Sorin Adam Matei
Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.
Topical news on social media, web culture, digital humanities
An absolutely fascinating article on how leaders modulate and stimulate learning in online environments. If fits in nicely with the Jigsaw model of teaching and learning. The growth of online learning has exposed fundamental gaps in our knowledge, both theoretical and pragmatic.…
An older study by Kumar et al. looking at Flickr and Yahoo 360 noticed not only the typical 80/20 distribution of connections, but also the social importance of the people in the top 20%. These individuals are the “linkers,” the ones that…
The great weakness of location aware mobile apps is precision and location relevance. Mobile apps that are supposed to push to you info about the place you are at rely on GPS signals to pull in information. Even when very precise, they…
Justin Jones: WordPress Security or Why Google Says You Shouldn’t Visit My Church | WordPress.tv.
Crowdsourcing and social media trust emerged to be the most Twitter-discussed topics related to the second Kredible Net workshop on Trust, Authority, and Credibility in social media, which I co-organized at Stanford University. A NodeXL analysis also suggests that the conversation was carried…
Self check-out machines are slower than check out clerks and many think that the race against robots is not lost. Yet, the race is not humans vs. robots, but customers vs. corporations. The argument ignores a simple thing: slower check out “robots”…
In the context of the Snowden and Prism scandal, Google released a transparency report, which discloses the number of judicial requests for disclosing information about Google service users by country over a period of three years. Data has been released in the…
According to Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) leaker, the US government has recruited several major Internet corporations, especially Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, to help it harvest emails, videos, and web traffic from unsuspecting US and foreign citizens through…
Not a billionaire, yet enjoying the limelight… Married for the third time, now to a Londoner, Jimmy Wales enjoys life among the glitterati of the world. A very entertaining and at times informative profile in the New York Times… High-minded or not,…
CNN announces that as the sales of barnes and Noble ereaders tumbled, the company reconsiders its strategy. Barnes & Noble is starting to have second thoughts about the Nook. After sales of the e-reader and tablet line fell 34% in the company’s…
A method of monitoring copyright infringing P2P traffic meant to notify users in real time that the content they are viewing has been uploaded online illegally has been implemented by five of the most important ISPs in the United States: ATT, Verizon,…
This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University by Sorin Adam Matei Can social media increase the effect of undesirable social communication processes, such as the echo chamber or spiral of silence?…
This is a learning module for the class Contemporary Social / Mass Media Theory taught at Purdue University bySorin Adam Matei Knowledge gap hypothesis proposes that more information does not always mean a better informed public, or at least that not all members of…
The relative popularity of the contenders in the 2012 US Presidential campaign can be measured not only by traditional polling methods, but also by the buzz the contestants create online and in social media. One efficient tool is Google Trends, which indicates…
Microsoft Surface tablet prices swing widely between $599 and $1000… Microsoft can’t realistically sell it over $999 and in fact needs to go under, somewhere around $499… More At the Surface unveiling, Microsoft announced that the tablets would be “priced competitively” with…
See on Scoop.it – Mapping current events General Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, gave an address at the Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas Friday saying “Sometimes you guys get a bad rap. From my perspective, what you’re doing to…
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies A TV/Web report on the digital revolution and how it’s changing our lives, with video stories, interviews, and user-generated video on relationships, information overload, education, the military, parenting, brain development, and more. See on…
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies Want to know what Tom Daley’s bedroom looks like? Or how Matthew Mitcham amuses himself in the Olympic Park between training sessions? Or where 5,000 can sit down to dinner? See on socialmediatoday.com
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies ROI eludes many folks in the social media space. Not because social marketeers aren’t able to, it’s just damn difficult to assign cause and effect to a very organic and often nebulous activity. See…
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies A newspaper by Pekka Puhakka – updated daily with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos. (The Location Aware Services Daily is out! See on paper.li
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies In preparing for our morning show we were doing some research and came across an old story that showed that StumbleUpon was actually driving more traffic than FaceBook in January of 2011 and we wondered…
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies This really is for anyone who is new to this exciting business! Using quotation marks is something that confuses many online. People usually ask “why (Keyword Research! See on www.warriorforum.com
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies At launch, Path seemed like the ultimate social network for mobiles. It was as addictive to scroll as Instagram, but richer in actions like Facebook. See on www.fastcodesign.com
See on Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies BioSpace Spotlights the growing Midwest Life Science Community [February 7, July – 2:01 AM PST]: (RT @investorpoint: BioSpace Spotlights the growing Midwest Life Science Community http://t.co/Ax38fd8z...)… See on www.investorpoint.com
Our colleague, H. Porter Abbott, at UCSB teaches a great course on Narrative theory, which includes this awesome reading list… Enjoy: Abbott, H. Porter. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Bal, Mieke. Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of…
In a an extremely detailed report to be delivered to the computer security conference, Imperva, an IT security consulting company describes how the hacker Anonymous group launched Operation Pharisee to bring down the Vatican web site. The report is to be presented…
