Social Computing

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Social Computing

• Ma. Regina E. Estuar, Ph.D., DISCS
• Luis Francisco G. Sarmenta, Ph.D., MIT

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What is social computing?

• Use of social software that support social
  interaction and communication
• Three areas of research
• Understanding human networks by looking at
  patterns of interaction in emails, IMs, blogs.
• Design, develop and test mobile applications that
  support group interaction
• Design, develop and test mobile applications that
  support field research

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Understanding Human Networks(Understanding
content)

• Premise Observing interaction among members of a
  group leads to understanding groups
• Observation entails analysis of communication
  patterns in groups
• What you will learn statistical analysis of
  mined data (categorization, multidimensional
  scaling, clustering)
• Related Tools a lot of data mining tools
  available but they cost a lot too!
• Role of student to develop text mining
  applications that produce a report on possible
  patterns in group interaction

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Example

• Context Looking for factors that measure
  satisfaction in ones job
• Conversation
• Secretary 1 I like my work because it gives me
  time to check my mail and chat with my friends
  while I wait for my boss.
• Secretary 2 My work is hard because my boss
  keeps on pushing me to do more by letting me
  attend training programs. But I learn a lot from
  it plus I use it for my promotion.

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Analysis

• Satisfaction in work means
• Free time to communicate in between work
• Learning a lot from training programs
• Use training programs for promotion
• Dimensions of work satisfaction

A U T O N O M Y
EMAIL, IM
TRAINING PROGRAMS
ADVANCEMENT
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Understanding Human Networks(Understanding
Processes)

• Group Processes
• Participation, Communication, Influence, Styles
  of Influence, Decision Making, Group Atmosphere,
  Membership, Feelings, Norms.
• Typical Questions
• Participation Who are high participators?
• Communication Who talks? For how long?
• Influence Which members are high in influence?
  What kind of influence?
• Decision making Does anyone attempt to
  summarize?
• Group Atmosphere Do people seem involved and
  interested?

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Current Project

• The group created a palm based process
  observation analyzer
• The application was designed for the Palm OS 3.0
  or higher (and possibly desktop PCs)
• Instead of using Java 2 Millennium Edition for
  the PDA application, SuperWaba was used
  (http//www.superwaba.com.br)

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Input types

• There are 4 input types available in the
  application
• Text
• Sociogram
• Tally
• Checklist
• An input type, when associated with a process
  element, determines how the user will enter data
  and how the application will treat it

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Defining Output

• Based on these inputs, the user can customize how
  a process element presents its output
• There are different kinds of output formats the
  user can choose to present the data
• Table
• Choosing this option displays a table containing
  the specified fields as row and column headers
• Graphs
• The user can further choose which kind of graph
  he will use
• Bar
• Line
• Pie

Line Graph for High Participators
Pie Chart for High Participators
Table for High Participators
Bar Graph for High Participators
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Viewing Output

• For process elements with the Text input type,
  the users input notes are displayed as output
• For process elements with the Tally input type,
  a table is used to present the data
• For process elements with the Checklist input
  type, a table is also used to present the data
• Checklist items can be displayed one element at a
  time, or as a collection with other elements

Checklist
Tally
Note All output can be saved as text or image
files, depending on the output type.
Text