Unifying Framework for Building Social Computing Applications

There have been a number of frameworks and models developed to support different aspects of social computing. Some were developed to deal with online interaction through the application of computer-mediated communications tools, whereas others such as social network analyses and reputation systems were more specific in their focus. While these methodologies are interrelated, current social computing research has dealt with them as separate aspects. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for social computing that aims at integrating all these three aspects into a unified model so that discovery and exploration of community members are not only made possible, but also optimized. The novelty of the proposed approach stems from: (1) integration of social interaction, social network analysis and social reputation domains; (2) incorporating many flexible and practical features such as individual- and group-level perceptions of trust in social relations for different social contexts; and (3) using path-related algorithms for selection and discovery of target community members. A description of the proposed model and its implementation are presented. This research is expected to assist online community members to make decisions that facilitate the discovery of people and their connections while promoting increased awareness of community structure and information exposure

Evaluation Of e-Government Services From The Citizen Perspective

The inversion of reduction of confidence in combination with the need to face lack of resources for public administration has led governments and various governmental institutions to develop and propagate the services of electronic government. Investing millions in these services governments seek for measures and models that will quantify and highlight the profits that come up from these investments. Initially we present a short literature review of the existing indicators applied by the European Union and institutions that measure citizens’ satisfaction from the use of electronic government services , as well as the relevant research evaluation models. Afterwards, focusing on the scientific gaps that exist, a conceptual model of citizen acceptance satisfaction with E-government services is proposed and developed. Implications for further research and possible modification to the model are also proposed

ICTs in behavioral problems and Research and analysis in Athens' schools

Providing pupils with information and strategies for coping with “present reality” is particularly crucial in the teacher’s job in the modern world. Teachers are required to take on the role of social educators in a time when individuals struggle, personalities are shattered, and ethos and moral values are devalued. Teachers support students’ ability to identify issues and challenges and name, express, and regulate their emotions. This essay aims to investigate the classroom behavioral issues that arise. The current work aims to define what constitutes problematic behavior and outline teachers’ role in preventing, limiting, actively intervening, and assisting pupils in solving problems. The research also involves statistical processing and data analysis based on questionnaires given to eight teachers regarding their perspectives and the intervention methods they use to manage behavioral problems

Technology-based ADHD therapies and alternative non-drug options

Since so many studies have been conducted over the past ten years, we now have ample information about the profile and management of ADHD. Children with ADHD frequently struggle in school and with their attitude because of issues with cognitive and metacognitive skills. Due to inadequate management and interventions, it frequently happens that they are marginalized at school or the home. The development of these children’s emotional intelligence and abilities like self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-control is crucial for enhancing their life quality and their interactions with adults and peers. Medication, behavior modification, or a combination of the two are typically used to treat ADHD. The efficacy of behavioral therapies is examined in this research, in addition to the use of recent technology for treating ADHD

CREAMINKA: An Intelligent Ecosystem for Supporting Management and Information Discovery in Research and Innovation Fields in Universities

This chapter presents a new proposal for supporting the management of research processes in universities and higher education centers. To this aim, the authors have developed a comprehensive ecosystem that implements a knowledge model that addresses three innovative aspects of research: (i) acceleration of knowledge production, (ii) research valorization and (iii) discovery of improbable peers. The ecosystem relies on ontologies and intelligent modules and is able to automatically retrieve information of major scientific databases such as SCOPUS and Science Direct to infer new information. Currently, the system is able to provide guidelines to create improbable research peers as well as automatically generate resilience graphics and reports from more than 17,000 tuples of the ontological database. In this work, the authors describe in detail an important aspect of support systems for research management in higher education: the development and valorization of competences of students collaborating in research process and startUPS of universities. Furthermore, a knowledge model of entrepreneurship (startUPS) as well as an analyzer of general and specific competences based on data mining processes is presented

Emerging technologies and information systems for the knowledge society : first World summit on the knowledge society, WSKS 2008 : Athens, Greece, september 24-26, 2008 : proceedings

This book, in conjunction with the volume CCIS 19, constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First World Summit, WSKS 2008, held in Athens, Greece, in September 2008. The 64 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 286 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on social & humanistic computing for the knowledge society; knowledge, learning, education, learning technologies and e-learning for the knowledge society; information technologies for the knowledge society; culture & cultural heritage - technology for culture management - management of tourism and entertainment - tourism networks in the knowledge society; government and democracy for the knowledge society

