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).
The New York times announces that Pakistani secret services seem to take revenge on those that helped US’s raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Pakistan’s top military spy agency has arrested some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the Central…
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The moment of truth A Newsweek photographer got access to a local police station in Ukraine, where he was allowed to photograph crime suspects during their preliminary interrogation. The snapshots in this slideshow were taken when or just before the suspects “confessed”.…
Italy’s deeper troubles magisterially analyzed by the Economist…. Italy is indulgent towards its children in some ways—it is not unusual for them to live at home until they are in their 30s—but hard on them in others. “A typical Italian family these…
“News” from The Associated Press via Report: Students don’t know much about US history.
In an industry where the highest valued companies (Microsoft, Apple or Google) can count their age in mere decades, IBM goes all the way to the 1880s. Hollerith’s counting machine, whose patent was later purchased by what will become IBM, pioneered…
Despite the controversies that surround continued public support for the NPR/CPB there is much talk in Washington nowadays about creating a public funded, yet potentially politically controlled national Internet wireless network. The network will be funded from allocating some of the proceeds…
Faceboo dethrones HI5, Orkut and other also ran networks in most countries of the world. Only significant exceptions, Russia and China. via Amazing maps that show how Facebook is taking over the world.
With the recently passed April 14 anniversary of the Fort Sumter occupation by the Confederates we have entered a period of four years of remembering the 150th anniversary of the many and bloody Civil War battles. The memory of the 600,000 dead…
11 weeks into their mission European NATO partners are out of munitions… Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly criticized NATO nations on Friday, warning of “a dim if not dismal future” for an alliance at risk of becoming irrelevant.
Ilyaas Kashmiri, a Pakistani terrorist at times associated with the Pakistani secret services was killed in a drone attack in the tribal region (South Waziristan Agency area) of Pakistan. It is quite possible the he was turned in by his former handlers…
Springfield tornado is now officially rated as an EF-3 on a scale of 5. An EF-3 event can easily level strong frame homes. The Joplin, Missouri tornado was an EF-5, or “devastating”. Intensity map of the Springfield tornado path, similar to the…
A 2011 E3 Video news roundup E3 is the Electronic Entertainment Expo at which major video and PC game vendors present their new products. This year’s event promises a number of long expected events and products. Here is a line up of…
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the May 22 tornado that scythed a path through Joplin, MO “devastating” assigning it the maximum level of intensity EF-5. It is the deadliest since 1950, when modern record keeping started, and 8th in recorded…
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy The unexpected tornadoes that landed in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 1, 2011, one of which sucked water from a local river and was declared an EF-3 (on a scale of 5),…
Connected, explores the visible and invisible connections linking major issues of our time—the environment, consumption, population growth, technology, human rights, the global economy—while searching for her place in the world during a transformative time in her life.
For the same results, total television ads cost $50 billion more: Mohan noted a $50 billion disconnect between consumer attention given to digital, and consumer attention given to television. In other words, major brand advertisers are spending a lot more in TV…
Joe McNally’s Blog via Seal Teams.
Just like at Stonehenge. the sun only sets twice a year in such a way as to be seen from the eastern end of the numbered streets that run East – West. New Yorkers rejoice: Scores took to Manhattan‘s streets Tuesday to…
Al Gore’s next book promises to start a publishing revolution. Keep your eyes on Push Pop Press. The 800-pound gorilla in this digital space is Adobe, whose tools are used to create some tablet periodicals (including the iPad version of WIRED magazine).…
A class of Mexican kindergarteners braved a drug cartel shootout right under the windows of their school by singing “When it will rain chocolate.” The teacher, maestra Martha Rivera Alanis, told them to lay down and put their little faces on the…
“No, you can’t!” A semi-funny non-verbal communication situation that might or might not convey the meaning of the situation. At the Pittsburgh Summit, 2009 President Obama introduces his wife to Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK), who at the time was still the director…
The devastating series of tornadoes, of which the F-5 (maximum intensity) event that hit Joplin, Missouri left in its wake over 130 dead was the most terrifying, raise the question if tornadoes are becoming more destructive and if 2011 is a record-breaking…
A gigantic tornado in Edmond / Piedmont Oklahoma City is captured live by a local television camera. The super size, multi vortex tornado cell was at at least half a mile wide. The tornado was part of a cluster that affected the…
After a great start, with great positive reactions on Twitter, President Obama’s Middle East speech has become only a few days later a more controversial proposition, both for social media audiences and for newsmakers. According to Social Mention, a social media monitoring…
NEW: Read latest update on social mention sentiment analysis of President Obama’s Middle East speech Textual analysis of the rhetoric and of the social media buzz created by President Obama’s speech on the future of the Middle East (see transcript of Middle…
The book “DSK: Les Secrets d’un presidentiable” (Secrets of a presidential contender) affirms that Dominique Strauss Kahn, the recently resigned IMF head arrested for sexual assault at Sofitel Hotel in New York, was a customer of the Paris swinger (wife swapping) club…
