The Science of Social Participation

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The Science of Social Participation

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:06PM from the break-it-down dept.

cold fjord writes in with this story about research that breaks down Twitter conversations in 6 basic types."The Pew Research Center and the Social Media Research Foundation analyzed thousands of twitter conversations going back to 2010. They found these conversations occurred based on the structure of the individual's Twitter network. For example, the subjects and content that a person tweets about, the people they follow, the people who follow them and the way they network creates a structure of social activity. In a recently released report Pew reports that they uncovered six distinct patterns for these structures. 'These are data-driven early steps in understanding Twitter discussion structures that contribute to the emerging science of social participation,' Ben Shneiderman professor of computer science at the University of Maryland ... 'This new field is emerging right before our eyes and could eventually have a large impact on our understanding of everything from health to community safety, from business innovation to citizen science and from civic engagement to sustainable energy programs.' ... 'These maps provide insights into people's behavior in a way that complements and expands on traditional research methods ... '"

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phew does reflect random crapflooding? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:17 · Score: 0

aka crapflooding http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=twitter+pr+shill+percent&sm=3
What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:18 · Score: 0

Not a single fuck is given about this story!
1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 19:15 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Submitter "cold fjord" is one unit of a US government sockpuppet team which uses the type of data analysed by the Pew Research Center to improve their ability to influence readers here.
  Slashdot is also part of the research - he's trying to assess how much of the readership is aware of the monitoring.
2. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 22:42 · Score: 1
  
  That's the purpose of Slashdot Beta, to monitor users, eeerrr I mean, audience members. The large fonts and huge empty spaces are so that they can fit the tiny surveillance cameras in between. And by making you scroll the page 50 times to read or type a 200 word post, they are getting your muscle movement patterns from your mouse to build a physical fitness profile on you.
3. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 01:55 · Score: 0
  
  Apparently there are some badly calibrated troll detectors among the moderators.
4. Re:What? by cold+fjord · 2014-02-21 02:46 · Score: 1
  
  Apparently some people never get over their shock and rage at encountering someone that holds a different viewpoint than their own, and is willing to defend it with evidence.
  I don't work for the government, nor am I a sock puppet. There is nontrivial percentage of people in my country that hold beliefs generally similar to mine. It takes a particularly stunted view to think you will never encounter them. I hope you get over it, sometime.
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
5. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 04:53 · Score: 0
  
  "It takes a particularly stunted view to think you will never encounter them."
  Nah, they just think mommy and daddy will continue to pay for their dorm room so they wont ever have to leave campus.
It's a Cookbook by Bob9113 · 2014-02-20 15:19 · Score: 2

The Pew Research Center and the Social Media Research Foundation analyzed thousands of twitter conversations going back to 2010. ... 'These maps provide insights into people's behavior in a way that complements and expands on traditional research methods ... '
It's a cookbook. Society is a fuzzy programmable machine, and we are rapidly advancing the science of computer aided psychological operations (CAPO). Widespread use of centralized insecure comm systems makes the research work really easy. Lambs to the slaughter.

--
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
1. Re:It's a Cookbook by cold+fjord · 2014-02-20 16:55 · Score: 2
  
  Couple that with the growing understanding of the brain, how it functions, and how to read it via various imaging techniques, and the growing understanding of the genetic links to behavior and you have the foundations for the future development of either major medical breakthroughs, or terrible tools of oppression. I wonder if we have the ethics to use these many new tools for good? Humanity has a tendency for technology to outpace wisdom.
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
2. Re:It's a Cookbook by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 22:45 · Score: 0
  
  Reminds me of the Brad Pitt character in Twelve Monkeys, the part where he claims that during his stay at the mental hospital they must have built a model of his brain to predict his actions several years into the future.
3. Re:It's a Cookbook by paazin · 2014-02-21 04:25 · Score: 2
  
  Couple that with the growing understanding of the brain, how it functions, and how to read it via various imaging techniques, and the growing understanding of the genetic links to behavior and you have the foundations for the future development of either major medical breakthroughs, or terrible tools of oppression. I wonder if we have the ethics to use these many new tools for good? Humanity has a tendency for technology to outpace wisdom.
  Much of this rhetoric borders on needless alarmism; we've had technologies of destruction and oppression for decades and we've managed fairly well despite it. Don't forget that psychological/scientific analysis of human behavior has been influencing politics and those in power for over a century now.
Yeesh by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2014-02-20 15:25 · Score: 0, Troll

Would somebody please kill all the "social scientists" before they do any more harm.
1. Re:Yeesh by Mashiki · 2014-02-20 15:35 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  But "social scientists" know all, see all, eat all, and tell you where to shit at the end of the day.
  
  --
  Om, nomnomnom...
2. Re:Yeesh by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:44 · Score: 0
  
  Keep the social scientists out of my toilet.
3. Re:Yeesh by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 16:20 · Score: 0
  
  The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
  - Billy Shakespeare
4. Re:Yeesh by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 18:17 · Score: 0
  
  But I take my shit in the mornings, you insensitive clod!
Boring. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:30 · Score: 2, Funny

Give us articles about Cloud Business Solutions.
1. Re:Boring. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:52 · Score: 1
  
  According to the latest research from the Amazon Unbiased Research Foundation Center, the Cloud can provide Solutions to grow your Business!
2. Re:Boring. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 16:58 · Score: 0
  
  Where is your submission on it for us to vote up?
3. Re:Boring. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 05:59 · Score: 0
  
  The next person to utter the term "Cloud" in reference to other people's servers, should be shot.
accurate research completely overlooked by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:30 · Score: 0

