DOCSLIB.ORG

From “Smart Objects” to “Social Objects”: the Next Evolutionary Step of the Internet of Things

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
From “Smart Objects” to “Social Objects”: the Next Evolutionary Step of the Internet of Things AD HOC AND SENSOR NETWORKS From “Smart Objects” to “Social Objects”: The Next Evolutionary Step of the Internet of Things Luigi Atzori, University of Cagliari Antonio Iera, University of Reggio Calabria Giacomo Morabito, University of Catania ABSTRACT sume services and collaborate with other coun- terparts toward a common goal. This is possible Social networking concepts have been applied thanks to intense interactions among objects, to several communication network settings, which which collaborate to realize complex services. span from delay-tolerant to peer-to-peer net- This has brought the design of new generations works. More recently, one can observe a flourish of “smart objects” able to discover new services, of proposals aimed at giving social-like capabili- start new acquaintances, exchange information, ties to the objects in the Internet of Things. Such connect to external services, exploit other proposals address the design of conceptual (and objects’ capabilities, and collaborate toward a software) platforms, which can be exploited to common goal. At the present stage of the IoT easily develop and implement complex applica- evolution, the questions are: tions that require direct interactions among objects. The major goal is to build techniques that Are there new potentials that smart objects are allow the network to enhance the level of trust still expected to manifest? between objects that are “friends” with each Can these potentials bring new (more effective) other. Furthermore, a social paradigm could defi- models of IoT systems and contribute toward the nitely guarantee network navigability even if the achievement of a fully networked human society? number of nodes becomes orders of magnitude higher than in the traditional Internet. Objectives To answer these question, we observe that of this article are to analyze the major opportuni- smart objects will need to operate in an extreme- ties arising from the integration of social network- ly complex context full of opportunities as well ing concepts into the Internet of Things, present as difficulties and threats. It is unlikely that sin- the major ongoing research activities, and point gle (even very smart) objects will ever have the out the most critical technical challenges. capabilities to face such complexity by them- selves. INTRODUCTION In the natural world, several species of ani- mals (humans are the most brilliant example) The future Internet will embody a large number have been able to master complexity and the dif- of objects that, through standard communication ficulties that characterize the environment in protocols and unique addressing schemes, pro- which they live by creating a dense network of vide information and services to the final users. social relationships. Indeed, billions of objects are expected to take a Accordingly, one can envisage a new genera- major active role in the future network, bringing tion of social objects that: i) are able to interact physical world data into the world of digital con- with other objects in an autonomous way with tent and services. The resulting networking respect to the owners; ii) can easily crawl the paradigm, referred to as the Internet of Things IoT made of billions of objects to discover ser- (IoT), will provide a paramount set of opportu- vices and information in a trust-oriented way; nities to users, manufacturers, and service pro- and iii) are able to advertise their presence to viders with a wide applicability in many provide services to the rest of the network. productive sectors. These include environmental This is resulting in a new vision of an aug- monitoring, health care, inventory and product mented IoT where the concepts and technolo- management, smart home and workplace, securi- gies typical of social networks are applied to the ty and surveillance, and many others. world of things to foster resource visibility, ser- In the IoT, all that is real becomes virtual: vice discovery, object reputation assessment, each person and thing has a locatable, address- source crowding, and service composition, simi- able, and readable counterpart in the Internet. lar to what has been partially done to address In this scenario, objects can produce and con- the routing issue in delay-tolerant networks [1]. IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2014 0163-6804/14/$25.00 © 2014 IEEE 97 In our opinion, the time is ripe to take even a further important step in the evolution of the • Increased interoperability with external systems objects, without which the fully development of • Capability to communicate in human social networks Res an IoT populated by trillions of objects cannot sapiens be achieved. What we intend is a further evolu- tion toward a new type of object that can be considered a res socialis (i.e., social object, again homo • Awareness of the environment in analogy with the socio-economic term • Interactivity with the surrounding environment socialis ). The term refers to an object that is part Res • Pseudo-social behavior with neighbors of and acts in a social community of objects and agens devices (which, in our case, is a social IoT). The features of the three identified categories of IoT objects are illustrated in Fig. 1 and • Capability of building their own social network described in the following subsections, highlight- • Proficiency in building added-value complex services ing the advantages these provide (or will pro- Res through collaboration in the object social network vide) to advances in the IoT. socialis THE STATUS QUO : R ES SAPIENS IN THE IOT Most IoT solutions have been initially devised and built in isolation, resulting in limited and Figure 1. Main features of the identified three categories IoT objects. fragmented small islands of heterogeneous smart objects ( res sapiens ) disconnected from each other. This is the natural consequence of The major contribution of this article is to isolated