NBC report on what the French think about the IMF head arrest. What is missing from this report is the question: why didn’t the scandal occur earlier and why not in France? The fact that the scandal took place in the US…
Wired’s Dangerroom reports on the amazingly fast transformation of Osama’s last known lair into a recruiting and training ground for the US special forces: TAMPA, Florida — To passers-by, T.J., a fit 20-something, is running around a red felt carpet about half…
Little did @stefmara Twitter user and Neil Monday know that their pictures and videos of the space shuttle Discovery launch from Kennedy Space center, which they captured on their Iphones while flying from Orlando, will make world wide news. Here it’s one…
The latest Pew Poll on religious life in America announces that religious affiliation in America has become a choice, not a consequence of birth circumstances. According to the report “roughly 44% of Americans now profess a religious affiliation that is different…
Japanese Electric power company officials confirm worst case scenario at Fukushima powerplant Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been pumping water into at least three of the six reactors on the site to bring their nuclear fuel rods to a…
An airplane trying to land at London international airport in a driving rain is hit by lightning and keeps flying undaunted. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Atlantic wire announces that the Fourth Estate, represented by Associated Press, is determined to undo the decision of the highest representative of the First Estate (which, in a manner of speech, is the President, since we are not a monarchy) not…
Gizomodo thinks that Google’s notepad/online thin client laptop Chromebook needs to try harder All in all, it’s about exactly what you’d expect for $429 of computer in the shape of a laptop. No more, and not much less. (To be less ambiguous:…
The hacktivist group Anonymous, which was recently in the news for its strong-armed support of Wikileaks, is in the middle of a mini civil war. A group of secessionist members has revealed the online identities and other details (Ip addresses) of some…
Google plans to lease computers for $20 a month, including hardware and software upgrades. I/O 2011. From Mashable: The program, called Chromebooks for Business & Education allows businesses and educational institutions to pay Google a monthly fee in exchange for a…
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Osama Bin Laden’s Abbottabad Mansion is now a scenario in Counter Strike The Abbottabad compound that was the scene of the recent killing of Osama bin Laden by a SEALS team has now been reproduced as a map (.bsp) for the the…
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani vigorously rejected accusations that Osama bin Laden was protected in his Abbottabad mansion by local army or security services. It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or State institutions of Pakistan including the ISI and…
CBS interviewed President Obama as early as Wednesday, May 4 on how the mission to catch and kill Osama Bin Laden emerged and was completed: On Wednesday, May 4, 2011 – three days after he announced that American troops had killed Osama…
If Bin Laden ever hid in Chak Shah Muhammad, a small farming village in Pakistan, the residents said they would have known. http://nyti.ms/kvZyqi
According to Pakistani military sources, Osama Bin Laden lived in Pakistan for almost 8 years. One of his wives, who was captured in Abbottabad, told her Pakistani interrogators that Osama lived for many years in fairly large urban centers in Northern…
White House spokesman John Carney told the White House press corps at a regular briefing that Osama was not armed when killed. Other details, according to AP: Unexpectedly high temperatures caused a lumbering helicopter carrying elite commandos to make a hard…
Click the image to see our full coverage of Obama’s Abbottabad Compound The Department of Defense released this diagram of the Osama Bin Laden Compound. The map below overlays the Department of Defense diagram above onto the exact location of the Osama…
ABC News published footage from Osama bin Laden mansion and released dramatic pictures of the bedroom where the final stand took place. Blood covers the ground and the bed. The inside of the building is nicely furnished. Electronic devices and appliances are…
A special briefing at the White House detailed the manner in which Osama bin Laden was found and killed by US Special Forces. The investigation started in August 2010 and involved Guantanamo Bay interogations. The speakers requested not to be named for…
Following a tip received by CIA in August 2010, the US intelligence community determined that Osama Bin Laden is located in Abbottabad, in North-West Pakistan, about 100 km North of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. He was found, in a “mansion” and killed…
A sudden White House announcement Sunday night that President Obama will give an important address kept the nation in suspense for about an hour and a half until the president announced officially at 11:34 PM EST that Osama Bin Laden is dead.…
The media coverage of the greatest wedding of the 21st century (so far), compressed to 1.5 minutes by MSNBC. Great footage, especially the one inside the cathedral, shot from above the altar. The audience of the wedding was absolutely staggering, more than…
From The New York Times: Storms Rock the South and Midwest Severe weather in parts of the South has killed several people and left thousands more without power from East Texas to Memphis and up through Illinois. Slideshow: http://nyti.ms/mHBp1I
Very good stuff for absolute beginners… PHP is a powerful scripting language that fits gracefully into HTML and puts the tools for creating dynamic websites in the hands of the people — even people like me who were too lazy to learn…
All your digital breadcrumbs in one place… A program aggregates all your location based information and plots it on a map. A new software tool created by Greek programmer Yiannis Kakavas goes much farther in the shock category. Called “Creepy,” Kakavas’ tool…