From Paper Maps to Military Geospatial Data Science
FORCES military geospatial data science projects THOR, OPMAPS, Barbarossa, and South China Sea turn maps into evidence for strategy.
Category: Features
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Why the Space Economy Needs “Spice
When Jeff Bezos announced that he would build a 50,000-satellite space data center, Musk immediately plussed with a million-satellite call. The space cowboy drama aside, the prize is real. Data-in-space may finally give the space economy its first real reason to exist,…
How out-of-control transaction costs spawn preferential attachment
Online human networks are highly centralized, with a few nodes raking in most connections. The conventional wisdom is that this is the product of so-called “preferential attachment.” In Barabasi and Albert’s [1] formulation, new nodes (connectors) added to any network will prefer…
Russia’s practical nuclear options make no sense (and vice-versa)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened Ukraine and its supporters with a nuclear attack that will settle the war he started on February 24, 2022. Some observers claim that the threat is a mere rhetorical trick, while others believe it is part…
Can international trade instigate the next great conflict?
A potential favoring factor for the invasion of Ukraine and the threats made of China to occupy Taiwan could be that International trade clusters cut across political-military alliances. In a study I conducted with Nagisha Ishinabe and published in The National Interest…
Strong and Efficacious Use of Affordance Theory in Communication Inquiry
Summary: Affordance theory, proposed by Gibson and brought to technology research by Norman , proposes that the use of an object is intrinsically determined by its physical shape. However, when translated to digital objects, affordance theory loses explanatory power, as the same…
Preventing military Artificial Intelligence (AIs) agents from taking over from humans is simple: treat them as humans by teaching them the golden rule
The development of AIs capable of targeting, shooting, and eliminating enemies in seconds has reached the threshold of possibility. There is much promise for creating strong defensive weapons but there is just as much fear. What if these AIs could turn rogue…
Should we regulate Facebook? Ask the moms.
An experiment by Tromholt Morten from the University of Copenhagen published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking suggests that people who gave up Facebook for a week ended (for that time) happier, less lonely, and less depressed than those who did not.…
How much should I know?
Once, Socrates was approached at the local gymnasium by a young Athenian man, seeking the tutoring of the great mind of Attica, the wisest man since Solon. “O, Socrates son of Sophronikus, you who know so many things, please take me as…
Communication Technologies & Trade-offs: A particular case of marginal utility
This article is a companion material to the courses I teach at Purdue University as a University core class. The course teaches trade-off thinking as a fundamental method for understanding technological choice and innovation. All technologies are shaped by competing choices Any…
Promoting competency based education through trade-off thinking
We live in a world of things. Those who make the things define the way we live our lives. Their decisions impact not only our trivial needs, such as spending a night on Facebook checking the status of our friends. Technologies that…
The importance of trade-off thinking in studying communication technologies
Technologies such as the power grid, plumbing, or mass media rely on standards that are accepted as simply being there. Electric power is provided at 120V AC, pipe gauges are measured in fractional increments, typically expressed in inches, sitcoms are 30 min…
Roles, trust, and reputation in social media knowledge markets (book)
The first major publication of the KredibleNet project is out. The volume Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods discusses the emerging trends in defining, measuring, and operationalizing reputation as a new and essential component of the…
The Visible Past / Open Context Loosely Coupled Model for Digital Humanities Ubiquitous Collaboration and Publishing: Collaborating Across Print, Mobile, and Online Media
Authors: Sorin Adam Matei, Eric Kansa, Nicholas Rauh. Abstract: The paper presents a platform for supporting academic collaboration and publishing created by flexibly linking Visible Past, a web collaboration and digital-print publishing with Open Context, a geo-historical data archiving and publishing service.…
Virtual Sociability: From Community to Communitas book sees virtual space as permanent, conflict ridden initiation ritual (free download, Smashwords, Kindle, Amazon,PDF, .mobi, ebook)
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…
Is 2011 the worst tornado season ever? Historical tornado statistics suggest near record spike in a declining trend (KML, map, pictures)
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…
Abbottabad, the exact location of the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with American Navy Seals (Update Videos)
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…
How close is your home to a nuclear plant? What is the weighted risk of an earthquake nuclear accident in the United States?
