Giving meaning to tweets in emergency situations: a semantic approach for filtering and visualizing social data

In this paper, we propose a semantic approach for monitoring information publishedon social networks about a specific event. In the era of Big Data, when an emergencyoccurs information posted on social networks becomes more and more helpful foremergency operators. As direct witnesses of the situation, people share photos, videosor text messages about events that call their attention. In the emergency operationcenter, these data can be collected and integrated within the management processto improve the overall understanding of the situation and in particular of the citizenreactions. To support the tracking and analyzing of social network activities, there arealready monitoring tools that combine visualization techniques with geographicalmaps. However, tweets are written from the perspective of citizens and the informationthey provide might be inaccurate, irrelevant or false. Our approach tries to dealwith data relevance proposing an innovative ontology-based method for filteringtweets and extracting meaningful topics depending on their semantic content. In thisway data become relevant for the operators to make decisions. Two real cases used totest its applicability showed that different visualization techniques might be neededto support situation awareness. This ontology-based approach can be generalizedfor analyzing the information flow about other domains of application changing theunderlying knowledge base.This work is supported by the project emerCien grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity (TIN2012-09687)

Context-Preserving Visual Analytics of Multi-Scale Spatial Aggregation.

Spatial datasets (i.e., location-based social media, crime incident reports, and demographic data) often exhibit varied distribution patterns at multiple spatial scales. Examining these patterns across different scales enhances the understanding from global to local perspectives and offers new insights into the nature of various spatial phenomena. Conventional navigation techniques in such multi-scale data-rich spaces are often inefficient, require users to choose between an overview or detailed information, and do not support identifying spatial patterns at varying scales. In this work, we present a context-preserving visual analytics technique that aggregates spatial datasets into hierarchical clusters and visualizes the multi-scale aggregates in a single visual space. We design a boundary distortion algorithm to minimize the visual clutter caused by overlapping aggregates and explore visual encoding strategies including color, transparency, shading, and shapes, in order to illustrate the hierarchical and statistical patterns of the multi-scale aggregates. We also propose a transparency-based technique that maintains a smooth visual transition as the users navigate across adjacent scales. To further support effective semantic exploration in the multi-scale space, we design a set of text-based encoding and layout methods that draw textual labels along the boundary or filled within the aggregates. The text itself not only summarizes the semantics at each scale, but also indicates the spatial coverage of the aggregates and their hierarchical relationships. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches through real-world application examples and user studies

Do I Care Enough? Using a Prosocial Tendencies Measure to Understand Twitter Users Sharing Behavior for Minor Public Safety Incidents

Social media has been used to assist victims of crises, especially large-scale disasters. Research describes the importance of the crowd who are the first witnesses to any sort of crime or disaster. Among others, this paper focuses on smaller scale public safety incidents such as suspicious activities, and minor robberies. We investigate whether prosocial tendencies affect Twitter users’ decisions to share minor public safety incidents on Twitter. The scale used has six subscales including: public, anonymous, dire, emotional, compliant, and altruism. The data (N=363) was collected through Mechanical Turk using an online anonymous survey. Initial results showed a positive relationship between being prosocial and sharing public safety incidents on Twitter. However, once additional variables related to Twitter use were introduced (number of public safety official accounts followed, news exposure on social media, and tweet/retweet frequency), these variables fully mediated the relationship. Limitations and design implications are discussed

INVESTIGATING COLLABORATIVE EXPLAINABLE AI (CXAI)/SOCIAL FORUM AS AN EXPLAINABLE AI (XAI) METHOD IN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING (AD)

Explainable AI (XAI) systems primarily focus on algorithms, integrating additional information into AI decisions and classifications to enhance user or developer comprehension of the system\u27s behavior. These systems often incorporate untested concepts of explainability, lacking grounding in the cognitive and educational psychology literature (S. T. Mueller et al., 2021). Consequently, their effectiveness may be limited, as they may address problems that real users don\u27t encounter or provide information that users do not seek. In contrast, an alternative approach called Collaborative XAI (CXAI), as proposed by S. Mueller et al (2021), emphasizes generating explanations without relying solely on algorithms. CXAI centers on enabling users to ask questions and share explanations based on their knowledge and experience to facilitate others\u27 understanding of AI systems. Mamun, Hoffman, et al. (2021) developed a CXAI system akin to a Social Question and Answer (SQA) platform (S. Oh, 2018a), adapting it for AI system explanations. The system successfully passed evaluation based on XAI metrics Hoffman, Mueller, et al. (2018), as implemented in a master’s thesis by Mamun (2021), which validated its effectiveness in a basic image classification domain and explored the types of explanations it generated. This Ph.D. dissertation builds upon this prior work, aiming to apply it in a novel context: users and potential users of self-driving semi-autonomous vehicles. This approach seeks to unravel communication patterns within a social QA platform (S. Oh, 2018a), the types of questions it can assist with, and the benefits it might offer users of widely adopted AI systems. Initially, the feasibility of using existing social QA platforms as explanatory tools for an existing AI system was investigated. The study found that users on these platforms collaboratively assist one another in problem-solving, with many resolutions being reached (Linja et al., 2022). An intriguing discovery was that anger directed at the AI system drove increased engagement on the platform. The subsequent phase leverages observations from social QA platforms in the autonomous driving (AD) sector to gain insights into an AI system within a vehicle. The dissertation includes two simulation studies employing these observations as training materials. The studies explore users\u27 Level 3 Situational Awareness (Endsley, 1995) when the autonomous vehicle exhibits abnormal behavior. These investigate detection rates and users\u27 comprehension of abnormal driving situations. Additionally, these studies measure the perception of personalization within the context of the training process (Zhang & Curley, 2018), cognitive workload (Hart & Staveland, 1988), trust, and reliance (Körber, 2018) concerning the training process. The findings from these studies are mixed, showing higher detection rates of abnormal driving with training but diminished trust and reliance. The final study engages current Tesla FSD users in semi-structured interviews (Crandall et al., 2006) to explore their use of social QA platforms, their knowledge sources during the training phase, and their search for answers to abnormal driving scenarios. The results reveal extensive collaboration through social forums and group discussions, shedding light on differences in trust and reliance within this domain

