Book: Transparency in Social Media Edited by Sorin Matei, Martha Russell and Elisa Bertino – with a chapter on NodeXL

31JulSeptember 4, 2015 By Marc Smith

Just published:

Transparency in Social Media: Tools, Methods and Algorithms for Mediating Online Interactions
Sorin Adam Matei, Martha G. Russell, Elisa Bertino
Springer, Aug 14, 2015

This volume presents significant theoretical and practical contributions in the area of social media reputation and authorship measurement, visualization, and modeling. The book justifies and proposes contributions to a future agenda for understanding the requirements for making social media authorship more transparent. Building on work presented in a previous volume of this series, Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets, this book discusses new tools, applications, services, and algorithms that are needed for authoring content in a real-time publishing world. These insights may help people who interact and create content through social media better assess their potential for knowledge creation. They may also assist in analyzing audience attitudes, perceptions, and behavior in informal social media or in formal organizational structures. In addition, the volume includes several chapters that analyze the higher order ethical, critical thinking, and philosophical principles that may be used to ground social media authorship. Together, the perspectives presented in this volume help us understand how social media content is created and how its impact can be evaluated.

The chapters demonstrate thought leadership through new ways of constructing social media experiences and making traces of social interaction visible. Transparency in Social Media aims to help researchers and practitioners design services, tools, or methods of analysis that encourage a more transparent process of interaction and communication on social media. Knowing who has added what content and with what authority to a specific online social media project can help the user community better understand, evaluate and make decisions and, ultimately, act on the basis of such information.

A chapter I co-authored with Itai Himelboim, Lee Rainie, and Ben Shneiderman, publishes the work we did in last year’s Pew Research Internet Project report on Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters.

Now collected into a book, the report provides an overview of the basic social media network structures we observed in a large collection of network maps we generated from Twitter data.

May 1st, 2015 at LSU: NodeXL social media networks talk at the “Telling Stories and Using Visuals for Coastal Environmental Communication” workshop

02MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

The National Association of Science Writers has funded a workshop at Louisiana State University, on “Telling Stories and Using Visuals for Coastal Environmental Communication” on Friday, May 1, 2015. I will speak during a session on “Social Media Best Practices and Mapping for Science & Environmental Communication,” to give workshop attendees both theoretical and also a practical tutorial on using NodeXL and mapping social networks in the interest of effective science communication.

More information about the workshop can be found at https://showmethecoast2015.wordpress.com/.

For example, this is a network of connections among people who tweeted about Scientific Communication:

April 20, 2015: NodeXL talk at the Business Analytics Forum at the University of Tennessee

02MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Business Analytics Forum hosted by the Business Analytics and Statistics Department at the University of Tennessee on April 20, 2015 will feature a talk on social media network analysis using the free and open NodeXL add-in for the popular Excel spreadsheet.

You can read more about the department and some of their initiatives here: http://issuu.com/utcba/docs/archwayswinter2014-15.finalpdf.forw/29?e=0

29-30 September at the University of Melbourne – Talk about social media networks

07SepMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Best Practice in Data Journalism Workshop

PROGRAM
29-30 September 2014

Terrace Lounge, Level 1, Walter Boas Building, Parkville Campus

(Campus map at http://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville)

MONDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

9-9.30AM	REGISTRATION AND WELCOME
9.30-9.45am	WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS- DR MARGARET SIMONS AND CARLTON CONNECT
9.45am-11	Presentations and Q and A from journalists: Marc Moncrieff and Craig Butt – Fairfax Media; Lisa Cornish – Red Cross (formerly News Corp); Harrison Polites – Business Spectator.
11-11.30	MORNING TEA
11.30-12.30	Presentations by Journalists (continued): Ed Tadros – Australian Financial Review; Matt Liddy, ABC; Nick Evershed – The Guardian in Australia.
12.30-1PM	ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION AND IDENTIFICATION OF COMMON THEMES AND CHALLENGES
1PM-2PM	LUNCH
2PM-2.30pm	AURIN – Exploring the potential – Presentation by Professor Richard Sinnott, University of Melbourne.
2.30-3pm	NodeXL – Exploring the potential – Presentation by Marc Smith, Director, Social Media Research Foundation
3-3.30pm	AFTERNOON TEA
3.30PM-5PM	Panel Session – Big Data. What Next? With Craig Thomler (Delib), Professor Paul Jensen (Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne); Jodie McVernon, (School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne), Scott Ewing, (World Internet Project, Swinburne Institute for Social Research.)

There will be a 3 hour session introducing NodeXL on Tuesday from 2-5pm 30th September at the main Parkville campus of UniMelb. The event is open to the public and is free.

It will be in the Old Arts Building Lecture Theatre B.

The main session will run from 2-4pm and there will be an additional hour for those that want to stop on for further training, finishing at 5pm

If you want to use NodeXL in the session, you will need a Windows laptop, and the Windows version of Excel (2007/2010/2013).

