The Science of Social Participation

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 ... '"

Comments

It's a Cookbook

[Bob9113]

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.

Re:It's a Cookbook

[cold fjord]

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.

Re:It's a Cookbook

[paazin]

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.

Boring.

[Anonymous Coward]

Give us articles about Cloud Business Solutions.

Re:Yeesh

[Mashiki]

But "social scientists" know all, see all, eat all, and tell you where to shit at the end of the day.

Didn't Azimov call this Psychohistory?

[sandbagger]

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

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.