C&T 2007 Invited Speakers

Illustrating Digital Traces: Visualizations of patterns generated by computer-mediated collective action systems
[pdf version of slides]  [ppt version of slides]

Abstract: An explosion of collectively authored content is absorbing a growing slice of people's daily lives, from email, email lists and text messages to blogs, wikis, photos feeds, and tag collections. These systems leave behind rich archives containing patterns of interaction. In raw form, terabytes of messages or other units of interaction are nearly incomprehensible. Using data mining and visualization tools a range of insights and agendas for research are possible. In this workshop I will introduce a range of tools both from the Microsoft Research Community Technologies Group and related work that bring patterns and structured inherent in masses of artifacts of computationally mediated interactions. Students will receive a DVD with a sample dataset and a visualization browser (along with related materials).

About Marc Smith: Marc Smith is a Senior Research Sociologist leading the Community Technologies Group at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA. Marc's group focuses on computer-mediated collective action. He studies and designs enhancements for social cyberspaces. In particular he is interested in the emergence of social organizations like communities in online conversation and annotation environments. His goal is to identify the resources groups need in order to cooperate productively. He is co-editor of Communities in Cyberspace, with Peter Kollock, which explores identity, social order and control, community structures, dynamics, and collective action in cyberspace.He also developed software called Netscan that measures and maps social spaces in the Internet, starting with the Usenet. A related project called Project AURA allows users to associate conversations (and more) with physical objects using mobile wireless devices and web services. Marc was a graduate student in the UCLA Department of Sociology. More information is available at Marc's Microsoft Research Page.

The Life, Times and Tribulations of Slashdot

AbstractJoin Rob Malda and Jeff Bates as they discuss the incubation of Slashdot and the emergence of user-driven content long before this whole Web 2.0 thing. Slashdot in the last ten years has seen the rise and fall of the .com Bubble, and the re-emergence of the Internet as well as being the forerunner of the social networking/user generated content websites so popular today. Rob and Jeff will be talking about the history of Slashdot, its unique editorial and user systems and talking with the audience about the site is headed now.

About Rob Malda, Jeff Bates and Slashdot (from http://slashdot.org/about.shtml): "In the beginning there was no Slashdot. Bored and confused geeks would scribble 'First Post' in the sand. Grits were strictly for consumption and there wasn't a place to get nerd oriented news. Then in September of 97 Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda changed all that. With the help of Jeff 'Hemos' Bates and others, Slashdot has stumbled forward with the simple mission to provide 'News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters'."

"Today Slashdot is owned by OSTG, but it is still run by many of the same people as it was 'Back in the Day'. Today we serve millions of pages to hundreds of thousands of readers. But the goal is still the same."

Wikipedia's entry about Slashdot notes that "Slashdot ... is a technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a "nerdy" slant. It is known for the Internet forum-style comments section attached to each story; Slashdot was one of the first popular websites to include a commentary section in such a prominent manner." It further states that "Though the site antedates the modern concept of the weblog, Slashdot's architecture is commonly compared to that of modern blogs. Slashdot is notable in that its commenting system is much more robust than most blogs, with threading and user moderation having been introduced before these were commonplace in modern weblog packages."

Agents and Faces: The Reliability of Online Signals

Abstract: Much of what we want to know about other people is not directly observable: are you a nice person? do you really like the cake I baked? will you return this loan? Instead, we rely on signals, which are observable,though not always reliable, indicators of these qualities of interest. Signaling theory is an approach for analysiing the reliability of such cues.

Understanding signals is particularly important when designing for online communication, for here almost everything is a signal; I cannot, for example directly observe your height but must instead rely on the signal of a photograph or self description.

In this talk I will introduce signaling theory, then show how it can be used in both the analysis of existing communication technologies and the design of new ones. The focus will be on signals of social idenitity - what type of person are you and - of growing concern online - are you, in fact, a person?

About Judith Donath: Judith Donath is an Associate Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she directs the Sociable Media research group. Her work focuses on the social side of computing, synthesizing knowledge from fields such as graphic design, urban studies and cognitive science to build innovative interfaces for online communities and virtual identities. She is known internationally for pioneering research in social visualization, interface design, and computer mediated interaction. She created several of the early social applications for the web, including the first postcard service ("The Electric Postcard"), the first interactive juried art show ("Portraits in Cyberspace") and an early large-scale web event ("A Day in the Life of Cyberspace"). Her work has been exhibited at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and in several New York galleries; she was the director of "Id/Entity", a collaborative exhibit of installations examining how science and technology' are transforming portraiture. Her current research focuses on creating expressive visualizations of social interactions and on building experimental environments that mix real and virtual experiences. She has a book in progress about how we signal identity in both mediated and immediate situations. Professor Donath received her doctoral and master's degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, her bachelor's degree in History from Yale University, and has worked professionally as a designer and builder of educational software and experimental media.