studies and developments conducted provide the reader with a comprehensive analy- without a widely recognized and interoperable sis of the key aspects of this new phenomenon, reference architecture in mind. This has pre- with particular attention to the different visions, vented and still prevents implementing an actu- technical solutions, ongoing projects, and open al IoT ecosystem on top of which composite research challenges that the research community applications can easily be developed. An obvi- is called to address. In the following section we ous, yet effective, countermeasure to IoT frag- analyze the evolution of the objects’ behavior as mentation consists of enabling the res sapiens key components of the IoT; we then introduce to directly communicate with the external the major developments that are ongoing in this world by relying on web protocols and commu- area and the most relevant products already nication paradigms universally recognized by available on the market. Exemplary use cases the current Internet of services. This made the that exploit the major benefits of the conver- res sapiens objects evolve through different gence between IoT and social networks are then stages as sketched in Fig. 2 and described in analyzed. The last section draws important direc- the following. tions for future studies. The first innovation has been the introduc- tion of what is today commonly referred to as the Web of Things (WoT) [4], which relies on FROM SMART THINGS TO the implementation of web protocols into either HINGS THAT OCIALIZE the objects themselves or specific objects’ prox- T S ies/gateways. Mostly, the current implementa- The scientific literature provides a wide range of tions make use of either the Device Profile for examples of how modern technology has been Web Services (DPWS) or Representational State able to accomplish the definition of devices that, Transfer (RESTful) application programming thanks to their abilities, we might call “smart interfaces (APIs) (also in thing-specific versions, objects” and consider, without a doubt, the con- such as Thing-REST [5]). Accordingly, the ser- stituent elements of the IoT [2]. Besides, soft- vices and information provided by the things can ware frameworks to build user-centric extensible be incorporated in the open ecosystem of the smart object systems are the subject of very Internet of services. On top of this, applications interesting research activities like the one in [3]. can be created by using standard web languages Nonetheless, smart objects are only the first and tools. step of an evolutionary process that is affecting Still, the WoT paradigm by itself has some modern communication devices and has been limits, caused by the difficulties in advertising, triggered by the advent of IoT in the telecom- discovering, accessing, and exploiting the objects munication scenario. and their services. We are currently observing a generational An additional desirable feature is the capabil- leap from objects with a certain degree of smart- ity that allows Internet users and services to ness to objects with an actual social conscious- sense the physical world and act on it. One ness . approach in this direction is to create a platform In analogy with the human evolution from where the objects can easily be found, searched homo sapiens to homo agens used in economic for, exploited, and composed. This is the case of and sociological studies, we may talk of a similar some solutions that have recently appeared on evolutionary path from a res sapiens (smart object) the web, such as SenseWeb (http://www.sen- to what we call a res agens (an acting object), sormap.org) and Xively (formerly called Pachube which is able to translate the awareness of causal — http://xively.com), which provide people with relationships — the basis of knowledge of change a central platform to share their sensor data and and evolution of its environment — into actions. deploy relevant applications. The people’s inter- 98 IEEE Communications Magazine • January 2014 est in making their objects available to the rest • of the community allowed these platforms to Web platforms for objects • ⇒ Combining data Objects visible in more social quickly gain great popularity.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Towards Trust and Friendliness Approaches in the Social Internet of Things
    applied sciences Review Towards Trust and Friendliness Approaches in the Social Internet of Things Farhan Amin 1 , Awais Ahmad 2 and Gyu Sang Choi 1,* 1 Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan 280, Korea; [email protected] 2 Department of Computer Science, Bahria University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 27 November 2018; Accepted: 21 December 2018; Published: 4 January 2019 Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnected network of heterogeneous entities, such as sensors and embedded devices. During the current era, a new field of research has emerged, referred to as the social IoT, which mainly includes social networking features. The social IoT refers to devices that are capable of creating interactions with each other to independently achieve a common goal. Based on the structure, the support of numerous applications, and networking services, the social IoT is preferred over the traditional IoT. However, aspects like the roles of users and network navigability are major challenges that provoke users’ fears of data disclosure and privacy violations. Thus, it is important to provide reliable data analyses by using trust- and friendliness-based properties. This study was designed because of the limited availability of information in this area. It is a classified catalog of trust- and friendliness-based approaches in the social IoT with important highlights of important constraints, such as scalability, adaptability, and suitable network structures (for instance, human-to-human and human-to-object). In addition, typical concerns like communities of interest and social contacts are discussed in detail, with particular emphasis on friendliness- and trust-based properties, such as service composition, social similarity, and integrated cloud services.