Community Segmentation and Inclusive Social Media Listening

Social media analytics provide a generalized picture of situational awareness from the conversations happening among communities present in social media channels that are that are, or risk being affected by crises. The generalized nature of results from these analytics leaves underrepresented communities in the background. When considering social media analytics, concerns, sentiment, and needs are perceived as homogenous. However, offline, the community is diverse, often segmented by age group, occupation, or language, to name a few. Through our analysis of interviews from professionals using social media as a source of information in public service organizations, we argue that practitioners might not be perceiving this segmentation from the social media conversation. In addition, practitioners who are aware of this limitation, agree that there is room for improvement and resort to alternative mechanisms to understand, reach, and provide services to these communities in need. Thus, we analyze current perceptions and activities around segmentation and provide suggestions that could inform the design of social media analytics tools that support inclusive public services for all, including persons with disabilities and from other disadvantaged groups.publishedVersionPaid open acces

DATA ANALYTICS FOR CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF SHARING ECONOMY SERVICES IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

This dissertation study aims to analyze the role of data-driven decision-making in sharing economy during the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis management tool. In the twenty-first century, when applying analytical tools has become an essential component of business decision-making, including operations on crisis management, data analytics is an emerging field. To carry out corporate strategies, data-driven decision-making is seen as a crucial component of business operations. Data analytics can be applied to benefit-cost evaluations, strategy planning, client engagement, and service quality. Data forecasting can also be used to keep an eye on business operations and foresee potential risks. Risk Management and planning are essential for allocating the necessary resources with minimal cost and time and to be ready for a crisis. Hidden market trends and customer preferences can help companies make knowledgeable business decisions during crises and recessions. Each company should manage operations and response during emergencies, a path to recovery, and prepare for future similar events with appropriate data management tools. Sharing economy is part of social commerce, that brings together individuals who have underused assets and who want to rent those assets short-term. COVID-19 has emphasized the need for digital transformation. Since the pandemic began, the sharing economy has been facing challenges, while market demand dropped significantly. Shelter-in-Place and Stay-at-Home orders changed the way of offering such sharing services. Stricter safety procedures and the need for a strong balance sheet are the key take points to surviving during this difficult health crisis. Predictive analytics and peer-reviewed articles are used to assess the pandemic\u27s effects. The approaches chosen to assess the research objectives and the research questions are the predictive financial performance of Uber & Airbnb, bibliographic coupling, and keyword occurrence analyses of peer-reviewed works about the influence of data analytics on the sharing economy. The VOSViewer Bibliometric software program is utilized for computing bibliometric analysis, RapidMiner Predictive Data Analytics for computing data analytics, and LucidChart for visualizing data

Data Analytics for Crisis Management: A Case Study of Sharing Economy Services in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This dissertation study aims to analyze the role of data-driven decision-making in sharing economy during the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis management tool. In the twenty-first century, when applying analytical tools has become an essential component of business decision-making, including operations on crisis management, data analytics is an emerging field. To carry out corporate strategies, data-driven decision-making is seen as a crucial component of business operations. Data analytics can be applied to benefit-cost evaluations, strategy planning, client engagement, and service quality. Data forecasting can also be used to keep an eye on business operations and foresee potential risks. Risk Management and planning are essential for allocating the necessary resources with minimal cost and time and to be ready for a crisis. Hidden market trends and customer preferences can help companies make knowledgeable business decisions during crises and recessions. Each company should manage operations and response during emergencies, a path to recovery, and prepare for future similar events with appropriate data management tools. Sharing economy is part of social commerce, that brings together individuals who have underused assets and who want to rent those assets short-term. COVID-19 has emphasized the need for digital transformation. Since the pandemic began, the sharing economy has been facing challenges, while market demand dropped significantly. Shelter-in-Place and Stay-at-Home orders changed the way of offering such sharing services. Stricter safety procedures and the need for a strong balance sheet are the key take points to surviving during this difficult health crisis. Predictive analytics and peer-reviewed articles are used to assess the pandemic\u27s effects. The approaches chosen to assess the research objectives and the research questions are the predictive financial performance of Uber & Airbnb, bibliographic coupling, and keyword occurrence analyses of peer-reviewed works about the influence of data analytics on the sharing economy. The VOSViewer Bibliometric software program is utilized for computing bibliometric analysis, RapidMiner Predictive Data Analytics for computing data analytics, and LucidChart for visualizing data

Investigating consumer perception of sustainable purchase: Examining correlations between food habits and innovation

Awareness of our eating habits impact on health and the environment is growing, along with its consequential effects. It is critical for individuals to acquire knowledge in this realm, learning to thoughtfully assess their daily consumption and actively participate in the process. The analyzed sample comprises responses from 202 respondents, providing a global overview of people's attitudes toward adopting sustainable food products. Therefore, this study aims to investigate consumers' perceptions of green products and their willingness to integrate them into their dietary practices. It will explore how certain variables, such as health consciousness and trust in the integrity of food products, positively influence purchase intention through the mediating factors of green environmental concerns. Additionally, perceived barriers, which negatively impact purchase intention but are positively associated with confidence in product integrity, will also be examined. The results demonstrate consumers' willingness to embrace new messages that help overcome barriers to purchasing sustainable products, as well as responsibility on the part of companies in understanding how to effectively promote environmental aspects through tangible actions