Towards Agent-based Large-scale Decision Support System: The Effect of Facilitator

Good discussions are essential for group decisions, especially when the number of people in thea group has many people is large. So, it is important to Pprovidinge good support is critical for having establishing and maintaining coherent discussions that avoid some of thesuch anti-social bad behaviors, like as flaming, that have, which has been observed in some large discussion groups. We have developed a large-scale online decision support system that has facilitator support functions, and deployed it in case studies for several real-world online discussion supports as case studies. In this paper, weWe propose a facilitator-mediated online discussion model in order to lead discussions to in a better direction for ato reach decisions. Our extreme ultimate goal is an to realize automated facilitator agent that can adequately leadhelp participants to achieve reach reasonable decisions. In reality, online discussion is often fails plagued byinto flaming, , which is the act of posting or sending offensive messages during a discussion. Such flaming phenomena have been focused on as anti-social bad behavior of in online discussion forums. After several cases studies, we learned several lessons. Critically, The most important achievement is that in any all of our social experiments, no flaming has not been observed in our facilitator-mediated decision support system. Also, we obtained Our some insights also suggest in whichthat the social presence of a facilitator would have largegreatly aeffect for participants’ behavior

New technologies are a tool to strengthen multiple intelligences

Αυτή η εργασία είναι μια προσπάθεια προσέγγισης της θεωρίας των πολλαπλών ευφυϊών του Howard Gardner και τις δυνατότητες που παρέχονται από το μοντέλο της εκπαίδευσης της ανοικτής και εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης. Η ανοικτή και εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση μπορεί να φέρει επανάσταση στην παραδοσιακή παιδαγωγική πρακτική, καλύπτοντας τις ανάγκες των ατόμων που έχουν διαφορετικές μορφές γνωστικής κατανόησης. Τα συμπεράσματα αναδεικνύουν την ανοικτή και εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευση όχι απλώς ως ένα απλό εργαλείο για τη διάδοση της εκπαίδευσης, αλλά ως μέσο επίτευξης νέων επιπέδων κατανόησης και μάθησης. This work is about Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences and the possibilities provided by the education model known as open and distance learning. Open and distance learning exceeds traditional teaching practice, meeting the needs of those students who have different forms of cognitive understanding and learning style. This tool has in itself the potential to build knowledge collectively. The conclusions make open and distance learning not just a mere tool for education, but a means to reach new levels of comprehension, reflecting on the role of education itself

ArgumentBind - A Model for Implementing Argument Web Integrated Applications with Open and Linked Data

Online communication and collaboration tools are widely employed by users in order to express their opinions on a vast amount of subjects. These tools were not designed to accurately identify topics, nor to point out relationships between topic elements related to a given discussion. As it turns out, there is a staggering amount of user-contributed information generally available, and conversely, a huge challenge related to accurately pointing out featured topics and their intertwining relationships and sources. The main purpose of Argument Web is to define a rich, full-featured annotation model capable of storing relationships between topics and their sources. Given the availability of rich, interlinked data about a number of related subjects, Argument Web can potentially increase the quality of online discussions and the analysis of its components. However, there is still a reduced number of real-world applications based on these concepts. Even in well-known projects, there\u27s still a lack of exploration efforts related to the use of open and linked data. This paper presents an application model based on Argument Interchange Format (AIF) and state-of-the-art semantic Web technology. Its main contribution lies in the integration of external source information, linked data formats and data visualization aspects. The solution is then evaluated through a case-study related to the use of open and linked data on the field of public administration

Polarization and opinion analysis in an online argumentation system for collaborative decision support

