Date:   Thursday, March 20, 2014

Time:   4:00 PM – 5:00 PM GMT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

We’ll record the Webinar and make it available via the WST Web Site and the Vimeo Channel

http://vimeo.com/channels/wstnetwebinars/videos/sort:date/format:detail

Please use the link below to sign up for the Webinar and also make use of the HackPad to add any questions/topics for Dave before/during/after the session.

https://hackpad.com/Web-Observatories-with-Prof-Dave-de-Roure-Gox9Wo2SHxV

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/372549326

This webinar is a joint presentation of the Web Science Trust and the Oxford eResearch Centre (OeRC)

Prof. Dave de Roure is one of the longest associated members of the Web Science Trust and also chairs the W3C community group on Web Observatories.

David De Roure is Professor of e-Research at University of Oxford, Director of the Oxford e-Research Centre, Co-Director of the Institute for the Future of Computing in the Oxford Martin School and has a coordinating role in Digital Humanities at Oxford.

David was closely involved in the UK e-Science programme and held a national role from 2009-2013 as the UK National Strategic Director for Digital Social Research. He is a UK representative on the European e-Infrastructure Reflection Group, one of the UK PIs for the Square Kilometre Array telescope, a chair of the UK e-Science Forum, a partner in the UK Software Sustainability Institute and on the editorial board for IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. He is a champion for the Web Science Trust, chairs the W3C Web Observatory Community Group and in 2011 was elected as a Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The post WST 2014 Webinar Series – Web Observatories with Prof Dave de Roure appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

One of the topics we’ll be covering in this digital economy week is the emerging personal data economy, where individuals are taking control of their own personal data. My research has explored this theme, looking at how individuals can understand, control and benefit from their data through the lenses of business law and technology.

Marketing Week has just released a timely article on the opportunities and threats that arise from these developments. The article is based on a research report I contributed to through Ctrl-Shift, a market analyst and Web Science Institute industry partner who I work with alongside my PhD research.

The report also features a viewpoint from Sir Nigel Shadbolt on the phenomenon of personal data empowerment;

What you hope it isn’t is a massive landgrab of our individual data only for the benefit of the company… Data is an amazing raw material which, if made available in an appropriate way, is going to change the economic and social landscape.

This week we’ll be covering these issues in ‘Personal data in the hands of individuals’. I look forward to discussing them with you.

The post Week 5: Personal data and the digital economy appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

I’ll tweet you my job spec if you snap me your CV…a guest post by Nik Nyman @ Neil’s Recruitment

Really? Not really, but in theory it could work. A ten second snap is more or less the same amount of time a recruiter has with your CV anyway. Back to that later.

In a meeting about mobile marketing at one of the major media agencies in London last week the concept of “dead time” came up, and we realised that these days our perception of dead time has changed. If we have spare time we still end up interacting and being social. Online. Wherever. Whenever.

So now it’s (almost) impossible to imagine our social lives without Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and the others. We’re all on them, and we can’t live without them. Actually we spend nearly four hours a day on social media. That’s half a working day. That’s crazy. And pretty cool too if you think about the opportunities we have right there in our hands. So I was thinking… why aren’t we better at using social media to our advantage in our job search?

I work in graduate recruitment in digital media, with guys and girls who literally grew up next to a smartphone. They are incredibly online savvy and want to make digital marketing their career but what surprises me is that most of these grads still see their job hunt as a “send-my-cv-and-covering-letter-kinda-business”. Why they don’t consider throwing social media into the mix I’m not sure. Is it because they see social media as a personal thing and can’t see why it would be relevant to getting a professional career? Or is it because there’s a generational gap between today’s online savvy grads and those who advise them on their job search? I don’t know, but what I do know is that we need to get social media into the personal marketing mix.

Why?

If you’re serious about your job hunt, that’s not the question to ask. What you should be asking is “How can I do that?”, I’ll come to that in a bit. The reason why we should be using social media is firstly because companies increasingly use social media as the first stop in finding top talent. I don’t want to bore you with too many stats but 77% of all job postings are posted on LinkedIn and almost half of those don’t get posted anywhere else. 94% of all recruiters use LinkedIn to search for candidates (66% for Facebook and 54% for Twitter) – at all levels. So by not having an online presence and by not using it when looking for jobs you will miss quite a few opportunities.