You can download NodeXL in advance from: http://nodexl.codeplex.com/.

Map and Building:

http://maps.unimelb.edu.au/parkville/building/149#.VCTinmS1Zlo

Download instructions:

http://nodexl.codeplex.com/releases/view/117659

September 26, 2014: Sydney #Disrupt – Talking about social media networks

07SepMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will be speaking at the University of Sydney on September 26th, 2014 as part of the 2014 Sydney Disrupt conference.

This year’s theme is “Living Disruption”.

Speakers include:

A keynote by Maria Ogneva, on community building for employee and customer engagement
A keynote by Tom Hajdu, CEO of Disrupter, on disruptive innovations in the entertainment industry
Mya Dellow presenting her perspective on the educational value of the online gaming platform Minecraft.
Academy Award winner Mark Sagar demonstrating BabyX, a photo-realistic, intelligent infant avatar.
A panel of experts discussing the potentials and risk of gamification.
Marc Smith from the Social Media Research Foundation will provide practical knowledge about analyzing social media data in straight forward ways with freely available tools.
Ripple Effect Group team leading a wearable technologies design workshop.

Here is a recent map of the connections among people who tweeted “#disrupt“:

Here is a video review of the 2013 #Disrupt event.

I will also lead a workshop on using NodeXL, in a hands-on training on 25th September 2014 from 9am to 12pm in the Link Building (J13), Room 417.

The workshop is sponsored by the Digital Disruption Research Group (DDRG), in collaboration with the Complex Systems Research Group at the Faculty of Engineering & IT.

June 27-29 2014: Networks in the Global World 2014, St Petersburg, Russia

08JunMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

NetGloW ’14: Bridging Theory and Method: American, European, and Russian Studies

June 27-29, St Petersburg, Russia

I will remotely participate in the conference “Networks in the Global World 2014. Bridging Theory and Methods: American, European and Russian Studies” taking place in St Petersburg, Russia, June 27-29 2014. The 2 day, single-track conference will also have pre-conference workshops including a day devoted to using the NodeXL social media network analysis application. The primary organizing institution and host is the Centre for German and European Studies, Bielefeld University and the St Petersburg State University.

This will be the 2nd Networks in the Global World conference (for information on the 1st one held in 2012 see http://www.ngw.spbu.ru). This conference series brings together researchers exploring cutting edge networks research from around the globe. In 2014 the focus is on linking theory and methods that integrate information, communication, semantic and cultural networks.

The primary goal of the NetGloW conference series is to bring together networks researchers from around the globe, to unite the efforts of various scientific disciplines in response to the key challenges faced by network studies today, and to exchange local research results – thus allowing an analysis of global processes. It is also crucial for us to support junior researchers’ orientation in the complex landscape of network science, and to encourage applications of network analysis by practitioners.

The idea of the 2014 event is to discuss the key current issues and problems of linking theoretical and methodological developments in network analysis.

The structure of the conference: June 27^th – workshops and seminar for practitioners; June 28^th & 29^th – presentations.

Confirmed invited speakers:

Jana Diesner, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Loet Leydesdorff, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tom Valente, University of Southern California, USA
Dimitris Christopoulos, MODUL University Vienna, Austria
Mario Diani, University of Trento, Italy
Peter Groenewegen, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wouter de Nooy, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Johanne Saint-Charles, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada
Marc Smith, Connected Action Consulting Group, USA

The sessions of the conference will include the following:

Networks in Science, Technology, and Innovation: Traditional Approaches and Operationalization of New Theories
Words and Networks
Network Perspectives on Knowledge, Communication and Culture
Making Sense of Big Network Data: Testing Hypotheses on New Data
Social Movements and Collective Action as the Network Phenomena
Network Analysis of Political and Policy-making Domains

The conference will host workshops on the following network analysis software: ConText, Pajek, NodeXL, UCINet, RSiena.

The conference will include seminar Network analysis: How can it be used by globally operating practitioners?

Host: Center for German and European Studies (St. Petersburg State University – Bielefeld University).

Working language: English.

Abstracts (200 words) will be published as a part of conference programme. Full papers (2500 words) should be submitted prior to the event. Selected full papers will be published in peer-reviewed journal(s).

Free accommodation will be provided for MA and PhD students who submitted the best abstracts.

Fee: Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Further information about the conference and registration form can be found at www.ngw.spbu.ru or requested via e-mail: netglow@spbu.ru.

Pew Internet and Social Media Research Foundation Report: Six kinds of social media networks in Twitter

20FebMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Working together, the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the Social Media Research Foundation has published a report on the variations in social media crowd structures documented by network analysis and visualization of Twitter. The report is titled:

Mapping Twitter Topic Networks:
From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters

The paper documents the distinct patterns of connection that emerge when people talk to one another using social media services like Twitter. The paper includes six network visualizations that clearly demonstrate the diverse ways people connect to people when using online tools.