As the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant becomes darker by the day (see Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Update) and the risk of a major meltdown increases, people all over the world ask themselves how great is the danger of a major…
NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel
Marc Smith, cofounder of ConnectedAction and a former Microsoft Research employee, and a group of academics including Ben Shneiderman and Cody Dune have developed a strong competitor to UCINET, the workhorse of social network analysis. The tool rides on top of Excel…
Idols of the forum (Idolii forului) book introduces Romanian publishing to 2d code universe
Our second 2d book, Idolii forului – Idols of the Forum, came out a week ago in my native country, Romania. I co-edited this Romanian language book with Mona Momescu, a Visiting Professor at Columbia University. Mona and I have each contributed…
Ubimark connects print and digital media via 2D codes and iPhone app
Cell phones may seem like a distraction when reading, but our latest project, Ubimark books, can now be paired with novels to link readers to digital resources to create ubitour books. Books open our minds, and now we can use technology to…
Ubimark covered by major online sites: Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, Chronicle of Higher Education Wired Campus
Over the last few days my project, Ubimark, which turns print books such as Around the Word in 80 Days into user interfaces for the web through the magic of 2d or QR codes, has been covered by a number of very…
Visible Effort: A Social Entropy Methodology for Managing Computer-Mediated Collaborative Learning
Abstract A theoretically-grounded learning feedback tool suite, the Visible Effort (VE) Mediawiki extension, is proposed for optimizing online group learning activities by measuring the amount of equality and the emergence of social structure in groups that participate in Computer-Mediated Collaboration (CMC). Building…
Communication as social form: an autoecological perspective
Simmel – Image via Wikipedia by Sorin Adam Matei Professor, Purdue University citation: Matei, S A (2019). Communication as social form. [Online]. Available at: https://matei.org/ithink/2009/12/13/communication-as-social-form-an-autoecological-perspective/. Introduction: What is communication for? What role does communication play in society? Although it is quite obvious…
Virtual Omaha
Map of Omaha Beach German fortifications (blue dropets) laid over the American operational map for June 6, 1944 (misaligned due to Google Maps limitations). Clicking the button “Google Earth” will show the 3d Model of the German fortifications and will correctly align…
Romanian belief in astrology suggests change in global religious outlook
A Recent survey conducted by the Bureau of Social Research shows changes in Romanian religious attitudes that mirror those in Western nations Bucharest, Romania – A recent Bureau of Social Research survey shows that one in five Romanian adults believes in reincarnation…
Localizing the Internet
How can we conceptualize the relationship between technological and social change at the local level? More specifically, what conceptual tools have we got at our disposal to study the emergence of new Internet-related forms of local sociality? This article is a summary…
The future of Bamboo
An emerging consortium of partners dedicated to generic, not specific projects Bamboo, the Mellon Foundation supported project, has reached its third milestone at the Tucson, AZ workshop, when it announced that it will create a development consortium for digital humanities tools and…
A social entropy vision of wiki collaboration
Despite the fact that diverse and equal participation of members is considered to be the essence of true online communities, no compelling index has been proposed to measure the degree of diversity in terms of contributions of content to online social environments.…
A research agenda for collaborative consumer engagement and research methods
We’ve known for about half a decade, if not more, that the Internet allows deep and wide collaboration. We have tried to apply this new tool to academic research, open software development, creating business alliances, reinventing retail and, why not, sharing music…
Creating Online Community: Critical Issues and Practical Guidelines
Submitted by Colleen E. Brown on November 26 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Introduction The need for group membership, social support, and information gathering are part…
Online Community Development: Principles, Practices, and Issues
Submitted on November 26, 2007, to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Abstract: The widespread expansion of communication technology over the past century has resulted in a marked…
Growing online communities
Submitted by Pamela Morris on November 26, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). “An (online) host is like a host at a party. You don’t automatically…
Welcome to I-berspace: Media Gratifications in Successful Virtual Communities
Submitted by Robert N. Yale on October 15, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). Abstract This essay posits that virtual communities are successful to the degree…
Glimpses of Community on the Web
Submitted by Pamela Morris on October 14, 2007 to the On-line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2007, Purdue University, Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink). Glimpses of Community on the Web The term “community” has been appropriated to…
Front Porches and Public Spaces: Planned Communities Online
Front Porches and Public Spaces: Planned Communities Online Susan Huelsing Sarapin Comm. 632: Online Interaction Professor: Dr. Sorin Matei November 19, 2006 Introduction Where else today but in the cost-effective frontier of cyberspace can the average person construct a community?1 With widespread…
Ending Online Communities
Just like everything organic or that takes on a life of its own, at some point your online community is going to die. In his book Design for Community, Powazek provides five reasons why communities end and how to handle breaking the…
Community Design Process
Suppose you are in search for ideas for starting an online group. Here are the steps a typical design process should go through: Community Design Process (This is a wiki page. It can even be edited if you know what you are…
The seven principles of designing communities of practice
Wegner’s Communities of Practice concept is rooted in seven design principles. All good online communities, which are variants of communities of practice, should keep them in mind: 1. Design for evolution Design elements should be catalysts for a community’s natural evolution. As…
I Link, Therefore, I Am: Connection and Identity in Computer-Mediated Communication
By Susan Huelsing Sarapin Submitted on October 22, 2006 to the On-Line Interaction and Facilitation Seminar, Fall 2006, Purdue University Dr. Sorin A. Matei via the I Think Blog (http://www.matei.org/ithink) Introduction Today, people all over the world are connected, or “tethered†(Turkle,…
Deep, Deeper, and Deepest
Lately, most of what I’ve read here has to do with the depth, or lack thereof, of relationships formed online. Notice I don’t call them friendships. They seem to be undermined (intentionally?) by the actors. I had a profile on JDate.com for…
Paradox of Darwinian Equality
In reading the pieces on Wikipedia I was struck by a paradox that I call Darwinian Equality. It seems that one of the fundamental assumptions of Wikipedia is that the best will rise to the top – in a survival of the…
A Small, Skinny Idea
Boilerspace? Just trying to inspire…
What IS the glue?
Brenda raises numerous questions, but “WHY?” is one that I think we were trying to answer in class today. There was a word on the tip of my tongue, and it wasn’t until I read some of Perloff’s “Introduction to Persuasion” at…
The WELL Experiment in Community
I ran across this quote the other day by Alan Bennett. I’m not sure who he is, but I believe he is a writer and humorist. He said, “We started trying to set up a small anarchist community, but the people wouldn’t…
Layered, Emergent and Adaptive Communication Network Systems
Lorraine Kisselburgh This week, Noshir Contractor introduces a rich array of information in discussing communication networks, new grid infrastructures, and social networking tools that can be leveraged to strengthen our communities – whether social, work, virtual, or even “exoticâ€. What follows are…