On the genre-fication of Music: a percolation approach (long version)

In this paper, we analyze web-downloaded data on people sharing their music library. By attributing to each music group usual music genres (Rock, Pop...), and analysing correlations between music groups of different genres with percolation-idea based methods, we probe the reality of these subdivisions and construct a music genre cartography, with a tree representation. We also show the diversity of music genres with Shannon entropy arguments, and discuss an alternative objective way to classify music, that is based on the complex structure of the groups audience. Finally, a link is drawn with the theory of hidden variables in complex networks.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to the proceedings of the 3rd International Conference NEXT-SigmaPh

Reproduced and Emergent Genres of Communication on the World-Wide Web

The World-Wide Web is growing quickly and being applied to many new types of communications. As a basis for studying organizational communications, Yates and Orlikowski [1, 2] proposed using genres. They defined genres as, “typified communicative actions characterized by similar substance and form and taken in response to recurrent situations” [1, p. 299]. They further suggested that communications in a new media will show both reproduction or adaptation of existing communicative genres as well as the emergence of new genres. We studied this phenomena on the World-Wide Web by examining randomly selected Web pages (100 in one sample and 1000 in a second) and categorizing the type of genre represented. Perhaps most interestingly, we saw examples of genres being adapted to take advantage of the linking and interactivity of the new medium, such as solicitations for help and genealogies. We suggest that Web site designers consider the genres that are appropriate for their situation and attempt to reuse familiar genres

The Effects of Linking on Genres of Web Documents

Documents on the Web can be composed of multiple Web pages, suggesting the need to consider how linking between pages affects a document\u27s form. We illustrate this point by considering patterns of linking in a common genre of document, the Frequently Asked Questions file or FAQ. In a sample of 70 FAQs, we found four patterns of linking: no links, links within the page, links to pages on the same host and links to other hosts. We suggest that links that tie together document pieces simply recreate the already accepted FAQ genre, but links that provide navigation within the document or that link to other information sources begin to extend and adapt the FAQ genre to the needs and capabilities of the Web

Functional genre in Illinois State Government digital documents

Provisions for collecting or archiving digital documents can be informed by knowledge of the genres of documents likely to be encountered. Although different aspects of collecting and curation may classify documents into genres based on differing criteria (e.g., size, file format, subject), this document addresses classification based on the functional role the document plays in state government, akin to (Toms, 2001), but here specifically Illinois State Government (ISG). The classifications listed herein are based on an overview of ISG digital documents, encountered in over nine years of gathering and archiving work with and for the Illinois State Library (ISL), and on discussions with practitioners in cataloging and in government documents librarianship. This report states definitions, and including examples of each such genre. State government documents are interesting in this regard in that they are presumably somewhat comparable to both federal government documents and business documents. Perhaps surprisingly, there are also portions of the State Web that are somewhat less than businesslike, either in tone or in technological proficiency of implementation. In this respect state government digital documents may also be useful approximations to documents produced either personally or by small activities. Having a list of government document genres can inform work in information promulgation (e.g., through website design, or the design of a series of printed materials), and the grouping of documents for digital library or archival purposes.Library of Congress / NDIIPP-2 A6075unpublishednot peer reviewe

Uncovering collective listening habits and music genres in bipartite networks

In this paper, we analyze web-downloaded data on people sharing their music library, that we use as their individual musical signatures (IMS). The system is represented by a bipartite network, nodes being the music groups and the listeners. Music groups audience size behaves like a power law, but the individual music library size is an exponential with deviations at small values. In order to extract structures from the network, we focus on correlation matrices, that we filter by removing the least correlated links. This percolation idea-based method reveals the emergence of social communities and music genres, that are visualised by a branching representation. Evidence of collective listening habits that do not fit the neat usual genres defined by the music industry indicates an alternative way of classifying listeners/music groups. The structure of the network is also studied by a more refined method, based upon a random walk exploration of its properties. Finally, a personal identification - community imitation model (PICI) for growing bipartite networks is outlined, following Potts ingredients. Simulation results do reproduce quite well the empirical data.Comment: submitted to PR

Genres, user attitudes and prospects for learning through video on the WWW

Building upon the notion that TV and video programmes will soon be accessible via the World Wide Web, there is the question of if and how it can bring added value for education. How will these two genres (working on the Internet vs. relaxing on the sofa) go together? From a post-modern point of view, the mass media (such as TV) contribute to the supposed mechanism of 'social constructionism'. However, the programme makers have a major control over the underlying message that is articulated, whereas constructionism for learning is a more conscious process by which students 'build' new knowledge through experimentation and conceptualizatio

Web genres: research trends

We present a review of some of the main trends of research into web genres. Genres are documents defined primarily by the communicative purpose they accomplish for their producers and recipients, though they also present specific characteristics of topic and form. Thinking of web documents in terms of genres provides a selection criterion which is complementary to topic or subject, and which can also be implemented in automatic classifiers. The review offers a definition of web genres, a summary of achievements in automatic classification of web genres, and a perspective from which to sort out the increasing number of contributions on genres

Functional Text Dimensions for the annotation of web corpora

This paper presents an approach to classifying large web corpora into genres by means of Functional Text Dimensions (FTDs). This offers a topological approach to text typology in which the texts are described in terms of their similarity to prototype genres. The suggested set of categories is designed to be applicable to any text on the web and to be reliable in annotation practice. Interannotator agreement results show that the suggested categories produce Krippendorff's α at above 0.76. In addition to the functional space of eighteen dimensions, similarity between annotated documents can be described visually within a space of reduced dimensions obtained through t-distributed Statistical Neighbour Embedding. Reliably annotated texts also provide the basis for automatic genre classification, which can be done in each FTD, as well as as within the space of reduced dimensions. An example comparing texts from the Brown Corpus, the BNC and ukWac, a large web corpus, is provided