Argumentation is an important process in a collaborative decision making environment. Argumentation from a large number of stakeholders often produces a large argumentation tree. It is challenging to comprehend such an argumentation tree without intelligent analysis tools. Also, limited decision support is provided for its analysis by the existing argumentation systems. In an argumentation process, stakeholders tend to polarize on their opinions, and form polarization groups. Each group is usually led by a group leader. Polarization groups often overlap and a stakeholder is a member of multiple polarization groups. Identifying polarization groups and quantifying a stakeholder\u27s degree of membership in multiple polarization groups helps the decision maker understand both the social dynamics and the post-decision effects on each group. Frameworks are developed in this dissertation to identify both polarization groups and quantify a stakeholder\u27s degree of membership in multiple polarization groups. These tasks are performed by quantifying opinions of stakeholders using argumentation reduction fuzzy inference system and further clustering opinions based on K-means and Fuzzy c-means algorithms. Assessing the collective opinion of the group on individual arguments is also important. This helps stakeholders understand individual arguments from the collective perspective of the group. A framework is developed to derive the collective assessment score of individual arguments in a tree using the argumentation reduction inference system. Further, these arguments are clustered using argument strength and collective assessment score to identify clusters of arguments with collective support and collective attack. Identifying outlier opinions in an argumentation tree helps in understanding opinions that are further away from the mean group opinion in the opinion space. Outlier opinions may exist from two perspectives in argumentation: individual viewpoint and collective viewpoint of the group. A framework is developed in this dissertation to address this challenge from both perspectives. Evaluation of the methods is also presented and it shows that the proposed methods are effective in identifying polarization groups and outlier opinions. The information produced by these methods help decision makers and stakeholders in making more informed decisions --Abstract, pages iii-iv

A treatise on Web 2.0 with a case study from the financial markets

There has been much hype in vocational and academic circles surrounding the emergence of web 2.0 or social media; however, relatively little work was dedicated to substantiating the actual concept of web 2.0. Many have dismissed it as not deserving of this new title, since the term web 2.0 assumes a certain interpretation of web history, including enough progress in certain direction to trigger a succession [i.e. web 1.0 → web 2.0]. Others provided arguments in support of this development, and there has been a considerable amount of enthusiasm in the literature. Much research has been busy evaluating current use of web 2.0, and analysis of the user generated content, but an objective and thorough assessment of what web 2.0 really stands for has been to a large extent overlooked. More recently the idea of collective intelligence facilitated via web 2.0, and its potential applications have raised interest with researchers, yet a more unified approach and work in the area of collective intelligence is needed. This thesis identifies and critically evaluates a wider context for the web 2.0 environment, and what caused it to emerge; providing a rich literature review on the topic, a review of existing taxonomies, a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the concept itself, an investigation of the collective intelligence potential that emerges from application usage. Finally, a framework for harnessing collective intelligence in a more systematic manner is proposed. In addition to the presented results, novel methodologies are also introduced throughout this work. In order to provide interesting insight but also to illustrate analysis, a case study of the recent financial crisis is considered. Some interesting results relating to the crisis are revealed within user generated content data, and relevant issues are discussed where appropriate

Metodología de aprendizaje y generación de conocimiento mediante colaboración vía Internet : aplicación al Observatorio Astronómico Montegancedo