Another reason I see (maybe because I work in digital media) is that recruiters and hiring managers want to get a better feel for you in general, as a candidate and a potential future employee.

If digital marketing is your gig then the use of social media, websites, blogs etc. shows that you are you’re immersed in the online marketing world, that you understand the concepts and that you take calculated steps to learn as much as you can. It shows desire and aptitude, and with a blog or website you can showcase your portfolio, writing skills, or technical abilities. Don’t forget it’s a perfect playground where you can pick up some hands-on skills too.

How can I do that?

First things first. I think it’s worth mentioning that we need to take more of a 360-degree approach to our job search and not exclude any form of communication that could lead us towards our dream job. It’s not about CV vs. Social Media or Job application vs. Networking, it all has to come together – nowadays you need to market yourself, not just apply for a job.

You can only get across so much on a CV but with the use of social media you can pretty much throw yourself at someone. I would make sure to use the same profile picture and biog across all social media sites and try to use the same name and handle (mine’s NikNyman across the board). Make them as unified as you can, make sure you’re using them with purpose and make sure they are all linked up to each other but also to your CV, blog, website etc. where relevant.

But, and there’s always a but. Just make sure you’re cautious with what you share online. I’ve come across candidates who didn’t get through to interviews or didn’t get offers based on what was shared online. So be careful. Take a look at this article by Neil’s Recruitment if you want to know how to work out your profiles and what to avoid.

Now over to LinkedIn (again). I keep nagging about it because it is probably the most important recruitment platform out there so you should definitely have a presence. It’s fairly straight forward 1) position yourself 2) write your profile in a way that shows your direction, your desire, and your skills but don’t forget to show a bit of personality 3) add your jobs and education, courses etc. 4) follow companies and important people (not only does it give you job notifications, industry news and updates but it also shows what you’re interested in) 5) join groups (gives you good insights but also provides you with a forum to interact and show yourself) 6) connect and network. Easy peasy. If you want to know more check this article I wrote for Neil’s Recruitment.

Snap? Tweet? What? Why on earth

What was that ‘ten seconds on a CV’ I mentioned in the beginning all about? And what’s that got to do with social media in the job hunt anyway? Well, it’s a reality check. The competition is really high, we typically see that you are up against 100-300 other applicants per advertised job. On top of that a recruiter (agency or in-house) works on many jobs simultaneously which means you also have to compete for their attention. So you’ve got perhaps ten seconds to wow them (that’s no more than the maximum length of a Snapchat snap – now there’s the link to the intro), which means you need to do your bit to stand out – social media might just help you with that.

Get in touch if you want to know more, or follow me on twitter at @NikNyman. Neil’s Recruitment is a great place if you want to start out in digital marketing http://www.neilsrecruitment.co.uk.

Over and out.

The post Using social media in your job search appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

The Web Science MOOC features the current research projects involving a number of staff and students at the University of Southampton. The next generation of work in this rapidly developing area is now coming onto the radar.

Last month we held “Web Science Research Week” at the University of Southampton. A number of projects involving staff, students and external partners were kickstarted on the Monday, and then the progress made was reported in a series of presentations to a large audience at the Royal Society  on the final day.

Chris Phethean has written up the National Archives project report 

Gareth Beeston has reviewed the Personal Data project

My review of the final day’s presentations

More examples will follow in a later post!

The post New Web Science Projects appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Week 5 has come around very quickly, and we are all very much looking forward to the discussions. Do feel free to comment and interact with us and other learners within the Futurelearn platform, via Twitter using #FLwebsci, on this blog, or in the G+ community. We will all benefit greatly from the  thoughts and examples that are shared.

The Digital Economy is a vast topic in its own right, and we make no claim to cover all its bases here in just a few hours! We have focused the week on specific areas of research that are currently in progress by staff and students at the University of Southampton:

Ian Brown takes a critical look beneath the current hype around “big data”

Reuben Binns examines the evolving issues around privacy and the sharing of “personal data”

Lisa Harris focuses on “professional data” and what it means for recruitment and new business development

Chris Phethean appraises the nature of the value that social media creates for businesses.

Lorraine Warren ends the week by reflecting on how digital age has presented new opportunities for venture creation.