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Roles of Buildings New Series 65
    Stockholm Studies in Sociology The Social Roles of Buildings New Series 65 The Social Roles of Buildings An Account of Materiality and Meaning in Urban Outcomes Lauren Dean ©Lauren Dean, Stockholm University 2017 ISBN 978-91-7649-602-2 (Print) ISBN 978-91-7649-603-9 (Digital) ISSN 0491-0885 Printed in Sweden by US-AB, Stockholm 2017 Distributor: Stockholm University Department of Sociology Cover Images by Lauren Dean For Santiago, New York, and Stockholm—the cities that have welcomed me home. Contents List of Illustrations ix I. INTRODUCTION 1 INTENTS 1 PUZZLES 4 BUILDING CONCEPTS 8 FOUNDATIONS 14 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH 28 THE CASE 34 II: BUILDING URBAN TYPES 43 BUILDING TYPES: NAMES AND FORMS 43 RESIDENTIAL TYPOLOGY 49 URBANIZATION AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 51 THE FRENCH CONNECTION 58 NAMES 63 URBAN FORMS 66 “WORKERS’ HOUSING” 73 CITÉS IN SANTIAGO 76 III: USES OF SPACE 80 URBAN SPACE AND EVERYDAY USE 80 CONTEMPORARY CITÉS 85 THE PATIO 87 DESCRIPTION OF CONDITIONS 90 DESCRIPTION OF USE 93 COMPARISONS OF USE 97 GATES: EXCLUSION AND EXCLUSIVITY 103 ON PRIVATE COLLECTIVE SPACES 108 BUILDING MEANING 112 IV: REUSE AND NEIGHBORHOOD TRANSFORMATION 114 URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD CHANGE 114 BARRIO ITALIA 118 PUTTING UP A FRONT / MAINTAINING A FACADE 123 NARRATIVE OF NOSTALGIA 128 PATIO REUSE 134 PERFORMING THE PAST 138 REUSE AND CO-TRANSFORMATION 141 CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGY OF BUILDINGS 144 ON THE SOCIAL ROLES OF BUILDINGS 144 FORM AND FUNCTION (AND USE) 145 FORM, MEANING, AND DEFINITION 146 NAMES 147 BUILDING METHODS FOR BUILDING THEORY 149 FUTURE RESEARCH 151 Appendix 153 METHODOLOGY: DETAILS, ETHICS, AND CONCERNS 153 SAMMANFATTNING/RESUMEN (TRANSLATED SUMMARIES) 173 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 175 WORKS CITED 178 List of Illustrations Relationship between Buildings and Society 29 Table of Analytical Levels 33 Cité Floor Plan (model) 35 Urban Block, Santiago (c.
    [Show full text]
  • Recommender Systems Using Social Network Analysis: Challenges and Future Trends Johann Stan, Fabrice Muhlenbach, Christine Largeron
    Recommender Systems using Social Network Analysis: Challenges and Future Trends Johann Stan, Fabrice Muhlenbach, Christine Largeron To cite this version: Johann Stan, Fabrice Muhlenbach, Christine Largeron. Recommender Systems using Social Network Analysis: Challenges and Future Trends. Alhajj, Reda, and Rokne, Jon. Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining, Springer, pp.1-22, 2014, 978-1-4614-6171-5. hal-00971351 HAL Id: hal-00971351 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00971351 Submitted on 2 Apr 2014 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Title: Recommender Systems using Social Network Analysis: Challenges and Future Trends Name: Johann Stan, Fabrice Muhlenbach, Christine Largeron Affil./Addr.: Laboratoire Hubert Curien, Universit´eJean Monnet Saint-Etienne,´ France [email protected], [email protected] [email protected] Recommender Systems using Social Network Analysis: Challenges and Future Trends Synonyms Recommendation systems, Information filtering, Collaborative filtering, Content-based filtering Glossary Recommender System (RS): Special type of information filtering system that provides a prediction that assists the user in evaluating items from a large collection that the user is likely to find interesting or useful.
