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This is a Berkman Klein alum page. The information below may be out of date.

John W. Kelly, Ph.D is the founder and CEO of Graphika, a social media analysis firm founded on technology he invented that blends social network analysis, content analysis, and statistics to make complex online networks understandable. John is also a recognized expert on advanced computational techniques for measuring online behavior. Most recently, he was invited to provide his expert testimony on foreign interference in the U.S. presidential election before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

He also works with leading academics to design and implement empirical studies of the Internet's role in business, culture, and politics around the world. A quantitative social scientist by training, John earned his Ph.D. in Communications from Columbia University, and has also studied at Stanford and at Oxford's Internet Institute. Today, he leads a team of business professionals and data scientists to bring new analytic technologies to market via the Graphika platform.


Projects & Tools

Impact of the Internet on Russian Politics, Media, and Society

With funding from the MacArthur Foundation, the Berkman Center is undertaking a two-year research project to investigate the role of the Internet in Russian society.


Publications

Publication
Feb 28, 2018

The Yemen War Online: Propagation of Censored Content on Twitter

This study documents and analyzes the sharing of information on Twitter among different political groups related to the ongoing conflict in Yemen. 

Publication
Jun 22, 2016

#IranVotes

Political Discourse on Iranian Twitter During the 2016 Parliamentary Elections

#IranVotes: Political Discourse on Iranian Twitter During the 2016 Parliamentary Elections” maps and analyzes the content and structure of the Iranian Twittersphere over the…

Publication
Mar 9, 2016

Mobilization for Change

The role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region

“Mobilization for Change” is a series of reports examining the role of the networked public sphere in advancing civic participation and collective action in the Arab region.

Publication
Dec 10, 2015

Openness and Restraint

Structure, Discourse, and Contention in Saudi Twitter

"Openness and Restraint" maps and analyzes the structure and content of the Saudi Twittersphere and identifies the communities that coalesce around different political, religious,…

Publication
Nov 4, 2015

Beyond the Wall

Mapping Twitter in China

"Beyond the Wall: Mapping Twitter in China" offers a rare look at the activity of Chinese Internet users on a platform that is largely unregulated by the state and only reachable…

Publication
Apr 10, 2012

Salience vs. Commitment: Dynamics of Political Hashtags in Russian Twitter

Social media sites like Twitter enable users to engage in the spread of contagious phenomena: everything from information and rumors to social movements and virally marketed…

Publication
Mar 20, 2012

Mapping Russian Twitter

Drawing from a corpus of over 50 Million Russian language tweets collected between March 2010 and March 2011, the Berkman research team created a network map of 10,285 users…

Mar 2, 2012

Exploring Russian Cyberspace: Digitally-Mediated Collective Action and the Networked Public Sphere

This paper summarizes the major findings of a three-year research project to investigate the Internet’s impact on Russian politics, media and society. We employed multiple methods…

Oct 18, 2010

Public Discourse in the Russian Blogosphere: Mapping RuNet Politics and Mobilization

This paper is the first release from the Berkman Center's Russian Internet research project. It analyzes the Russian blogosphere, with an emphasis on politics and public affairs.

Publication
Jun 16, 2009

Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. It analyzes the composition of the Arabic blogosphere and its possible impact on political and…

Dec 18, 2008

Media Re:public: News and Information as Digital Media Come of Age

Overview paper, issues, case studies

A series of papers exploring the potential and the challenges of the emerging networked digital media environment.

Publication
Apr 5, 2008

Mapping Iran’s Online Public: Politics and Culture in the Persian Blogosphere

(English and Persian translation)

This case study is part of a series produced by the Internet and Democracy project. It analyzes the composition of the Iranian blogosphere and its possible impact on political and…


News

MIT Technology Review
Aug 22, 2018

This is what filter bubbles actually look like

"Maps of Twitter activity show how political polarization manifests online and why divides are so hard to bridge."

News
Oct 27, 2008

Political videos online, the spread

From the Internet & Democracy project blog... John Kelly and...Morningside Analytics have created a great new political video barometer at Shifting the Debate. Using link and…


Community

The Washington Post

When it comes to social media manipulation, we’re our own worst enemy

Leveraging social media platforms to combat coordinated inauthentic behavior online

Mar 29, 2019

Events

Oct 19, 2010 @ 10:00 AM

Mapping the Russian Blogosphere

Hosted by USIP’s Center of Innovation for Science, Technology & Peacebuilding, researchers from the Berkman Center and their collaborators at Morningside Analytics will present…