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Samantha Gilham

Call for Papers - SocInfo 2012 - 0 views

  • Computational models of social phenomena, social simulation Social choice mechanisms in the e-society Social networks: discovery, evolution, analysis, applications Social Behavior Modeling Web mining and its social interpretations Social Influence and Diffusion Models of Social Influence Security, privacy, trust, reputation and incentive issues Social Communities and Social Network Analysis Design and analysis of social/collaborative Web applications Social Interactions and Collaboration Algorithms and protocols inspired by human societies Socio-economic Systems and Applications Mechanisms for providing fairness in information systems Virtual communities (e.g., open-source, multiplayer gaming) Impact of technology on socio-economic Recommendation systems Visualization of dynamic social networks Social applications of the Semantic Web Social Informatics Theory Social system design and architectures Trust, Privacy, Risk and Security in Social Contexts Social Intelligence and Social Cognition Social media analytics and social media intelligence Emotional Intelligence and Data Mining
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    Page shared by another classmate, topics page may be a good brainstorming page to think of project topics/focus
Ronald Jay Gervacio

Social Computing: From Social Informatics to Social Intelligence - 2 views

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    I found this scholarly article that talks about the future of social computing based on the integration of technological infrastructures (e.g. Web 2.0, database, multimedia etc.) and social theories, fundamental principles of ICT.
Amanda Bailey

Computers Grade Essays Fast ... But Not Always Well : NPR - 1 views

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    Really interesting NPR piece on computer software that grades homework/essays for students. Do students "miss out" by having their work graded by a computer instead of a person? How will these types of programs impact the future of education? Can we/should we/are we replacing teachers with computers? Pennsylvania currently offers an online public schooling option, is this a move in that direction?
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    Interesting article. My stand on this has always been that some people need an online option. For instance, more than a few of my kids' acquaintances are professional track dancers. This requires huge time commitments in Manhattan, daily. In fact, dance becomes first. Most parents want their kids to finish school so they purchase seats in for profit online programs. Why should these parents who already pay taxes to support school systems not have equitable access to education? This would/could also change the nature/scope of the homeschool dilemma. My point is, not all kids need to be boxed in a room in a building all day to learn. some need that kind of structure while others do things that can't be accommodated y a 9-5 schedule.
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    I agree entirely. Both of my siblings attended vo-tech high schools, which operated on a rotational schedule with "traditional" schooling for 3 weeks and then a shop/trade for 3 weeks. For them, they needed an option that was not a traditional classroom but gave them an outlet and focus, keeping busy with their hands as well as their minds. I think the online schooling programs in PA are a similar option, providing flexibility and opportunity to students at different levels or in different situations.
Jennifer Bradley