Dissecting AI-Generated Fake Reviews: Detection and Analysis of GPT-Based Restaurant Reviews on Social Media

Recent advances in generative models such as GPT may be used to fabricate indistinguishable fake customer reviews at a much lower cost, posing challenges for social media platforms to detect this kind of content. This study addresses two research questions: (1) the effective detection of AI-generated restaurant reviews generated from high-quality elite authentic reviews, and (2) the comparison of out-of-sample predicted AI-generated reviews and authentic reviews across multiple dimensions of review, user, restaurant, and content characteristics. We fine-tuned a GPT text detector to predict fake reviews, significantly outperforming existing solutions. We applied the model to predict non-elite reviews that already passed the Yelp filtering system, revealing that AI-generated reviews typically score higher ratings, users posting such content have less established Yelp reputations and AI-generated reviews are more comprehensible and less linguistically complex than human-generated reviews. Notably, machine-generated reviews are more prevalent in low-traffic restaurants in terms of customer visits

Technology appropriation in transnational networks of social activists : a study of the European Social Forum

Civil society organizations and other networks of social activists have gained significant importance in supporting citizens, as states are rolling back from their duties. In order to be an effective force, these networks have become transnational in their operations. These transnational networks are typically characterized by a lack of resources, an absence of formal hierarchical structures and differences in languages and culture among the activists. Modern technologies could help these networks in improving their working. Technology support for transnational social movements and civil society organizations is an important field of research not only due to the increased political importance of this sector in a globalizing world but also due to their organizational characteristics. In order to design appropriate technological support for social activists' etworks, it is important to understand their work practices, which widely differ from traditional businessorganizations. In this thesis, I present results from a long-term ethnographical field study of the European Social Forum (ESF), a network of heterogeneous political activist organizations. In this network different actors organize a periodic (biannual) event. During my data collection phase, the 5th and 6th European Social Fora were held in Malmo (2008) and Istanbul (2010), in which some 13,000 and 3,000 activists participated, respectively. I particularly focused on the usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in preparing and conducting ESF events and knowledge sharing practices during the transition phase. I specifically highlighted coordination and knowledge management practices to understand the potential for ICT support. The thesis describes complex social practice of organizing ESF events. I use the term fragmented meta-coordination to highlight coordination in this type of practice. Mundane ICT applications, such as a mailing list and a content management system, play a central role in enabling different aspects of fragmented meta-coordination. The findings also indicate how lack of resources, organizational distribution, and technical limitations hamper the preparation process and reduce transparency of political decision-making. I also present a specific type of knowledge, termed as nomadic knowledge. It is required periodically by different actors and travels along foreseeable paths between groups or communities of actors. This type of knowledge lets us question generally held assumptions about the way knowledge is enacted. Nomadic knowledge is a specialized type of knowledge, which is enacted in a discontinuous pattern by a changing set of actors and further flows on a defined trajectory. This knowledge is quite important but is required sporadically, so it has varying levels of importance for stakeholders at different instances of time. The limited interest of knowledge holders after the creation of knowledge makes knowledge sharing process complex. Furthermore, new actors overloaded by the tasks at hand often ignore the knowledge sharing aspect due to urgency. The thesis provides insights into the complexity of managing nomadic knowledge and implications for organizational processes. Moreover, the issues, which make the transfer of nomadic knowledge complex, are also discussed and the potentials for ICT support for management and transfer of nomadic knowledge are also highlighted. Moreover, the thesis provides a historic perspective on the evolution of ICT artifacts in the organizational boundaries. A user-centered evaluation of two technology artifacts (European mailing list and OpenESF) is also carried out to identify design improvements. The empirical findings highlight how the mailing list is used for a variety of different activities such as collaborative work, decision-making, coordination and information sharing. I discuss the findings with regard to the discourse on cooperative work and come up with implications for design. The analysis highlights central organizational and technological challenges related to ICT appropriation in transnational networks of social activists. As a next step it is important to design appropriate prototypes aligned with highlighted work practices to evaluate them in the field and realign if necessary. In order to better support this application domain universities and community-based organizations need to work jointly on action research projects to improve organizational processes of civil society organizations