Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
Assistant Vice President for Partnerships in Strategic Defense Innnovation and Professor of Communication at Purdue University, Director of the FORCES initiative leads research teams that study the relationship between technological and social systems using big data, simulation, and mapping approaches. He published papers and articles in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He is the author or co-editor of several books. The most recent is Structural differentation in social media. He also co-edited Ethical Reasoning in Big Data,Transparency in social media and Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods (Computational Social Sciences) , all three the product of the NSF funded KredibleNet project. Dr. Matei's teaching portfolio includes technology and strategy, online interaction, and digital media analytics classes. A former BBC World Service journalist, his contributions have been published in Esquire and several leading Romanian newspapers. In Romania, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), and Idei de schimb (Spare ideas).
It takes the sweetness of a six year old to get over such a terrible incident… Amplify’d from www.nydailynews.com A 6-year-old girl attacked by a shark off North Carolina earlier this month is expected to make a full recovery.And little Lucy Magnum…
Spotted by my wife, thus notable. A team of scientists says it’s officially time to leave the idea of time travel in the past. In a study released by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, a team of physicists claims to…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign Affairs Over 30 people died in a collision of two “high speed rail” trains in China. The incident was very sensitive. It highlighted that the recent extension of the Chinese fast train network might’ve not taken into account…
The Oslo / Utoya suspected mass murderer Anders Behring Brievik published a very short time before he is believe to have killed over 80 adolescents an online pdf book titled 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence. The volume is a disjointed…
More than 80 people were killed execution style by an individual wearing a police uniform on Utoya Island, 35 kilometers northwest of Oslo, the capital of Norway. The killing followed a devastating bomb blast in the center of Oslo, which is suspected…
Are you in front of an information booth, at the mall? Do you want to do a Google search without a keyboard? The Google voice gizmo by Breakfast, an open source hardware project, has something for you. The device uses Arduino boards…
Bryan Pijanowski, the head of the Soundscape Ecology Project at Purdue University, and Sorin Adam Matei, the author of this blog and the founder of the Ubimark publishing initiatives have set up a mapping site, http://Ubimark.info, to collect and map everyday sounds…
Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn, III announced on July 14, 2011 that in the wake of a massive hacking incident that resulted in the loss of over 24,000 sensitive files from a Department of Defense contractor internal network, any major…
NOTE: Soon, my places will be replaced by a new map making tool, which can be previewed here https://mapsengine.google.com/map/ A few weeks after the rebranding of Google Maps as My Places, the interface lacked an explicit tool for exporting individual maps as…
Three devastating explosions in three busy areas of Mumbai (Zavari Bazaar, Davar West, and near Mumbai Opera House) have produced by the latest accounts over 15 deaths and 100 wounded. The crowdsourced (collaborative) mapping project at http://maps.myindia.bz/mumbai/ invites you to add new…
The tablets used in the series Star Trek have come to life. CBS sells the PADD Ipad application on Itunes. CBS Interactive just released the holy grail of Star Trek apps, an app that turns your iPad into a genuine PADD straight…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign Affairs Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has been assassinated by a close security guard and member of the family. The Taliban claimed responsibility and the Pakistanis have reasons to rejoice. “Tuesday morning, AWK…
The European leaders are a step closer to admitting that Greece needs to default on its debt. A special fund will buy back Greece’s debt, although this will not solve the economic problems of Europe. The euro might cease to exist as…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsIf Italy loses its footing, Europe will come tumbling down. Things are not looking good at all. “Italy, long a bystander to the euro-zone’s debt woes, was thrust into the maelstrom Monday, as investors fled the country’s bonds…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesA Santa Fe Institute study looked at chains of social interactions online and it discovered that negativity online tends to spin out of control faster than positive interactions. “The world they’ve chosen is a massive multiplayer…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesThe Information Society is a multidisciplinary journal intended to answer questions about the Information Age. It provides a forum for thoughtful commentary and discussion of significant topics in the world of information, such as transborder data…
Via Scoop.it – Mapping current eventsThe worrying parallels between East Germany and Greece.Show original
Via Scoop.it – Media convergence A new, interesting Iphone App and project, similar to another Flickr project A few new apps will tell you what used to be nearby, or even what might have been nearby — less practical but often thoroughly…
A superbly written, on a par with Going After Cacciato, yet equally troubled account of small unit war action in 1917. Wonderful prose about the minutia of everyday life, in and outside trenches, mixed with a broader meditation about the meaning of…
According to a recent European Union study, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Cyprus lead social networking pack in Europe, with more than 2/3rds of Internet users accessing social networking sites frequently. On the other hand, the same countries are less concerned about privacy…
Are we on the verge of bringing forecasting of meteorological precision to military and counter-terrorism operations ? Wired Magazine speculates: In a paper published last week in Science, researchers present an equation to describe how fatal attacks escalate – whether it’s a…
If you are rushed, as I was, to upgrade to the3.2 version of WordPress and if you are using the Arras theme, you might get the white screen of death. After upgrade you might not be able to see anything. The solution…
Via Scoop.it – Media convergenceIO5 revolution via All things digital (Wall Street Journal)… Physical buttons to control the camera Location aware notifications Itune-less connection to other devices Deep integration with Twitter Native support for newsShow original