    [Show full text]
  • The Future of Remembering: How Multimodal Platforms and Social Media Are Repurposing Our Digitally Shared Pasts in Cultural Heritage and Collective Memory Practices
    THE FUTURE OF REMEMBERING: HOW MULTIMODAL PLATFORMS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ARE REPURPOSING OUR DIGITALLY SHARED PASTS IN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY PRACTICES by BRANT BURKEY A DISSERTATION Presented to the School of JournalIsm and CommunICatIon and the Graduate School of the UniversIty of Oregon In partIal fulfIllment of the requIrements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2014 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Brant Burkey Title: The Future of RememberIng: How MultImodal Platforms and SoCIal MedIa Are RepurposIng Our DIgItally Shared Pasts In Cultural HerItage and ColleCtIve Memory Practices This dissertation has been accepted and approved In partIal fulfIllment of the requIrements for the DoCtor of Philosophy degree in the SChool of JournalIsm and CommunICatIon by: Dr. Julianne Newton Chairperson Dr. Patricia Curtin Core Member Dr. Gabriela Martinez Core Member Dr. John Fenn Institutional Representative and KImberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School OrIginal approval sIgnatures are on fIle with the UniversIty of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2014 II 2014 Brant Burkey This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 3.0 License (United States) III DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Brant Burkey Doctor of Philosophy SChool of JournalIsm and CommunICatIon June 2014 Title: The Future of RememberIng: How MultImodal Platforms and SoCIal MedIa Are Repurposing Our Digitally Shared Pasts in Cultural Heritage and Collective Memory PraCtICes WhIle most medIa-memory research focuses on particular cultural repository sites, memorials, traumatic events, media channels, or commemorative practices as objects of study to understand the construction of collective memory, this dissertation suggests it is our activity, participation, and interaction with digital content through multimodal platforms and social media applications that demonstrate how communities articulate shared memory in the new media landscape.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Networking “Why and How?”
    Social Networking “Why and How?” BEBO WHITE SOMEWHERE IN THE ATLANTIC… MACMANIA’10 MAY, 2010 Caveats I’m an “out-lier” – nothing specifically here about Mac use This is not a tutorial on how to use a social networking application (e.g., Facebook) This is neither an endorsement or criticism of social networking but rather a few personal and research observations Interactive – I have give-aways! How Many Here Use Social Networking? Facebook Twitter Myspace LinkedIn Plaxo Flickr Other…. Do You Dread Getting the Messages? “Join my network on LinkedIn” “XXX has invited you to be a friend on Facebook” “YYY just joined Plaxo” “ZZZ wants to follow you on Twitter” Do you fear that you’ll be perceived as anti-social if you don’t respond? Is it too trendy or requires too much bandwidth? Do you fear all the horror stories that you have heard about social networking? Do you mistrust the social network providers? “There’s something happenin’ here, what it is ain’t exactly clear” --- Stephen Stills (with apologies from Bebo) “I Would Never Want To Join a Club That Would Have Me” I Won’t Try to Define “Online Social Networking” We all think that we know (or can guess) what it is or “know it when we see it” (by example or functionality) It’s not just about technology but includes psychology, sociology, etc. However, technology appears to be changing its constantly evolving definition We must be careful to separate “Online Social Networking” and “The Social Web” Ethical Fault Lines Identity – how do you present yourself online? Privacy – the world can see everything you write Ownership – plagiarism, reproducing creative works Credibility – legitimate sources of information Community – interacting with others --- Howard Gardner, Harvard University A Brief History (from my perspective) Social networking is a basic human activity that has been adopted by technological advancements throughout history – postal services, printing, telephone, radio, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Blogging Tools • Leading Platforms Are Wordpress, Blogger, Movable Type/Typepad • Trackbacks Link Blog Posts
    Engagement strategies for social media • Media makes it sound like itʼs just another “channel” • But itʼs about connecting with people who are having great... Further reading: • Laurel Papworth - “Social NETWORKS are so much more than Social MEDIA”: http://tr.im/1iv Engagement strategies for social networks • Markets are conversations (The Cluetrain Manifesto, 1999) - between buyers and sellers, amongst buyers etc. • Written in 1999 - lessons still apply (perhaps more so). This is not a fad. • Tim Berners Lee: “two way web” - the “people formerly known as the audience”, “consumers” are talking back • Global conversation happening – what role are you (and your organisation) playing? • 35% of American adults and 73% of teens create content (http:// www.echoditto.com/stats) - even more participate without creating content Image: aturkus @ http://flickr.com/photos/aturkus/1555651794/sizes/l/ Conversation Further reading: • The Cluetrain Mainifesto (Book): http://tinyurl.com/2p5ld5 • Beth Kanter - “74% Use Social Networks To Manage Peer-to-Peer Relationships”: http://tr.im/1uu • MySpace is the largest social networking site in the world (despite the hype and growth of Facebook) • 185 million registered users, with approx. 4.5 million on site at any time (April 2007 - http://tinyurl.com/3bd9y2) • More than 65 million active users ( http://tinyurl.com/356y6s) • 6th most trafficked site in US - comScore (as reported by FastCompany: Social media & http://tinyurl.com/27dmkk) networking is BIG... • Large audience: 35% of American adults and 73% of teens create content (http://www.echoditto.com/stats) - even more participate without creating content. and growing... • Nearly half of all Australians now had a social networking profile and as many as half of current non-users indicated they would sign up within the next 12 months.