La Web 2.0 es un fenómeno de Internet caracterizado por webs más dinámicas y participativas. Actualmente, existen nuevas tendencias sociales que están provocando formas innovadoras de colaboración voluntaria y de aprendizaje en línea. La tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro del contexto de la Web 2.0 y del aprendizaje colaborativo a través de Internet, en concreto de los laboratorios remotos basados en experimentación real. Este trabajo se inicia con el objetivo de diseñar una metodología novedosa de creación de proyectos de colaboración y participación ciudadana orientados a la educación y basados en la experimentación real. Se trata de un nuevo enfoque para crear aplicaciones web abiertas a la sociedad que promuevan el aprendizaje informal, el constructivismo y la generación de conocimiento a través de sistemas colaborativos, auto-organizados y meritocráticos. El trabajo realizado en esta tesis se centra en el diseño y desarrollo de laboratorios remotos con experimentación real accesibles mediante webs 2.0. En el desarrollo de la tesis se ha llevado a cabo la implementación del observatorio astronómico Montegancedo. Se trata del primero abierto a la sociedad a través de Internet, de uso interactivo y totalmente gratuito. Principalmente se basa en un funcionamiento meritocrático de los usuarios para conseguir tiempo de observación para la realización de experimentos astronómicos. Este observatorio y la red social subyacente ha sido la bancada empírica sobre la que se demuestran las hipótesis planteadas. En esta tesis se ha formulado un algoritmo de ordenación de los elementos pertenecientes a un sistema colaborativo. Se detalla el procedimiento completo para extrapolar el algoritmo a cualquier otro sistema de colaboración. Se describe desde la etapa inicial sobre cómo establecer los criterios de ordenación hasta cómo interpretar los resultados. En el contexto del observatorio Montegancedo, el algoritmo se emplea para determinar cuáles son los usuarios más importantes en la red social midiendo su colaboración y participación. Análogamente, se puede calcular la importancia de las fotografías, vídeos, noticias, comentarios y otros elementos consecuencia de la participación social. En la misma línea de la meritocracia social, se formula un algoritmo de plani_cación de recursos en línea basado en los resultados del algoritmo de ordenación anterior. Se diseña una solución novedosa al problema que supone compartir recursos que requieren experimentación real a través de Internet. Aplicado al observatorio Montegancedo, se explica cómo asignar tiempo de observación a los usuarios según su importancia demostrada dentro de la comunidad. El trabajo también expone el proceso de análisis y caracterización de los individuos y comunidades en línea a partir de los datos registrados, que abarca tanto información personal de los usuarios como cada una de sus interacciones intercambiadas. Abstract Web 2.0 is an Internet social phenomenon characterized by more dynamic and partipatory websites. Nowadays, there are new social trends which are causing innovative ways of voluntary collaboration and online learning. This doctoral thesis is framed within the context of Web 2.0 and collaborative learning through the Internet, speci_cally remote laboratories based on real experimentation. The aim of this research is to design a new methodology for creating collaborative projects and citizen participation, focused on education and based on real experimentation. This is a new approach to create web applications open to society to promote learning, constructivism and the generation of knowledge through collaborative, self-organized and meritocratic systems. The work in this thesis focuses on the design and development of remote laboratories experimenting with real webs are accessible through 2.0. The implementation of the astronomical observatory Montegancedo has been carried out during the thesis. This is the _rst observatory open to the public through the Internet, interactive and completely free. Mainly, it relies on a meritocratic functioning where users have to get observing time for carrying out astronomical experiments. The observatory and the underlying social network has been on the bench empirically demonstrate that the initial hypothesis. In this thesis an algorithm has been formulated to classify and order the elements belonging to a collaborative system. Full details about the procedure for the algorithm to extrapolate to any other system of collaboration. Described at an early stage on how to establish criteria for management to how to interpret the results. In the context of the observatory Montegancedo, the algorithm is used to determine which are the most important users in the social network by measuring their collaboration and participation. Similarly, one can calculate the importance of photographs, videos, news, reviews and other elements of social participation. In the same line than social meritocracy, it makes a scheduling algorithm of online resources based on the results of previous management algorithm. Designing a novel solution to the problem of sharing resources that require real experiments via Internet. Montegancedo applied to the observatory, discusses how to allocate observing time to the users according to their demonstrated importance in the community. The thesis also describes the process of analysis and characterization of individuals and communities on-line from the recorded data, which includes personal information such as each of their interactions exchanged

Socialinės technologijos ir kolektyvinis intelektas

Socialinės technologijos, kaip ir kolektyvinis intelektas, yra tarpdisciplininė, besivystanti mokslo sritis, kuri apima informatikos, vadybos, ekonomikos, komunikacijos, socialinės psichologijos, sociologijos, politikos mokslų ir kitas disciplinas. Šios kolektyvinės monografijos išskirtinumas yra originalus požiūris į socialinių ir technologinių mokslų sąveiką. Tokį požiūrį formuoja monografijos autorių tarpdisciplininė patirtis ir tarptautinis mokslinis įdirbis. Šiame moksliniame darbe pabrėžiamas ne technologijų vyravimas, o socialinis technologijų aspektas, t. y. kolektyvinio intelekto, formuojamo pasitelkus technologijas, kuriamoji galia

Social technologies and collective intelligence

Social Technologies and Collective Intelligence is a monograph written by 24 international researchers in the field of Social Technologies and edited by prof. dr. Aelita Skaržauskienė from Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania. As an academic discipline, social technologies is a highly interdisciplinary research field that focuses on applying existing ICT as well as newly emerging technologies to improve society. This work highlights the dominance of the non-technological social aspect of technology and its interaction with people, emphasizing the institutional power of Collective Intelligence through soft technology. By going through the book, the reader will gain insight and knowledge into the challenges and opportunities provided by this new exciting research field. Scientists will appreciate the comprehensive treatment of the research challenges in a multidisciplinary perspective. Practitioners and applied researchers will welcome the novel approaches to tackle relevant problems in their field. And policy-makers will better understand how technological advances can support them in supporting the progress of society and economy. The book is divided into six parts, each dealing with a well-defined research area at the intersection of Social Technologies and Collective Intelligence. Instead of being split up five ways among particular groups of collaborating authors, each individual author contributes to all five parts of the book their specific knowledge and insights, which makes this monograph a truly collaborative effort and a prime example of collective intelligence