Circadian patterns of Wikipedia editorial activity: A demographic analysis

Wikipedia (WP) as a collaborative, dynamical system of humans is an appropriate subject of social studies. Each single action of the members of this society, i.e. editors, is well recorded and accessible. Using the cumulative data of 34 Wikipedias in different languages, we try to characterize and find the universalities and differences in temporal activity patterns of editors. Based on this data, we estimate the geographical distribution of editors for each WP in the globe. Furthermore we also clarify the differences among different groups of WPs, which originate in the variance of cultural and social features of the communities of editors

Constitutional Law—First Amendment and Freedom of Speech—the Constitutionality of Arkansas’s Prohibition On Political Robocalls

The note first discusses the pros and cons of robocalls, concluding that certain restrictions on robocalls are desirable. Next, the note examines current constitutional case law governing the issue. Thereafter, the note illustrates how Arkansas\u27s regulation on political robocalls would fail a First Amendment challenge as currently written. Accordingly, the note proposes a revision to the robocall statute that would most likely allow it to pass constitutional review. The note concludes that the burdens resulting from robocalls are placed upon robocall recipients, opposing political campaigns (especially those that determine not to use them under current law), and unrelated third parties. Therefore, the government has an interest in restricting political robocalls. However, despite the government\u27s interest, Arkansas\u27s statutory prohibition on political robocalls is unconstitutional as written because it is a content-based restriction that is not narrowly tailored and there are less restrictive means available. Specifically, the restriction is content based because any determination of whether a robocall\u27s purpose is connected with a political campaign requires an examination of the content of the message. However, this impasse can be easily addressed by revising the statute to prohibit all robocalls, regardless of the message, rendering the statue a reasonable time, place, or manner restriction

Constitutional Law—First Amendment and Freedom of Speech—the Constitutionality of Arkansas’s Prohibition On Political Robocalls

The note first discusses the pros and cons of robocalls, concluding that certain restrictions on robocalls are desirable. Next, the note examines current constitutional case law governing the issue. Thereafter, the note illustrates how Arkansas\u27s regulation on political robocalls would fail a First Amendment challenge as currently written. Accordingly, the note proposes a revision to the robocall statute that would most likely allow it to pass constitutional review. The note concludes that the burdens resulting from robocalls are placed upon robocall recipients, opposing political campaigns (especially those that determine not to use them under current law), and unrelated third parties. Therefore, the government has an interest in restricting political robocalls. However, despite the government\u27s interest, Arkansas\u27s statutory prohibition on political robocalls is unconstitutional as written because it is a content-based restriction that is not narrowly tailored and there are less restrictive means available. Specifically, the restriction is content based because any determination of whether a robocall\u27s purpose is connected with a political campaign requires an examination of the content of the message. However, this impasse can be easily addressed by revising the statute to prohibit all robocalls, regardless of the message, rendering the statue a reasonable time, place, or manner restriction

Regulating Robocalls: Are Automated Calls the Sound of, or a Threat to, Democracy

African-American voters receive a phone message implying that they are not registered to vote. Others hear an almost threatening male voice, a fake New York accent, factual distortions about legislation, false endorsements from controversial groups, calls promoting one candidate claiming to be from his opponent, and a constant barrage of annoying phone calls designed to make voters think a different candidate was sponsoring them. These messages were delivered through automated political telephone calls, also known as robocalls. Robocalls are cheap and efficient--one can deliver a pre-recorded message through 100,000 automated phone calls in one hour for only $2000. Consequently, robocalls have become one of the most-used political campaign tools. This Note calls for a national regulation of robocalls that allows for their continued use, but attempts to curb specific abuses. There are a variety of problems and benefits associated with robocalls. Beyond being used to deceive and abuse voters, robocalls are also uniquely annoying and invasive. The federal regulatory regime currently excludes political robocalls from most telemarketing regulations. Unsurprisingly, Congress and many states are considering banning or regulating robocalls because of the associated problems with its current use. At the same time, robocalls allow candidates to communicate with voters cost effectively, provide a cheap way to get out the vote , free up staff and volunteer time, and open up opportunities for under-funded candidates. Robocalls are also widely used in mainstream campaigns. Political speech is core speech and, even where state law bans or regulates robocalls, few states are willing to enforce the laws against political campaigns, partly out of fear that they violate free speech protections. The current regulation has not only failed to stop false or misleading calls, but it has also exposed national campaigns to unintentional violations of state law and patchwork state regulation. Without a uniform approach, compliance with robocall regulation will remain to be difficult for candidates and campaign groups. Accordingly, this Note proposes a national regulation of robocalls that pre-empts state laws, restricts the time of day of calls, and focuses primarily on disclosure. This regulation would address the problems that robocalls present while preserving their beneficial uses and complying with First Amendment requirements. This Note examines the good (campaign messaging and polling), the bad (nasty, negative campaigning), and the ugly (vote suppression) uses of robocalls in Part I. Part II discusses the existing regulatory structure for robocalls. Part III examines proposals to amend the structure and problems with those proposals. Part IV examines the First Amendment concerns in regulating robocalls. Finally, Part V recognizes the need for a national solution to protect political speech by preventing patchwork state regulation, and proposes a solution to support the non-abusive use of political robocalls