#chomsky & assoc.....
How it is used by moschner · 2014-02-20 15:30 · Score: 0

While this is an interesting look into way people communicate online, for some reason I see this research being used by advertisers before being put to more civic minded uses.
1. Re:How it is used by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:48 · Score: 0
  
  Will this research help me make friends with fake 16-year-old girls?
Pussy by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 15:51 · Score: 0

It's all about females.
See guys doing something stupid? It's because women encourage it. When the ladies stop thinking something is cool, the activities stop forthwith. So when you see something stupid going on... don't blame the poor guys trying to attract females.
I am quite sure most of the behaviour in social networks can be summed up using some subset of the rule above.
1. Re:Pussy by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 16:00 · Score: 0, Funny
  
  How dare you imply the existence of a gynecocracy that controls men. You are sexist by definition. Mods, delete the offender immediately.
Didn't Azimov call this Psychohistory? by sandbagger · 2014-02-20 15:57 · Score: 3, Informative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

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---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
1. Re:Didn't Azimov call this Psychohistory? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 16:26 · Score: 0
  
  Gratz!
  Caught one with mod points to burn!
Those who wish not to participate? by EzInKy · 2014-02-20 16:41 · Score: 1

Wouldn't that be a more interesting study? What do researchers make of those who do not want their every bowell movement be globally shared make of them? Do they simply label such people as social parranahs who are trying to hide illicit activity or do they factor in sincere the sincere desires to preserve a human being's privacy?

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Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
1. Re:Those who wish not to participate? by cascadingstylesheet · 2014-02-20 22:45 · Score: 1
  
  Wouldn't that be a more interesting study? What do researchers make of those who do not want their every bowell movement be globally shared make of them? Do they simply label such people as social parranahs who are trying to hide illicit activity or do they factor in sincere the sincere desires to preserve a human being's privacy?
  Or who maybe just aren't interested? Or who maybe (gasp) don't even use Twitter?
  I'm so sad that they won't be able to analyze me.
2. Re:Those who wish not to participate? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 01:28 · Score: 1
  
  The self-selecting nature of social media participants has been underestimated in all forms of research and analysis. The only people who participate in social media seem to be people who have nothing better to do. The people who are doing something don't have the time and energy to bother. So you have a self-selected group of people with nothing better to do than post to social media, which gives you a population of people who have some reason to promote themselves (media figures, athletes, etc), unemployed people, busybodies, and so on. This absolutely has to skew any conclusions drawn from looking at social media posts.
3. Re:Those who wish not to participate? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 03:13 · Score: 0
  
  The self-selecting nature of social media participants has been underestimated in all forms of research and analysis. The only people who participate in social media seem to be people who have nothing better to do. The people who are doing something don't have the time and energy to bother. So you have a self-selected group of people with nothing better to do than post to social media, which gives you a population of people who have some reason to promote themselves (media figures, athletes, etc), unemployed people, busybodies, and so on. This absolutely has to skew any conclusions drawn from looking at social media posts.
  Which is why actual social scientists don't use social media to do their research.
4. Re:Those who wish not to participate? by epiccollision · 2014-02-21 04:55 · Score: 1
  
  how long before we find out/realize most of "social media" is a self aggrandizing pit of bots and social media companies. I know people who operate thousands of followers/friends each, they may not outnumber the real users but they are following/friends with one.
Maybe I'm missing the point but... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 16:49 · Score: 0

I think this guys smokin crack lol. Who makes a leap from twitter patterns to sustainable energy programs?! Dafuq is he smoking, seriously...
Re:Nazi Bootlicker by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 18:06 · Score: 0

he is also a nigger and an anaemic little faggot
Re:Nazi Bootlicker by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2014-02-20 18:16 · Score: 1

And those are his GOOD points...

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Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Re:Nazi Bootlicker by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 19:08 · Score: 0

This should be moderated "Informative". Please read CF's posting history before moderating.
Classic patterns of group interacion ON A COMPUTER by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 20:31 · Score: 0

(network)... dibs on the Patent; PAY ME!
Auntie Frist Posdt
good,pyrolysis plant by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-20 21:42 · Score: 0

Doinggroup manufacture pyrolysis plant,pyrolysis reactors,waste tyre pyrolysis plant,our pyrolysis plant can pyrolyze waste tyres and waste plastic into fuel oil.
projection by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 01:12 · Score: 0

"If a pattern didn’t fit into a particular structure they created a new".
Sounds as pointless as trying to find meaning in the changing shape of a flock of starlings. They are trying to project meaning on the meaningless.
Oh well by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 02:27 · Score: 0

Just wait until they start to use the findings to make predictions - that's when things get ugly.
.
prof of computer science by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 03:23 · Score: 0

has something to say about social interactions??? I mean really?
Re:Nazi Bootlicker by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 03:25 · Score: 0

When did Slashdot get taken over by eurofags? I assume about the time it went into the shitter many years ago.
Re:Nazi Bootlicker by Anonymous Coward · 2014-02-21 03:32 · Score: 0

Not just eurofags but liberal arts majors and social science majors (i.e wanna-be eurofags). First post is obviously a poly-sci acolyte training for the priesthood.
Lies, lies, and statistics by Princeofcups · 2014-02-21 06:01 · Score: 1

What percentage of twitter is marketing teams using each other to up their numbers? Where I work, most employees who are customer facing were told to double their twitter followers. They all followed hundreds of accounts that automatically follow you back. Check, good work says the marketing team. This is just another of the many bogus internet trends that will collapse under its own weight.

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The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.