Technology-Mediated Social Participation
Jennifer Preece (preece@umd.edu)
College of Information Studies – iSchool
Ben Shneiderman (ben@cs.umd.edu)
Dept. of Computer Science
Goal: Transform society with social media
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Healthcare
Disaster response
Energy
Education
Culture & diversity
Political participation
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Environment & climate
Citizen science
Economic health
Public safety
Globalization & development
Local civic involvement
Challenges & Dangers
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Malicious attacks
Privacy violations
Lack of trust
Failure to be universal
Unreliable when needed
Misuse by
• Terrorists & criminals
• Promoters of racial hatred
• Political oppressors
Early Steps
Informal Gathering
College Park, MD, April 2009
Article: Science March 2009
BEN SHNEIDERMAN
http://iparticipate.wikispaces.com
Workshops: Dec 2009 & April 2010
NSF Grant IIS-0956571
www.tmsp.umd.edu
Cyberinfrastructure for Social Action on National Priorities
- Scientific Foundations
- Advancing Design of Social Participation Systems
- Visions of What is Possible With Sharable
Socio-technical Infrastructure
- Participating in Health 2.0
- Educational Priorities for
Technology Mediated Social Participation
- Engaging the Public in Open Government:
Social Media Technology and
Policy for Government Transparency
Vision: Social Participation
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Healthcare, disaster response, energy
• Education, culture & diversity…
2) Develop Theories of Social Participation
• How do social media networks evolve?
• How can participation be increased?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
From Reader to Leader:
Motivating Technology-Mediated Social Participation
All
Users
Reader
2B
500M
Contributor
Collaborator
500K
`
Preece & Shneiderman, AIS Trans. Human-Computer Interaction1 (1), 2009
aisel.aisnet.org/thci/vol1/iss1/5/
Leader
Vision: Social Participation
1) Focus on National Priorities & Impact
• Healthcare, disaster response, energy
• Education, culture & diversity…
2) Develop Theories of Social Participation
• How do social media networks evolve?
• How can participation be increased?
3) Provide Technology Infrastructure
• Scalable, reliable, universal, manageable
• Protect privacy, stop attacks, resolve conflicts
NodeXL:
Network Overview for Discovery & Exploration in Excel
www.codeplex.com/nodexl
casci.umd.edu/NodeXL_Teaching
Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL
I. Getting Started with Analyzing Social Media Networks
1. Introduction to Social Media and Social Networks
2. Social media: New Technologies of Collaboration
3. Social Network Analysis
II. NodeXL Tutorial: Learning by Doing
4. Layout, Visual Design & Labeling
5. Calculating & Visualizing Network Metrics
6. Preparing Data & Filtering
7. Clustering &Grouping
III Social Media Network Analysis Case Studies
8. Email
9. Threaded Networks
10. Twitter
11. Facebook
12. WWW
13. Flickr
14. YouTube
15. Wiki Networks
www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/723354/description
Nation of Neighbors website: Art Hanson
NoN Report: Promotes Community Safety
Break-In/Burglary
Theft-Other Than from Home
Vandalism/Graffiti/Destruction
Suspicious Activity
Threat
Assault
Accident-Motor Vehicle
Drug Activity
Fire
Public Nuisance
Reckless Endangerment
Animal Problem
ATV Complaint
Litter/Garbage Dumping
Quality of Life Issue
Other
NoN Forums: How to motivate?
BioTracker Team
Arijit Biswas (CS, PhD student); Anne Bowser (iSchool, MS student);
Jen Hammock (EOL); Derek Hansen (iSchool); David Jacobs (CS, UMIACS);
Darcy Lewis (iSchool, PhD student); Cyndy Parr (EOL); Jenny Preece (iSchool); Dana
Rotman (iSchool, PhD student); Erin Stewart (iSchool MS student); Eric (CS, Undergrad)
Research questions
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Q1 How can a socially intelligent system be used
to direct human effort and expertise to the most
valuable collection and classification tasks?
Q2 What are the most effective strategies for
motivating enthusiasts and experts to voluntarily
contribute and collaborate?
Biotrackers.net
BioTracker system architecture
Mobile Devices
with BioTracker app
Camera
Internet connection
Match recommendations
Q&A component
Biotracks map
Photos,
Biocaching
and
commentary
upload
image
Community
Portal
user
input
Profiles, groups,
and species pages
Images,
accuracy
Identifications, Maps, estimate
Threaded discussion
Computational
Tools
Image database
Shape descriptors
Image segmentation algorithm
Image recognition algorithm
Inference system
Possible
new
species
answers
information collection, clarification questions
identification
and upload
Enthusiasts
Scientists
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL.org)
Take Away Messages
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Identify ambitious research themes
Develop consensus with colleagues
Engage other disciplines
Reach out to journalists & public
Work with industry & government
Communicate to policy makers
Create courses & degree programs
Thursday morning talks:
- Nation of Neighbors: Understanding users and their motivations
- Encyclopedia of Life: Motivating public enthusiasts and expert scientists to
document the world's species
- Using Online Games to Integrate Human and Computer Vision
Next Steps (& Thanks to NSF)
Summer Social WebShop, August 23-26, 2011
IIS1135022: WebShop 3.0: Technology-Mediated Social Participation
NSF Social Computational Systems Program:
SES-0968546: BioTracker: Melding Human & Machine Intelligence
to Create Large-Scale Collaborative Systems
IIS-0968521: Supporting a Nation of Neighbors with
Community Analysis Visualization Environments
NodeXL Project Continues - Thanks to Microsoft
Social Media Research Foundation - Launched
Biotrackers.net
www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/NON
Nodexl.codeplex.com
www.smrfoundation.org