[Air-l] Update on Communities and Technologies 2007 Invited Speakers

[Charles Steinfield]

Dear Colleagues,
The C&T 2007 Web Site (http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007) now  
features updated information on the invited speakers.  On each of the  
three conference days from June 28-June 30, a keynote talk will  
highlight facets of the community and technology relationship of  
interest to both researchers and practitioners, including research  
tools, managing online communities, and theoretical issues related to  
community technology design.  Speakers, titles, abstracts and short  
speaker biographical statements are provided below for your convenience.

Early registration, featuring a $50 discount on fees, is open now.   
Further details and an online registration system are available on  
the site.  For additional information, please contact conference  
organizers at cct2007 at msu.edu.

With best regards,
Charles Steinfield, Brian Pentland, Mark Ackerman, and Noshir Contract
C&T 2007 Conference Organizers
http://ebusiness.tc.msu.edu/cct2007/


Communities and Technologies 2007 Invited Speakers

Thursday, June 28, 5:30-6:30pm
Invited Workshop/Keynote
Marc Smith
Microsoft Research, Community Technologies Group

Illustrating Digital Traces: Visualizations of patterns generated by  
computer-mediated collective action systems

Abstract: An explosion of collectively authored content is absorbing  
a growing slice of people's daily lives, from email, email lists and  
text messages to blogs, wikis, photos feeds, and tag collections.  
These systems leave behind rich archives containing patterns of  
interaction. In raw form, terabytes of messages or other units of  
interaction are nearly incomprehensible. Using data mining and  
visualization tools a range of insights and agendas for research are  
possible. In this workshop I will introduce a range of tools both  
from the Microsoft Research Community Technologies Group and related  
work that bring patterns and structured inherent in masses of  
artifacts of computationally mediated interactions. Students will  
receive a DVD with a sample dataset and a visualization browser  
(along with related materials).

About Marc Smith: Marc Smith is a Senior Research Sociologist leading  
the Community Technologies Group at Microsoft Research in Redmond,  
WA. Marc's group focuses on computer-mediated collective action. He  
studies and designs enhancements for social cyberspaces. In  
particular he is interested in the emergence of social organizations  
like communities in online conversation and annotation environments.  
His goal is to identify the resources groups need in order to  
cooperate productively. He is co-editor of Communities in Cyberspace,  
with Peter Kollock, which explores identity, social order and  
control, community structures, dynamics, and collective action in  
cyberspace.He also developed software called Netscan that measures  
and maps social spaces in the Internet, starting with the Usenet. A  
related project called Project AURA allows users to associate  
conversations (and more) with physical objects using mobile wireless  
devices and web services. Marc was a graduate student in the UCLA  
Department of Sociology. More information is available at Marc's  
Microsoft Research Page.


Friday, June 30, 9:20 - 10:20am
Keynote Talk

Rob Malda and Jeff Bates
Slashdot
The Life, Times and Tribulations of Slashdot

Abstract: Join Rob Malda and Jeff Bates as they discuss the  
incubation of Slashdot and the emergence of user-driven content long  
before this whole Web 2.0 thing. Slashdot in the last ten years has  
seen the rise and fall of the .com Bubble, and the re-emergence of  
the Internet as well as being the forerunner of the social networking/ 
user generated content websites so popular today. Rob and Jeff will  
be talking about the history of Slashdot, its unique editorial and  
user systems and talking with the audience about the site is headed  
now.About Rob Malda, Jeff Bates and Slashdot (from http:// 
slashdot.org/about.shtml): "In the beginning there was no Slashdot.  
Bored and confused geeks would scribble 'First Post' in the sand.  
Grits were strictly for consumption and there wasn't a place to get  
nerd oriented news. Then in September of 97 Rob 'CmdrTaco' Malda  
changed all that. With the help of Jeff 'Hemos' Bates and others,  
Slashdot has stumbled forward with the simple mission to provide  
'News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters'.""Today Slashdot is owned by  
OSTG, but it is still run by many of the same people as it was 'Back  
in the Day'. Today we serve millions of pages to hundreds of  
thousands of readers. But the goal is still the same."

Wikipedia's entry about Slashdot notes that "Slashdot ... is a  
technology-related news website which features user-submitted and  
editor-evaluated current affairs news with a "nerdy" slant. It is  
known for the Internet forum-style comments section attached to each  
story; Slashdot was one of the first popular websites to include a  
commentary section in such a prominent manner." It further states  
that "Though the site antedates the modern concept of the weblog,  
Slashdot's architecture is commonly compared to that of modern blogs.  
Slashdot is notable in that its commenting system is much more robust  
than most blogs, with threading and user moderation having been  
introduced before these were commonplace in modern weblog packages."


Saturday, June 30, 10:20 - 11:20am
Keynote Talk

Judith Donath
MIT Media Lab, Social Media Group
Agents and Faces: The Reliability of Online Signals

Abstract: Much of what we want to know about other people is not  
directly observable: are you a nice person? do you really like the  
cake I baked? will you return this loan? Instead, we rely on signals,  
which are observable,though not always reliable, indicators of these  
qualities of interest. Signaling theory is an approach for analysiing  
the reliability of such cues.

Understanding signals is particularly important when designing for  
online communication, for here almost everything is a signal; I  
cannot, for example directly observe your height but must instead  
rely on the signal of a photograph or self description.

In this talk I will introduce signaling theory, then show how it can  
be used in both the analysis of existing communication technologies  
and the design of new ones. The focus will be on signals of social  
idenitity - what type of person are you and - of growing concern  
online - are you, in fact, a person?

About Judith Donath: Judith Donath is an Associate Professor at the  
MIT Media Lab, where she directs the Sociable Media research group.  
Her work focuses on the social side of computing, synthesizing  
knowledge from fields such as graphic design, urban studies and  
cognitive science to build innovative interfaces for online  
communities and virtual identities. She is known internationally for  
pioneering research in social visualization, interface design, and  
computer mediated interaction. She created several of the early  
social applications for the web, including the first postcard service  
("The Electric Postcard"), the first interactive juried art show  
("Portraits in Cyberspace") and an early large-scale web event ("A  
Day in the Life of Cyberspace"). Her work has been exhibited at the  
Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and in several New York  
galleries; she was the director of "Id/Entity", a collaborative  
exhibit of installations examining how science and technology are  
transforming portraiture. Her current research focuses on creating  
expressive visualizations of social interactions and on building  
experimental environments that mix real and virtual experiences. She  
has a book in progress about how we signal identity in both mediated  
and immediate situations. Professor Donath received her doctoral and  
master's degrees in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, her bachelor's  
degree in History from Yale University, and has worked professionally  
as a designer and builder of educational software and experimental  
media.