The analysis of person-job fit in the public inquiry service at the Hungarian telecom organization Experiences of a validation process

Models of person-job fit reflect well the economic and social attitude of a certain era and give guiding principles to the companies for the selecting process. The practical interpretation of the beginning of the century is very one-sided contemplation of the function only, which means `suitable person for suitable job´. Nowadays the person-job fit models consider the possibilities offered by the job and also the motivation and the demand of the person towards the job (Robertson, 1994). Fitting between the person and the job is an adaptation process which is a dynamically changing interactive process helped by the selection and the socialisation. (Semmer, Schallberger, 1996). The validity analysis of the predictors (different methods of selection ) is related to the work achievement of the employees employed already. The analysis of their work helps to define the criteria of the selection. A person who suited the criteria and reached a required level during the assessment process is not sure having an appropriate way of working and achievement. This is true inversely too. In spite of the fact that the results of predictors of a nominee are low he or she is still able to achieve a sufficient work. It means in the practice that making a selection based only on the results of the predictor is not sufficient, the validation process is needed to be used too. In the followings I would like to present a working process which we started in 1996 at the public inquiry service of a Hungarian telecom organization on the occasion of the introduction of a new technology (Antalovits et al., 1997). The process started with job analysis and then we worked out a special psychological selection methodology. In the fall of 1997 half a year after the selection we wanted to prove the validity of our selection methodology using the validation process for measuring different parameters of achievement (Antalovits et al., 1998)

Communication as Symbiogenesis – On the Relationality of Mobile Phoning in Korea

This study understands communication as parasitic and symbiogenetic. It recognizes an object or technology no less and no more important than a subject, and appreciates the “process” of the “becoming” of both a subject and an object. Media and individuals create and recreate each other. In the symbiogenetic space in-between, what happens is not a physical addition of a technological object to an individual, but, rather, it is a chemical fusion of the two, which holds unprecedented, distinctive qualities that have not been seen from any of the two constituents. Among various communication media, this study examines why and how the mobile phone is particularly parasitic and symbiogenetic

Telephone Calls in Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare, 2016)

Abstract: The Hollywood Reporter feature on Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare, 2016) reads: “Where journalism leaves off, Fire at Sea begins”. The director spent months living alone on Lampedusa looking for ways to film the current refugee tragedy in the Mediterranean. The poetic film that he made (and that won the Golden Bear at Berlin) is an indirect reckoning with its subject, and, I argue no less political for this. Referring to the work of Adriana Cavarero, Christina Sharpe, Anne Dufourmantelle and Judith Butler, this article explores the uses of recorded telephone calls and other transmitted voices and songs in the film. These calls and voices offer forms of appeal and aural, non-visual, but bodily, affective traces. The film emphasises the political importance of listening, and of attending to these calls and voices, envisaging a mesh of connectedness, of threads of human attachment

Hawkes-modeled telecommunication patterns reveal relationship dynamics and personality traits

It is not news that our mobile phones contain a wealth of private information about us, and that is why we try to keep them secure. But even the traces of how we communicate can also tell quite a bit about us. In this work, we start from the calling and texting history of 200 students enrolled in the Netsense study, and we link it to the type of relationships that students have with their peers, and even with their personality profiles. First, we show that a Hawkes point process with a power-law decaying kernel can accurately model the calling activity between peers. Second, we show that the fitted parameters of the Hawkes model are predictive of the type of relationship and that the generalization error of the Hawkes process can be leveraged to detect changes in the relation types as they are happening. Last, we build descriptors for the students in the study by jointly modeling the communication series initiated by them. We find that Hawkes-modeled telecommunication patterns can predict the students' Big5 psychometric traits almost as accurate as the user-filled surveys pertaining to hobbies, activities, well-being, grades obtained, health condition and the number of books they read. These results are significant, as they indicate that information that usually resides outside the control of individuals (such as call and text logs) reveal information about the relationship they have, and even their personality traits

Charles H. Whitebread

Late in April when Charlie Whitebread learned that he had Stage 4 lung cancer, it occurred to me that I might someday be asked to say a few words about him. But these are comments I hoped never to make. I do not have words to describe to you the emptiness in my life that Charlie had filled for so many years. But our purpose here is not to mourn our loss; rather it is to celebrate Charlie\u27s life