Swiss students at the The Flying Machine Arena at the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control ETH Zurich re-purpose Xbox hand gesture controller Kinect for remote controlling a helicopter. Related articles 7 Mind-Blowing Xbox Kinect Hacks [VIDEOS] (mashable.com)
Google+ is the search giant’s response to Facebook’s recent raise as the most visited site in the world. The tools aim to make the web experience of Google account users a little bit more like that offered by Facebook. The problem is,…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesWhat is really at stake in the Google+ project “But as I learned in almost year of following the project’s development, with multiple interviews with the team and its executives, Google+ is not a typical release.…
The 2011 La Concha (New Mexico) fire that engulfed as of June 28 over 60,000 acres of Ponderosa pine and mixed coniferous forests keeps creeping toward the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The latest data released by the US Forest Service Incident Information…
Via Scoop.it – Mad Max Societies: Post Apocalyptic Technology and SocietyWar is not just about outkilling the enemy, but also about underspending him. If we keep spending 500,000 dollars a year to support each soldier in the field, as it seemed to…
Via Scoop.it – Media convergenceAn analyst expects Apple to launch both an iPhone 5 and a mid-range iPhone 4S [caption id=…Show original
Via Scoop.it – Mapping current eventsVenezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, holed up in a Cuban hospital for what appears to be radiation therapy for prostate cancer, reportedly telephoned a meeting of his ruling party’s leadership, a move that did little to quell growing…
Both Nebraska nuclear power plants have been partially covered by the waters of the 2011 flood. The Fort Calhoun Nuclear plant came under threat after a protection berm collapsed and a turbine room was inundated. At the time of the incident the…
Via Scoop.it – Mad Max Societies: Post Apocalyptic Technology and SocietyThe Intifada is not televised, it is now spread via Iphone apps… “US computer giant Apple has culled a Palestinian application from its iPhone offerings at the request of Israel, which said…
Via Scoop.it – Mad Max Societies: Post Apocalyptic Technology and SocietyFor a long time I thought Al Qaeda uses donkey mail. Now we know that in fact it uses “thumb nail”… “Does al-Qaida really not have an IT department? The U.S. intelligence…
Via Scoop.it – Mad Max Societies: Post Apocalyptic Technology and Society An Internet for abandoned community. How long until the Taliban figure out how to use these technologies? “In light of events that occured in the Middle East earlier this year, many…
Via Scoop.it – Mad Max Societies: Post Apocalyptic Technology and SocietyAlbeit LulzSec calling it quits, the hacking saga continues. Hacker group Anonymous claimed responsibility of taking down Tunisian government’s official website moments ago.Show original
Via Scoop.it – Mapping current eventsSpringfield tornado is now officially rated as an EF-3 on a scale of 5. An EF-3 event can easily level strong frame homes.Show original
Via Scoop.it – Media convergenceNewsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. Another type of front page…Show original
Via Scoop.it – Media convergence“Apple might want to sell you your next TV… Apple plans to “blow Netflix and all those other guys away” with a console that would have Apple TV and iTunes built into it, the source reportedly told DailyTech.…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies “J.K.Rowling presents Pottermore: a unique and free-to-use website which builds an exciting online experience around the reading of the Harry Potter books…” The site will combine reading with extra features, some embedded in a new…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesIt’s not a skill that’s been widely understood until quite recently, however community management has begun to move to the forefront of di (RT @cflanagan: .@mor_trisha commenting on Dion’s Community Mgr as “jack of all trades”…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesThe average working woman is putting in more hours on the job, a Bureau of Labor Statistics study found. Women are averaging about 10 more minutes a day on work compared with last year. Question: does…
Via Scoop.it – InfotentionWhat if you had to focus for at least 30 minutes on every single task that you did? Would it improve your productivity? Cal Newport takes hard focus for a test drive.Show original
Via Scoop.it – InfotentionThe point is that new tools in general, and Twitter in particular, greatly challenge the binary dichotomy of attention as something that is either given or taken away, distracted. Instead, these tools allow us to direct attention to destinations…
Via Scoop.it – InfotentionScraperWiki is an online tool to make that process simpler and more collaborative. Anyone can write a screen scraper using the online editor. In the free version, the code and data are shared with the world. Because it’s a…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesA resource for social media and digital humanities scholars. Academic and professional papers on mass media and social media research.Show original
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesInterested in Demand Generation Strategy?Show original
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesAmazon.co.jp? Evolution of American Urban Society: Howard P.Show original
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesResearch: Focus Groups Vs Social Media (Research: Focus Groups Vs Social Media http://tinyurl.com/6h4bm4y…)…Show original
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesHow do virtual communities come together? What makes them strong? What social theories can be used for explaining them? What rules and policies can be used to make virtual communities last?Show original
Lech Walesa had this word of wisdom for the Tunisians: Lech Walesa chuckles as he recounts a conversation he had in April with reformers in Tunisia, cradle of the Arab Spring. “They told me they want to purge everybody linked to the…
To what degree can the human exchanges we observe online be called “sociability”? In other words, do these exchanges amount to any meaningful type of social organization? Are they more than the mere froth of collective emotion discharging its energy with a…
Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook (Arctic White) Google Chromebook, the minimal-OS, always on, wireless laptop is a major disappointment for David Pogue… Truth is, considering how stripped-down the Samsung is, you have to wonder why it’s as big, heavy and expensive as…
Al Jazeera filed this video report on the DYI armament mini factories set up by the Libyan rebels in Misrata. Improvisation is the name of the game and some contraptions are truly dumbfounding. My favorite: the pick up truck mounted airplane rocket…