    [Show full text]
  • A Social Internet of Things Application Architecture
    A social Internet of Things application architecture : applying semantic web technologies for achieving interoperability and automation between the cyber, physical and social worlds Dina Hussein Ali To cite this version: Dina Hussein Ali. A social Internet of Things application architecture : applying semantic web technologies for achieving interoperability and automation between the cyber, physical and social worlds. Ubiquitous Computing. Institut National des Télécommunications, 2015. English. NNT : 2015TELE0024. tel-01316892 HAL Id: tel-01316892 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01316892 Submitted on 17 May 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. DOCTORAT EN CO-ACCREDITATION TÉLÉCOM SUDPARIS - INSTITUT MINES–TÉLÉCOM ET L’UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE ET MARIE CURIE – PARIS 6 Spécialité : Informatique et Réseaux École doctorale : Infomatique, Télécommunications et Electronique de Paris Présentée par Dina Hussein Ali A Social Internet of Things Application Architecture - Applying Semantic Web Technologies for Achieving Interoperability and Automation
    [Show full text]
  • Gohitchhike - Object-Centered Social Networking Site
    GoHitchhike - Object-centered Social Networking Site: To Bridge Online and Physical Interactions A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Interactive Design and Game Development Department in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Savannah College of Art and Design By Yu-Wei Fu Savannah, Georgia, USA May 2010 Acknowledgements In addition to my thesis committee, I would like to extend a grand appreciation to Professor Andrew Hieronymi for help through the usability aspects of the wireframe development, Jennifer Johnson for professional writing supports of the thesis paper, Shao Ying Lee and Peter Huang for technical supports of the website development. Thank you. Fu 1 Thesis Abstract Social websites can be categorized into two groups: focusing on objects or focusing on people. The general socializing concept of an object-centered website rarely emphasizes actual physical interaction. GoHitchhike is an object-centered social networking site that attempts to bridge the online and physical interactions. Any social interactions online and in the real world revolve around the objects acquired and transported. This trend improves on current social networking websites by combining three concepts: emotional objects, social network service, and physical interaction. Additionally, GoHitchhike utilizes the concept of emotional objects to tailor the social correspondence and experience of the users. Through such process, users can benefit through shared adventures and learn cultural significance of the requested items, therefore not only crossing location specific boundaries but also cultural boundaries as well. Fu 2 1. Introduction The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web.
    [Show full text]
  • Artifact-Centric Semantic Social Collaborative Network
    ARTIFACT-CENTRIC SEMANTIC SOCIAL- COLLABORATIVE NETWORK IN AN ONLINE HEALTHCARE CONTEXT Nazmul Hussain Hai H Wang Christopher D Buckingham Engineering and Applied Science Engineering and Applied Science Engineering and Applied Science Aston University, Birmingham, UK Aston University, Birmingham, UK Aston University, Birmingham, UK [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies and associated social networking systems opens up many possibilities for online collaboration. Several reference models, frameworks, tools and infrastructures have been proposed to support seamless communication between human entities in an online social environment. A few studies suggested social networks are not only constructed of connections between people, but are also mediated by shared objects, known as object-centred sociality. However, most developed social software systems limit themselves to human-centric social relationships. This may be due to the more difficult task of integrating heterogeneous elements of the network, compared to a network of people only. These additional resources or artefacts, such as physical objects, software entities, documents, etc., are active elements in a way that they may coordinate, cooperate, and even trigger collaborative work in a social environment, which is more difficult to understand and implement. Hence, it is essential to concentrate on exploring the artifact-centric social relations in a new generation of social-collaboration networks. This paper explores the concept and characteristics of social software systems and emphasises the importance and role of objects and artifact-centric sociality. It also outlines the benefits of semantic representation of the social-collaborative network structure by extending existing social ontologies such as FOAF, SIOC, and DC that define additional concepts, properties and complex social relationship of humans, social objects and collaboration artefacts.