Drumroll….!

The post Looking forward to week 5: digital economy appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Over the past 3 years we have drawn upon the Digital Economy Research Group as a vehicle for pioneering multidisciplinary research-led and technology-informed educational innovation here at the University of Southampton. Students have been very much included as partners in this process through participating in research projects such as SMiLE, and acting as ambassadors and change agents via the Digital Champions and Curriculum Innovation programmes.

Many students have contributed directly to the MOOC as Educators, Facilitators and bloggers. The Curriculum Innovation module Living and Working on the Web aims to “eat its own dogfood” by encouraging students to create and then critique the course materials through blog posts and online interactions with their colleagues and tutors. It covers a number of key aspects of digital literacy, some of which have been explored in the MOOC:

• proactive, confident and flexible adoption of a range of technologies for personal, academic and professional use
• use of appropriate technology effectively to search for and store high-quality information
• curation and critical evaluation of the information obtained
• building networks and engaging creatively and productively in online communities
• creating relevant and compelling digital content in written, pictorial and video form
• awareness of the challenges in managing online identities and ensuring online privacy and security

This list of module topics shows that the key point about the increasing emphasis on digital literacy at all educational levels is that it’s not just about knowing the basics of how to use a computer. It’s many of the things we’ve discussed and practised throughout this MOOC. Whether we are consumers, learners or organisations, we increasingly are required to navigate our way through these activities regardless of whether or not we “work in IT”

There are still many jobs that don’t require digital skills, but this number is diminishing. BCS (the Chartered Institute for IT) states:

“Employers increasingly require validation of digital literacy skills and employability can depend on it. Why is Digital Literacy important to employers and employees?

Digital literacy is required in 77% of all employment
Digital literacy is expected to be required in 90% of all employment by 2015
Employability for graduates increasingly requires a broad range of digital literacy skills
Employers expect graduates to be able to communicate using digital media”
(http://www.bcs.org/category/17854)

BCS encourages digital literacy development in schools and universities to help people prepare for the workplace, as part of the Digital Literacy for Life Programme:

“Understanding the impact of new technologies on society
Understanding and being able to manage digital identities appropriately
Being able to locate, organise, understand, evaluate, analyse and present digital information”

The Living and Working on the Web module can be studied by students from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, but it still forms only a very small part of a learner’s overall study programme. The next stage is to embed the principles of digital literacy much more broadly – we will see this come into effect next year when an innovative multi-disciplinary programme in Natural Sciences is launched by the University.

A common theme that jumped out at me from reading comments on the MOOC materials was that of the digital divide. Increasingly we will see benefits accrue to the “digitally literate”, while those without these skills may become more marginalised. So what can be done about this?

Firstly, publicity about the MOOC and participation in it should help to raise awareness about the value of online education, and encourage more tutors to experiment! Learners and tutors can practice their digital literacy skills by engaging with the course materials and the emerging online community within the MOOC itself.

Secondly, as tutors we can find out in real time what content and exercises learners are enjoying or struggling with, and address their feedback in real time.

Thirdly, there are obvious benefits to be gained from applying content and /or process from the MOOC directly into campus-based classes to introduce an online element – this could be in terms of a course entry “test” to aid the selection of high quality students, or the provision of supplementary resources to enable a programme to be completed in a shorter period of time. And probably many more…

More details about various university digital literacy projects and students as change agents can be found from these links:

http://www.hei-flyers.org/wordpress/is-digital-literacy-the-new-frontier-in-employability/ by Aaron Porter

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2011/dec/15/digital-literacy-employability-student-experience by Sarah Knight

Many thanks are due to Cristina Costa of the University of Strathclyde for her enthusiastic and knowledgeable input to this post, the MOOC materials and indeed many of our digital literacy projects :-)

The post Digital Literacy and #FLWebSci : Some Reflections appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

The first thing that is immediately noticeable from this is the increased size of the overall network. The use of the hashtag is clearly spreading – more and more people are tweeting with it as the MOOC progresses. Additionally, there appears to be a larger, closer cluster of users in the centre of the graph, comprising of the highest indegree users (those who are mentioned the most in tweets with #FLwebsci) and some high outdegree users (those using #FLwebsci in tweets the most). Lisa Harris, for example, has become more closely embedded in this central network, perhaps reflecting that the users she has been contacting are now interacting more with other central accounts relating to the MOOC.

