Tomorrow sees the launch of our latest Web Science mini-MOOC with Futurelearn –  “The Power of Social Media“. The course begins on 25th April and students from the Curriculum Innovation module “Online Social Networks” will be putting their learning directly into practice as they participate in  the MOOC with learners from all over the world.

The original 6 week Web Science MOOC needed an update (amazingly it’s nearly 3 years since we started on this journey) and we have split the course into a number of 2 week mini-MOOCs with updates to the existing content and plenty of new material. Another of our new courses in the series is Introduction to Linked Data and the Semantic Web (#FLlinkeddata) which starts on 11th April.

You can check out updates over the next few weeks via the hashtag #FLsocialmedia (for the MOOC) and #UOSM2012 for the module.

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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.

Homophily, the idea that “similarity begets friendship”, is the principle which binds social networks together, and is central to understanding how citizens began to transcend the hierarchical power of their states. According to Kleinberg and Easley, homophily “can divide a social network into densely connected, homogenous parts that are weakly connected to each other” (Easley & Klienberg, 2010) and this is how online communities form. These communities are shaped by the characteristics of the technology they are operating on. Early blogs and forums allowed small, informed and engaged networks of citizens to develop around particular political issues, and often promoted debate and discussion around political issues long after the ‘regular’ media had moved on to fresher topics. Similarly, social media creates distinctive groups centred on particular topics and who often reinforce their political ideologies with one another.

The main point to consider is that these online communities do not respect international geographical borders and governments. Individuals from all over the world who share an ideology can network with one another and this “cyber-balkanisation” makes citizens more open to new ideologies from other parts of the world and means they can challenge their states. But likewise, states and societal structures who want to maintain the status quo are likely to perceive these groups as a threat to their stability, presenting a radical and subversive political ideology, and seek to curb or control the methods by which these communities form. The 21st century has seen not only protests and uprisings in many nations around the world (themselves nothing new) but also a slow change in political engagement by citizens who are growing up virtually entrenched in the world around them. Domestic and international politics will be shaped extensively in the coming years by these citizens as they develop an understanding of their position in the real and virtual world.

Reference:
D. Easley, J. Kleinberg. 2010. Networks in their Surrounding Contexts. In: Networks, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 78.

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Data is being created at an exponential rate: http://onesecond.designly.com/

Everyday industry and academics are coming up with novel ways to use this data and the possibilities that it brings are very promising. Bestselling books such as ‘The Signal and the Noise’ and Hollywood blockbusters such as Moneyball are popularizing the use of data. Data has been used to accurately predict elections, help baseball teams win the World Series and even predict which songs will be a number one hit. Data is also revolutionising healthcare not just in a social way so that patients can connect with other patients with similar illnesses (http://www.patientslikeme.com/) but also to digitize healthcare records and offer large scale analytics into what treatments are most effective, possible side effects to certain drugs and the general health of countries.

With great data comes great responsibility
This year a great documentary about personal data and information was released. Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013) is a documentary about uses of personal data and privacy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzyafieRcWE). In light of the media interest in the NSA and the ‘Whistle Blower’ Edward Snowdon, the film explores the potential risks of the huge amounts of information that companies have. From Facebook to your mobile phone bill records (http://www.ted.com/talks/malte_spitz_your_phone_company_is_watching.html) users can be tracked and monitored almost every second. What is clear from the uses of data in such ways is that people need to take more care about disclosing information and that legislation needs to be in place to oppose an Orwellian 1984-like world.

Big is Beautiful
Data isn’t always easy for humans to interpret however data visualisation is an emerging field which aims to convert data into a meaningful picture so that we can understand the important trends in data. The Guardian’s data blog is one such example which aims to tell interesting stories from large data sets (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog). Two other pioneers in the field are David McCandless and Chris Jordan who use infographics to mould data into masterpieces.

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats.html

You’ll find out more about this during coverage of the Economy topic later.

The post Data: The good, the bad and the beautiful: an interactive guide appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Briefly tell me what your session is going to be about –
My week is about all the different types of networks that you find on the Web, the inter-connections of computers, people and things. Seeing complex relationships as networks allows us to use common techniques to understand their shape and behaviour, as well as the role of individuals within the network.

What are the main aims you want to achieve? –
As well as understanding the basic terminology around networks, I hope to show students how many real-world networks have a very similar shape, which gives them some amazing common properties. I also want to show students how we can start to analyse the networks, and how those simple analyses can lead to making higher level discoveries about communities, power and trust.

How will your students benefit? –
Students will learn how to see the digital world as a set of networks, and how to apply different techniques to compare and contrast them. But they will also learn the limitations of that view, and how and when Web Scientists should be skeptical about what network analysis can tell us.

What excites you most about delivering this session within the Web Science MOOC? –
Being able to reach so many people is tremendously exciting. The subject of networks can seem intimidating to some people, as it’s viewed as being quite mathematical, but in fact the core principles are easy to understand, and can really change the way that you look at the world. So teaching networks in the context of Web Science, and especially as part of a MOOC, is a wonderful opportunity to help a wide variety of students to see the world a bit differently.

The post Tutor Interview Series: David Millard – Network appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Links to the particular interview will be added once the interview is published.

Susan Halford and Les Carr – Introduction to Web Science

Chris Phethean – Economy

Mark Weal – Democracy

Lisa Harris – Economy

Ian Brown – Economy

Reuben Binns – Economy

Lorraine Warren – Economy

Phil Waddell – Democracy

David Millard – Networks

Craig Webber – Security

Susan Halford and Les Carr – What Next?

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