FarmVille: The Garden in the Machine | In Media Res - 4 views

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    Here's an interesting article about the social mechanics of Farmville and how it mimics the ideals of "gift economy" often demonstrated by non-western, "primitive" cultures, such as those of native Papua New Guineans.
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    The in-text link to the article: " The High-Tech Gift Economy" is also worth a read. It compares the proliferation of shareware and open source software to the political movement of anarcho-communism.
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    Oh dear. I wasted many an hour on Farmville back when it was big...way more than I'd like to admit. That's a neat connection between the digital farm and the real world--and how people's obsession over the game (though I don't know if it's still the case...I deactivated my Farm because it was, well, eating up my entire life!) speaks to something deeper, like the desire for community.
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    There are some failures in the analysis made in the "High Tech Gift Economy". Thinking that the internet was created by the military is a bit of a canard: in my opinion it was the most inventive misuse of military money by a university. Also there is a conception that the 'net runs on the love of pixies and nerds, where in reality it runs on commercial networks successfully making money. I'd much prefer pixie net, but it just ain't so :(
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    I remember playing farmville and cafeville for a few months. They were catchy, but I felt they were a bit off. The idea of being chained to the computer so my crops would not spoil or my food would not overcook was draining, so I finally gave them up. Plus, the more I read about Zygna, the less I liked them as a company. Here is an blog post about how farmville and the like induce anxiety by design. http://consumerist.com/2010/12/game-developer-says-farmville-is-designed-to-be-negative-and-draining.html
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    That's really interesting Jorge: I used to play civilization, but it doesn't help me relax, it just winds me up for hours, in much the same way. Then I discovered Osmos, and have a game that actually feels calm and meditative, bizarrely enough. I had enough of those damn smirking pigs, that's for sure: no wonder the birds are angry.
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    I never got into Farmville myself, but I do remember my news feed on Facebook being overrun with notifications that friends wanted to share their crops and farm animals with me. I got the feeling there was a mob mentality to the game and I was personally turned off by the idea of buying into a product simply because many of my friends did so. The game shows how much our lives can be affected by technology when a "game" dictates how we schedule much of our time just to ensure our imaginary crops don't wither before we can harvest them.
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    Anton, I agree, Civ would keep me up for hours and hours, but I would argue that Civ is different from the farmville model because it is not oriented towards a repetitive (and time based) requirement that one has to come back to the computer a certain time later to click on stuff. Even the social aspect of farmville is a kind of pressure to get more friends into the game just to unlock more stuff, rather than to share in a community effort or a competition.
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    You should definitely look at Jesse Schell's lecture (I think maybe next week?) I put it as optional but do take a look.
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    I do not understand the appeal of Farmville or any other of the 'games' on FB. I guess I also don't understand some people's obsession with their FB or Twitter accounts. If I want to keep in touch with my friends and family, I text or phone them directly - I feel more connected by having direct interactions with them versus reading their wall or sending them a 'gift' for their fake farm. I feel relieved that I no longer have a FB account, and stay in close contact with those people that I really want to keep in contact with. I don't think the 'social' aspect of FB is a substitute for F2F interactions with people you actually like instead of Like.
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    Jorge, that's an interesting blog post, and does point out one of the big reasons why I stopped playing. It was fun for a bit, watching my crops grow, and even uplifting when my facebook friends helped out my crops or sent me gifts without my ever asking, but the planting schedules and need for "x" amount of friends in order to expand made it get old pretty quickly. And I refused to spend real money it.
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    I am sadly one of the people who is currently in the middle of an obsession with a Facebook game. I was able to get away without ever touching Farmville but then they introduced a Hunger Games-based Facebook game... which is basically Farmville with Hunger Games characters. So, yeah, I know how many hours can be wasted on such games. It's really sad; I try to keep my feed as free from my posts about it as possible for my friends' sakes. I remember there was an article in the NYT a while ago about the fact that these games can be just as much of an addiction as more nefarious-seeming things. I didn't think it was possible but then again... I've also spent quite a lot of time collecting hundreds of items that I will probably never use for a mediocre game. :(
Meaghan Corbett

About // // Culture DigitallyCulture Digitally - 1 views

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    Culture Digitally is a gathering space for social informatics scholars around the world, who come from a variety of disciplines (communication, sociology, media studies, computer science, anthropology). to share and comment on the latest research in the field. The idea behind the blog is that social informatics transcends several different areas of study and so cross-disciplinary collaboration is incredibly important.
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    What an interesting blog! The dialogue they had titled "(How) Have Technological Shifts Changed Being A Sports Fan?" was so interesting! My focus as I searched through SI literature tended to focus on issues of censorship and privacy, but the idea that technology would impact sports fandom had never occured to me. The stances made by both participants were very well thought out and presented some really good arguments. The role of technology in fandom studies is an area that could be really interesting to dive deeper into.
Lilia p

All watched over by machines of loving grace - 24 views

I didn't read the interpretation so I don't know really what to think. My instinctual reaction was totally mixed.