The report was produced by Marc Smith from the Social Media Research Foundation, Lee Rainie from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, Itai Himelboim professor of communications at the University of Georgia, and Ben Shneiderman professor of computer science from the University of Maryland.

January 31, 2014 – Kansas State University – Webinar: Social Media Maps and Measures with NodeXL

16JanMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will present a remote seminar at Kansas State University – on Jan. 31 about how to create social media maps and measures with NodeXL.

The remote presentation will take place 1-2:30 p.m. (Central Time) Friday, Jan. 31, in 301 Hale Library. All are welcome to attend.

See: https://blogs.k-state.edu/it-news/2014/01/10/webinar-jan-31-charting-collections-of-connections-in-social-media-creating-maps-and-measures-with-nodexl/

This is a map of the network of 2,785 Twitter users whose recent tweets contained ““kansas state” OR KState” over the 1-day, 23-hour, 14-minute period from Monday, 13 January 2014 at 17:06 UTC to Wednesday, 15 January 2014 at 16:20 UTC.

University of Maryland Computer Science Class (CMSC734) Student Projects Put NodeXL to Work: Finding Insights in Diverse Networks

11DecMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Graduate students in Computer Science at the University of Maryland in a class on information visualization produced a striking variety of NodeXL network analysis visualizations for their recent homework projects. The class, taught by Prof. Ben Shneiderman (www.cs.umd.edu/~ben), covers commercial tools, such as Spotfire and Tableau, and research software, giving students a chance to learn a range of existing visualization techniques and tools. The NodeXL homework project is done by individual students, midway in the semester, while 5-person student teams are also busy working on their major term projects, which create novel visualization tools for specialized applications. To see all the projects, click:

https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/cmsc734_f13/index.php?title=Homework_Number_2

(Don’t be deterred by security warnings, the class wiki is open for all to read, but only students can edit)!

Several of the 30 projects deal with Facebook, Twitter, email, Wikipedia, and YouTube social networks, with academic citation patterns and sports networks adding variety. Entertainment, finance and medical analyses round out the collection, showing the huge range of potential NodeXL applications. Students had only two weeks to find data, import it, clean it, and then create meaningful visualizations that enabled them to find interesting insights into connected structures.

Gregory Kramida’s analysis of stock symbol co-occurrences in financial articles

Gregory Kramida analyzed the connections among company names in the business press. See:

https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/cmsc734_f13/images/9/9f/Analysis_of_Stock_Symbol_Co-occurences_in_Financial_Articles.pdf

The project shows the strong linkages between technology companies and consumer services, finance and public utilities. The data set of more than 50,000 financial articles had more than 400,000 co-occurrences of stock ticker symbols. He used the NodeXL grouping feature to organize the stocks into groups by industry and then showed results using the Group-in-a-Box layout feature. This network is limited to companies that were mentioned together at least 50 times.

Ruofei Du’s analysis of co-authorship patterns

Ruofei Du probed the relationship among authors in 1033 scientific papers from the 1988 to 2013 User Interface Software & Technology (UIST) conference. See:

https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/cmsc734_f13/images/b/bd/Uist_viz2.pdf

The co-author collaborations followed commonly seen patterns of professors and their students, but the relationships between academia and industry showed novel patterns. After grouping authors by their organizations, it is apparent that Microsoft is well-represented at this conference through numerous collaborations with universities.

Joshua Brule’s analysis of actor co-performance connections from the television series Firefly

Joshua Brule created an intriguing story of television and film actors and actresses that emerges from analysis of ten actors from the cancelled television series Firefly. See:

https://wiki.cs.umd.edu/cmsc734_f13/images/7/76/Firefly.pdf

The actors had few collaborations before appearing on the program, but many afterwards. The carefully constructed bipartite network shows how ten actors collaborated in 38 films, television shows, or videogames.

December 12-14, 2013 – DISC2013 International Conference on Social Network Analysis in Daegu, South Korea

17NovMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

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I will speak this December 12-14 , 2013 at the DISC2013 International Conference on Social Network Analsysis at Yeungnam University in Daegu, South Korea – http://bit.ly/17LtWlo

My host is conference organizer Dr. Han Woo Park, director or the Webometrics Lab at Yeungnam University

After the conference I will travel to visit with other research groups in Korea focused on the study of social media. I will be traveling with a colleague, Dr. Jana Diesner, professor of information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Schedule for December:
12-14 Asia Triple Helix Forum
16 Workshop at POSTECH with Dr. Woo-Sung Jung
17 Talk at KAIST with Dr. Il-Chul Moon
18 Workshop at Treum, Meeting with Dr. Gihong Yi
19 Sogang University and KISTEP

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