    [Show full text]
  • Titlul Lucrării
    INDICATORS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LEARNING AND PRACTICE COMMUNITIES FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MICROBLOGGING AS A PROVOCATIVE SOCIOLECT IN VIRTUAL SPACE Gabriela GROSSECK ∗ Carmen HOLOTESCU ∗∗ Abstract: In linguistics, sociolect refers to the language of a certain group which, using specific terms and interactions dynamics, is characterized by an intimate / personal / private culture. In a society where Web 2.0 has generated an unprecedented diversity in terms of online communication, by transferring this concept to the Social Web, we can start considering microblogging as a specific social dialect, in which individual users are clearly singled out and engaged in a conversation. In this context, the paper is meant to be a space for reflecting on several indicators of social interactions in the microsphere, indicators which may prove useful in research from the perspective of the discourse and the dynamics of establishing connections with others. The analysis will focus on the learning and practice communities developed on microblogging platforms Cirip.eu and Twitter, but it can be generalized and extended to other implementations as well.. Keywords: microblogging, sociolect, Web2.0, communities, eLearning. I. INTRODUCTION In linguistics, sociolect refers to the language of a certain group which, using specific terms and interactions dynamics, is characterized by an intimate/personal/private culture. In a society where Web 2.0 has generated an unprecedented diversity in terms of online communication, by transferring this concept to the Social Web, we can start considering microblogging as a specific social dialect, in which individual users are clearly singled out and engaged in a conversation. In this context, the paper is meant to be a space for reflecting on several indicators of social interactions in the microsphere, indicators which may prove useful in research from the perspective of the discourse and the dynamics of establishing connections with others.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Networking for Learning Design
    Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design Gráinne Conole, Juliette Culver, Perry Williams, Simon Cross, Paul Clark, Andrew Brasher The Open University, UK Why do some social networking servicesi work and others fail? Can we apply the best of Web 2.0 principlesii to an educational context? More specifically can we use this as a means of shifting teaching practice to a culture of sharing learning ideas and designs? Can we harness the potential of technologies to create more engaging learning experiences for students? These are the key questions this paper addresses. We describe how we are using the concept of ‘object-orientated social networking’ to underpin the creation of a social networking tool, Cloudworks, for sharing learning ideas and designs. Keywords: learning design, social objects, social networking, Cloudworks Introduction The paper argues that one of the key challenges in encouraging more innovative uses of technologies is getting teachers to share designs. There have been countless examples of learning object, open educational resource (OER) and good practice repositories, however their impact on changing practice has been limited. This is due to a range of issues (whether the resources match the user’s needs, the usability of the site, the level of detail provided, etc.), but a key issue is the sustainability of these kinds of repositories. End-users rarely add resources, such sites usually require an investment in terms of someone entering resources and maintaining the repository. In contrast, user-generated content and harnessing collective intelligence are key principles of Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr, Youtube and Slideshareiii: users add content because they want to share their photos, videos or presentations with others and the net result is an aggregate benefit to the community.
    [Show full text]
  • Rethinking Social Networks in the Era of Computational Social Science
    Chapter 5 Rethinking Social Networks in the Era of Computational Social Science James A. Kitts and Eric Quintane Social network analysis and theory has proliferated rapidly across the social sciences, shifting our analytical focus from individuals or groups to social relations or “ties.” Such ties have been conceptualized in four distinct ways. Theories of group process and team dynam- ics often depict social networks as patterns of sentiments, or thoughts and feelings in the minds of individuals directed at others, such as liking, hatred, or trust. Theorists interested in network positions as sources of power often think of ties as access, an enduring opportu- nity to obtain resources or information from another (even if the party never uses the opportunity). Theorists interested in social influence or contagion often think of networks as behavioral interaction that actually occurs between actors, such as temporally aggregated communication, support, gifts, sex, or citations (ignoring possible contacts that never occurred). Most classic work on social networks has measured role relations where two parties have a socially constructed relationship associated with distinct norms and expecta- tions for role-related behavior, such as marriage, friendship, or coauthorship. Although these four approaches consider different kinds of theoretical objects, they similarly treat the network as a temporally continuous and enduring latent structure.1 An alternative perspective focuses on time-situated events linking actors, including interactions such as conversations, meetings, or transactions. This focus is growing in social network research because of two revolutions, one in data collection and one in data analy- sis. First, new telecommunications and sensor technologies allow researchers to collect data on events connecting actors with unprecedented volume and granularity.
    [Show full text]