Social Informatics poetry documentary Richard Brautigan Adam Curtis Dystopia Utopia

Kerianne Cassidy

Facebook Users Who Are Under Age Raise Concerns - 1 views

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    Across the nation, millions of young people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like Facebook and Myspace. These sites require users to be 13 or older, to avoid federal regulations that apply to sites with younger members.
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    Across the nation, millions of young people are lying about their ages so they can create accounts on popular sites like Facebook and Myspace. These sites require users to be 13 or older, to avoid federal regulations that apply to sites with younger members.
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    The pros and cons of young people using social networking sites took on a whole new meaning for me (and this is news item was about 13-17 year olds -- not younger) when I saw this article in today's NYT: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/after-rapes-involving-children-skout-a-flirting-app-faces-crisis/?ref=todayspaper Yikes.
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    This is all very scary, my nephew is 11, but has had a facebook account for almost 2 years. Granted he is only friends with kids in his school, and family members, but he is so computer savvy, I not sure my sister can really know who he is talking to. I don't know what kind of families his friends come from, and if he is allowing contact from "friends of friends". When Wiklund said "This is my worst fear." he is not being over-dramatic; it's appalling that people seek out ways to abuse materials to get to children. It is going to have to fall on the shoulders of parents, to really know what their children are up to at all times. This is sad because you can't just let a kid go out a ride their bike all day, all around town, like I used to, however this also means that they're spending more time indoors, and on the computer, which we know is also not safe....it seems like there is not right answer for parents.
Brian Peters

Embedding the Internet in the Lives of College Students - 0 views

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    Here is an interesting article on the impact the Internet has had on college students. The study looks specifically at what type of impact Internet use has on student social behavior.
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    Good article! What I found interesting was the correlation between user demographics being the same online as it is offline, i.e. more males checking political communication online AND offline. I think it shows the transition from offline media use, or more traditional modes to online and often an accumulation of both. A bit off topic but it makes me think about how we're becoming masters of mult-tasking, allowing us to be in tune to several different media - whether it be traditional TV, radio etc, and switching gears to reading news online, watching videos online, listening online. As I type this, I'm researching papers and watching TV and feel like I'm in tune to both. Researching how people are now becoming the ultimate multi-taskers would be interesting. However, because we are becoming such great multi-taskers, are we almost giving ourselves a sort of "ADD" in which, in the future, we'll have a hard time concentrating on ONE thing for a certain amount of time. I find it hard to concentrate often on a project or paper with multiple messages going on, emails coming in, texts, Facebook notifications, etc. and frequently break to do all things at once = a ton of white noise!
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    I think we can all relate to this wall of digital "white noise" as university students within the information management sector. It seems as though there is a fine line between multi-tasking and organized distraction. I often find myself dividing my time between school work, personal correspondence, and managing my Ebay account, but this doesn't necessarily mean I'm being more efficient. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT, has actually proven that the human brain "can't focus on more than one thing at a time" (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95256794).
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    Great article @ ABC. I was doing some research for my group project for the unit about e-books, brain, order, etc. and have become extremely interested in the impact of technology on our brain. As much as we may like to think we are great multi-taskers, it seems that our ability to toggle between multiple tasks on computers has hindered our ability to focus on long-winded tasks.
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    I found the correlation between downloading and other online activities to be pretty interesting. It make sense in a practical way, I suppose, since if you're online long enough to engage in regular message board discussions or blogging, you will likely find other activities to do at the same time such as downloading (which does not require your constant attention) or say listening to internet radio. On a kind of a related note, I once had a talk with a committee that was exploring ways to crack down on illegal downloading on campus. One of the methods they discussed using was tracking bandwith activity, and one of the concerns with this was unintentionally catching up people who were using high bandwith for legitimate activities such as streaming videos.
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    "Specifically concerning news habits, the majority of students said they preferred to consult online sources over offline sources for news and information because of the convenience." I definitely agree with this too. I always use the internet for news because I find it so much easier than watching the news on tv which is so inundated with useless information now, and often what I consider scare tactics (it always seems like that in an election year). As well as the phrase they used, "The more, the more". I find this to be true in all internet users. The more they use one system, or are active in one way, the more likely it is that they are active in another.
Anton Angelo

RISKS - 2 views

RISKS is a venerable mailing list on risks to the public from computer and related systems. It has in depth discussion on transport systems, viruses, health systems - and a really really bad strea...

Social Informatics risks ICT privacy

started by Anton Angelo on 04 Jun 12 no follow-up yet
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