings on how content creators perceive scenarios of content reuse as acceptable, negotiable, or unacceptable. We surveyed 478 content creators on Instagram and a non-trivial percentage of respondents found content reuse for search engine display, education, and academic research acceptable. Conversely, content reuse for commercial or non-profit generative AI models was a negotiable scenario for most respondents. Receiving compensation was likely to make almost all use cases more acceptable to content creators. Our work paves the way for future work into understanding how creators value their work, research ethics, and best practices for using user-generated content for responsible technological innovation.

2021

1. DIS

   From Mild to Wild: Reimagining Friendships and Romance in the Time of Pandemic Using Design Fiction

   Sumita Sharma, Netta Iivari, Marianne Kinnula, and 10 more authors

   In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Virtual Event, USA, 2021

   Abs DOI

   With the forced reboot of our lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our interpersonal relationships are nowhere yet everywhere. However, opportunities for initiating or maintaining friendships and romance in the physical world have dwindled. Within the context of India where multiple realities exist, the question arises – what is the future of these relationships? In this paper, we present the outcomes of a workshop looking at the future of relationships using design fiction. Participants worked in small teams to create scenarios that critically consider the future of love, friendships, and romance within the Indian context. Through the lenses of criticality, empowerment, and value creation, we examine the design scenarios and the design process including criticality of the designs, empowering experiences of the participants, and the perceived value gained from participating in such a workshop. Our findings indicate the potential of design fiction to allow participants to step out of their comfort zone into a critical stance in discussing love and intimacy. Based upon our findings, we discuss implications for design research, practice, and education.