Prediction market Intrade evaluates The Artist’s chances to win the Oscar for best movie at over 90% and Dujardin’s chance to be awarded best actor at 70%. In the meanwhile, HSX indicates strong bets in the same direction. Sources Traders aim to…
privacy (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee) The Obama Administration proposed on February 24 a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights that would regulate how private corporations and business entities handle private data. The announcement includes: A Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights The Consumer Privacy…
A wonderful list of Twitter Sentiment Analysis Tools collated by Twittersentiment.appspot.com… Twitter Analysis Tools look at the meaning of the tweets and divides them into negative and positive communication items. Since the original list missed some sites, feel free to add yours…
Following the successful social media exercise of predicting the outcomes of the nomination race in Iowa using Google Searches and Tweets, here is a preview of what could be in store for the candidates in New Hampshire. Google search trends in the…
This self-updating chart provides the latest trends in Google searches for candidate names. According to this post, search frequency seemed to be related to candidate “pull.” Santorum was not a surprise at all for those that followed the social media buzz closely. What…
Mashable hints that Twitter might have caught a whiff of Santorum’s possible dash in the last straight line before the finish in the Iowa caucus. There is something to say about it. Romney lost the lead not only on Twitter but also in…
Current college students are called “digital natives.” They are heralded as a new type of intellectual foragers, who can multitask better, gather information faster, and spread it with more efficiency than their adult peers. Nothing less true, affirms Deresiewicz in this scathing…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsRussians replaced half of their corrupt parliament with 30% old style communists and 20% brown-red nationalists… And some call this progress… This excellent The Economist analysis say it as it is: Russia is stuck between the past and…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsThe Stop Online Privacy Act would block traffic from sites that stream and disseminate on a mass scale pirated content. Many say that this an attempt to censor what people see and share online. Others say, however, that…
What is the entropy level of this team? (Apud Paulo Coelho and many other internet peddlers of humor)
Digital Humanities Showcase: Walter Lord’s Day of Infamy mapped Walter Lord’s meticulously documented book “Day of Infamy” recounts the trivia of every day life at Pearl Harbor on that last morning of peace, December 7, 1941, when the Japanese planes attacked the…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsAstronomers report the discovery of an Earth-like planet about 600 light years from our solar system. It is probably several times greater than earth. Its year is 290 days long and it could be a balmy 72 degrees.Via…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societies7 billion worth of vulnerability. Aircraft carriers are weighing just as heavy on the US amerd forces, as battleships did before Pearl Harbor. In this day and age of deficits, reconsidering the role of he aircarrier…
On my way to lunch I pass by the extraordinary gem that is the Purdue Art Gallery. An unpretentious room, painted white, with no outside windows, the gallery exhibits on a regular basis the highest quality art, from all corners of the…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesDoes social media lead to rich, networked lives and increased social capital? Or not? A Berkman center seminar featuring Professor Charles Nesson as Provocateur and Ellen Condliffe Lagemann (Bard College), Peter Levine (Tufts University), Harry Lewis…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesSubscribers of Microsoft’s Xbox Live, rejoice. Starting on Tuesday, Dec. 6, you will be able to watch television programming from the Xbox 360 console. You will also be able to search Hulu and Netflix via voice.…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesHow the new dimensions of information are transforming business — and life (David Weinberger speaks that the Berkeley School of Information)Via www.ischool.berkeley.edu
Via Scoop.it – Mapping current eventsUS drone downed and captured almost intact by Iranian air force… Not the first incident of this kind.Via www.guardian.co.uk
Via Scoop.it – Mapping current events N. Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor, has a message for students who walked out of his class at Harvard last month: The study of economics should be viewed as a method, not a doctrine.Via www.nytimes.com
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesA good example of having the cake and eating it too… Weinberg both decries the Internet’s unleasing of personal knowledge and cheers for it… “One of the authors of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” says the hyperlinked…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesThe Book Review’s annual list…. A selection of titles.. FICTION THE ANGEL ESMERALDA: Nine Stories. By Don DeLillo. (Scribner, $24.) THE ART OF FIELDING. By Chad Harbach. (Little, Brown, $25.99.) THE…
Via Scoop.it – Virtual community and societiesDude, get a life… If you want Smashwords to beat CreateSpace, make sure that chikenshit does not get in the way of your success…. Give your authors a hand, do not make them do loop-de-loops around…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsIs this the smartest ad campagin ever, or what? via Mashable “Olla Condoms’ campaign, which sends unsolicited friend requests from their yet-to-be-born sons, is a violation of Facebook policy.”Via mashable.com
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsOf note…. “Andrew Wilson‘s book, Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship (Yale University Press, 2011), is timely. Some are predicting that Lukashenka’s time is finally coming to an end, and eyes in Minsk and Brest are nervously following…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsIt goes like this: private banks borrow from governments, governments borrow from FMI, FMI gets its money from governments, banks buy tresasury bonds… In a more truthful world, this would be called a Ponzi scheme (rough translation of…
Via Scoop.it – Foreign AffairsMyanmar’s spooky capital. “NAYPYITAW, Myanmar – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could be forgiven for believing she’s visiting two different countries – one called Naypyitaw, the other Myanmar.”Via worldblog.msnbc.msn.com