Summary
The article discussed a project called Themail which created a typographic visualization of an individual’s email content over time. Themail had two modes called haystack and needle which allowed users to choose whether they wanted to see a broad overview of information or specifics. Clicking a word displayed more information about the specific use of the word in emails. The interface showed a series of columns of words that varied in size and color depending on the usage. Yearly words or words that were most commonly used throughout the year were gray and in the background. Monthly words were in series of columns and represented both frequency and distinctness of its usage. This kind of visualization allows users to discover trends and visualize their relationships by studying common interactions and words. During testing, participants enjoyed the visualization and were able to both confirm their relationships and discover how these relationships changed over time.

Reflection
The method of visualization discussed in this article was interesting because it was able to display relationships over time. I don’t agree with the method they chose to filter out spam mail by only considering email addresses that the user has sent at least one email to. I believe that filtering out irrelevant and out of context emails was a difficult obstacle for them, but they were able to overall achieve a well designed visualization. They discussed the limitations of their project which were related to the nature of emails. They found that email had many uses and each use should be analyzed differently (i.e. forwarded emails, spam, etc.).

Questions
How could this visualization over time be applied to other mediums such as social media?
Would it be better to show more statistical information and less graphical information?

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Matthew Bernas

Summary

Antisocial behavior

The article “Antisocial Behavior in Online Discussion Communities” discusses the behaviors and characteristics of a specific category of online users that display antisocial behaviors. These behaviors include making flammatory posts and writing content intended to provoke other users into meaningless, off-topic debate. The writers conduct experiments on a couple online communities to gather and model trends exhibited by these “FBU” users. FBU users are defined as users who show antisocial behaviors and ultimately are banned from the community. The writers studied the posting habits of FBU and NBUs. They found that FBUs typically are more active in a select number of posts compared to NBU. These posts are less readable and more likely to contain swearing and off-topic content. The article discussed a prediction model they were able to create that accurately predicted FBU activity by observing FBU typical behavior. They found interesting trends in their model relating to content quality of both FBU and NBUs. They found that content quality decreases over time for both types of users. They were also able to identify two types of FBUs that differ from the amount of their content that is deleted. This prediction model proves to be effective and is able to predict users becoming FBUs by studying an amazingly little amount of 10 posts.

Reflection

The work discussed in this article is very interesting in that they were able to create such a powerful prediction model that requires only 10 posts to identify FBUs early in their life cycle. This accomplishment came from their accurate definitions of antisocial behavior and their study on how these behaviors change over time. Since they were able to predict if users were going to later develop into FBU, it shows that we can create categories of users describing their roles in online communities. The article showed that we can identify any type of user in a community by observing characteristics that define the type of user and then observe trends over time.

Questions

• What are the possible implications of the results from the experiment to predict future FBUs?
• What can we do with the definitions that we can form from observing certain types of users?
• Can we use a similar process to detect posts that are created by fake accounts?

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Matthew Bernas

Summary

In the Social Translucence article, the writer discusses the idea of making interactions in our digital realm of information more translucent. The writer draws connections of what they mean by translucency with situations in which we utilize social cues during interactions. These cues allow us to structure our behavior and responses to these social situations and mimicking this translucent behavior in a digital architecture would provide a better experience. This new digital experience can improve communication, collaboration, and ultimately alter the domain of knowledge management. The article also includes projects that practice social translucency to support conversation to better understand how to build a socially translucent system.

The article “The Chat Circles Series: Explorations in Designing Abstract Graphical Comm. Interfaces” looks at varying graphical interfaces among chat text based communication to discuss implication among social interaction. These various chat designs were designed to foster social interaction and expressive communication. Some characteristics such as an abstract graphical environment address problem found in textual chats while avoiding pitfalls of representational graphics. A list of the rest of these characteristics include: environment, communication channel, individual representation, history, movement, and context.

Reflection

The ideas brought up by the articles are interesting and show possible new developments of online interaction. They both make me think about the dimensions of physical social interactions and how online social interactions are different. Replicating and possibly expanding on these dimensions on a canvas such as the internet points online interaction in a positive direction of development. In the Social Translucence article, it discusses how physical social interactions are translucent allowing for social cues to alter our behavior in a situation. Replicating this online could provide a new and better experience possibly improving communication and collaboration. In the “The Chat Circles Series: Explorations in Designing Abstract Graphical Comm. Interfaces” article, they talk about varying characteristics in a text chat environment to study how each provide a different dimension. The article found that altering the environment, communication channel, individual representation, history, movement, and context would improve chat based communication.

Questions

• How do we apply these to platforms such as twitter?
• How have emojis, facebook like faces, and text graphics available in imessage, added new dimensions for online interactions?

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Matthew Bernas

Summary

The Identity and Deception article discusses the role of identity in online communities such as Usenet. Identity online is difficult to prove and information from an online persona determines the credibility of the post. Identity in an online community also serves as a position of power or presence. Some people find it fulfilling to solve other’s problems or providing insightful comments. The importance of credibility leaves opportunities open for people who want to fake credible identities intentionally. Some sources also might unintentionally come off as a credible source which can be mistaken by others. The article discusses that readers/viewers are receivers to signals that posters give off from their content. The poster’s credibility can be given away from these signals such as writing styles and signatures. The signals help us attach an image to the poster to match a certain category in our minds.

The 4Chan /b/ article discusses the roles of anonymity and ephemerality in their online community. The article conducted two experiments to determine the anonymity and ephemerality characteristics of the site and found the overwhelming use of the site is anonymous and posts last minutes. The article analyzes these characteristics and suggests that they play a role in the type of content it produces. The ephemerality of the site allows fresh content to stream through the site and anonymity promotes more free speech. Although this does not necessarily promote positive content, it does show the effects of anonymity and ephemerality on online communities.

Reflection

 The two articles both discuss the role of identity in online communities. Although outdated, the articles do bring up an important topic of online personas. People are able to interact with large online communities through a persona they create to represent themselves online. The ability to remain anonymous or fake an identity can affect the content posted online. It might promote speech that would otherwise had been limited by having their identities attached. Including an identity can also increase credibility but not necessarily reliability.

It was interesting to read the different motivations people have to participate in these online communities. Some people are seeking information, some gain from solving other’s problems, and others are browsing for entertainment. It is interesting to think about how people adapt to these new online mediums and form communities. The internet provides a whole new canvas for us to express ourselves and interact with others, and developments are fast paced resulting in interesting social constructs, ethical controversies, etc.

           

Questions

• How do you check the credibility of content?
• When is animosity appropriate?
• Is it acceptable for online personas to differ greatly from your real identity and personality?

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