The other big change is the introduction of the official @UoSFLwebsci account that has increased rapidly in ‘importance’ in the network, ranking as one of three most active tweeting accounts, and growing in size to show that people are mentioning it when using the hashtag.

If you are interested in how I made this visualisation, the process is the same as the original diagram, which is detailed here.

The post The growth of #FLwebsci use on Twitter appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Reminder of the main social channels Twitter  –  YouTube  –  Google +

The post Week 5 is about to start… appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

This week is focusing on the “dark side” of the web – can this also be applied to marketing?

Marketers deem misinformation as a subject derived from consumer perception of a message through a medium (Russo et al, 1981), potentially affected by consumer intelligence, interpretation, understanding, vulnerability, evaluation standards and methods (Bernacchi, 1976). In contrast, a deliberate attempt to misinform a consumer through a medium is deemed as deceptive or false advertising (Bernacchi, 1976; LaTour & LaTour, 2009). Even so, these terms seem to be used interchangeably (Mintz, 2002) and exist on a continuum determined by the mediums’ effectiveness (Rycyna et al, 2009) and the technology in question (Mintz, 2002).

It is evident that the Web has increased the scale, impact and reach of the dissemination of corporate information (Mintz, 2002). With this, misinformation is spread in much the same way, using the Web to facilitate the rapid, global reach of the message (Mintz, 2002). Further to this, as we have seen in the rapid growth of spam and ‘get-rich-quick’ adverts, users are empowered to forge their own marketing media to misinform and mislead others (Kanich et al, 2009), using the Web as a distribution platform (Mintz, 2002). Nevertheless, measures, such as naming non-compliants (ASA, 2013), have been taken to curb the launch of misinforming, misleading or deceptive advertising over the Web.

However monitoring the sheer level of information distributed through the Web appears to be an endless task and an inevitable drain on governmental resources (Vedder, 2001), and so, misinformation continues to spread. In addition, such misinforming, misleading or deceptive media are used as direct marketing tools to leverage revenue, conversions and website traffic from consumer vulnerability and lack of understanding (Karson et al, 2006). This constitutes an attractive, ‘quick-and-easy’ way for many users on the Web to perform such deceptive techniques. Moreover, knowledge and information of successful misleading marketing tactics are spread over the Web to encourage others, producing a ‘snowballing effect’. Thus, the Web facilitates the spread of information regarding how to produce effective misinformation, to obtain revenue, traffic and/or conversions.

The post Leveraging Misinformation: The Dark Side of Marketing on the Web appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Piracy rate statistics are murky at best. Industry involvement in collection makes numbers hard to interpret and bias likely. But research on Pirates themselves remains murkier still.

Law and Property
Though we use the term “intellectual property”, copyrights were never really described in a ‘property’ context. The inception of copyright (Statute of Anne, 1710) granted “monopoly” and “responsibility” but not “ownership” outside of a contractual context. Even the more emotionally charged “moral right” to intellectual works, entrenched in French history, never equated IP with physical property. As authors like Gray (2012) have pointed out that the desire to maintain this analogy results in poorly modelled behaviours. Theories devised around theft or bootlegging, grounded in the physical world, are assumed to be applicable without clear justification that the actions are equivalent.

The Undefined “Pirate”
Describing the ‘typical’ pirate has become equally difficult. Research concludes that pirates are non-religious, young and poorly morally developed but also that there is no religious association, pirates span the age spectrum and there is no correlation with moral development. For each study claiming one thing there is typically another claiming the opposite.

Piracy?
Currently demographic discrepancies are unexplained but some unfounded assumptions can be identified that might be responsible. First, “piracy” is often used without explanation. Legal debate over definition is on-going yet participants are assumed to be able to clearly categorise their own behaviour. Secondly, all “piracy” is typically treated equally. Do pirates download a film balanced against each album? Does a film pirate who never downloads music or a book pirate who downloads nothing else represent behaviourally distinct groups?

Web Science offers potential for research that recognises piracy as a distinct behaviour without physical analogy and can recognise its social context, separate from legal and technical definition.

The post Why Internet Piracy Research is Unclear appeared first on Web Science MOOC.