Editing Behavior Analysis and Prediction of Active/Inactive Users in Wikipedia

In this project, we focus on English Wikipedia, one of the main user-contributed content systems, and study the problem of predicting what users will become inactive and stop contributing to the encyclopedia. We propose a predictive model leveraging frequent patterns appearing in user’s editing behavior as features to predict active vs. inactive Wikipedia users. Our experiments show that our method can effectively predict inactive users with an AUROC of 0.97 and significantly beats competitors in the task of early prediction of inactive users. Moreover, we study differences in editing behavior of inactive vs. active users to explain why some users are leaving and provide some rules explaining our predictive model

Wikipedia Conflict Representation in Articles of War: A critical discourse analysis of current, on-going, socio-political Wikipedia articles about war

With the help of a discourse-historical approach, a textual corpus composed of the talk pages of three controversial, socio-political Wikipedia articles about ongoing wars was analyzed in order to shed light on the way in which conflict is represented through the editing and discussion process. Additionally, a rational discourse was employed in order to unravel communication distortions within the editing process in an attempt to improve communication and consensus-seeking. Finally, semi-structured interviews of participating contributors within studied articles were used in order to better understand Wikipedian experience in a controversial collaboration scenario. Results unveiled a set of discursive practices in which Wikipedians participate, as well as the creation of a Wikipedian argumentation topoi framework useful for further Wikipedia-specific discourse analysis involving the content change-retain negotiation process

Mimesis : human-centered digital profiling visual identity

Digital profiling is the process of gathering and analyzing information that exists online about an individual. Platforms who provide services always have control of this powerful tool. As a result, I used Twitter API as the principle medium to conduct \u27digital profiling\u27 as a third party. The visual identity of the new digital profile is not an ads interest list anymore, but a graph that stores personal information that could be used as an avatar. On top of the new visual identity, I speculated several possible applications of the new visual outcome. The idea put forward in this thesis is that shifting the purpose of digital profiling toward being human-centered rather than advertising-driven may draw worthwhile arguments about the practicality and policy issues. This thesis is a speculative design project, an avatar design project, a UX design project, a generative design project, and an information design project. My point is multiple mediums to demonstrate my future vision or wish for this technology and propose a mutually beneficial strategy for tech companies

Supporting Learning by Tracing Personal Knowledge Formation

Internet-based and mobile technologies enable new ways of learning. They offer us new possibilities to access an enormous amount of knowledge at any time and everywhere. Among many advantages, the adaptations require a rethinking of our previous learning behaviour patterns and processes. The challenge for students is no longer to get access to information and knowledge, but to select the right one and to deal with the information and knowledge overflow. The aim of this research is to define, design and validate an advanced concept to support the contemporary learning processes. Therefore, the requirements for a new approach have been assessed, the available solutions from the related area of (personal) Knowledge Management have been investigated, and the weaknesses in the context of learning identified. The identified issues have been substantiated by university students via a quantitative survey. Besides several smaller aspects, knowledge fragmentation and the nescience of the knowledge formation process have been classified as the most critical ones. To overcome these problems, a methodological concept has been developed, and a corresponding technological design created. The chosen approach is an intelligent, independent intermediate layer, which traces the different steps our knowledge entities are going through. Based on personal and individual configurations, the system provides a comprehensive and overall observation of nearly all our knowledge work activities. It supports the building and accessing of the knowledge formation paths for every important knowledge unit, later path combination and the access to automatically generated versions of our work. Moreover, it helps the users not only to remember what they did, but also gives them some strong indications why they did it. This is achieved by combining different knowledge actions and looking at the influences they have on each other. The suggested concept has been critically proved and confirmed via a qualitative expert analysis and backed up by a quantitative survey among university students

Improving the translation environment for professional translators

When using computer-aided translation systems in a typical, professional translation workflow, there are several stages at which there is room for improvement. The SCATE (Smart Computer-Aided Translation Environment) project investigated several of these aspects, both from a human-computer interaction point of view, as well as from a purely technological side. This paper describes the SCATE research with respect to improved fuzzy matching, parallel treebanks, the integration of translation memories with machine translation, quality estimation, terminology extraction from comparable texts, the use of speech recognition in the translation process, and human computer interaction and interface design for the professional translation environment. For each of these topics, we describe the experiments we performed and the conclusions drawn, providing an overview of the highlights of the entire SCATE project

Collective knowledge advancement as a pedagogical practice in teacher education. An explorative case study of student group work with wiki assignments in the interplay between an offline and a global online setting

ENGELSK: The aim of this dissertation was to describe and analyze collective knowledge advancement (CKA) as a pedagogical practice in teacher education. The background is that Internet permits new types of authentic knowledge production that make it possible for anyone to make contributions (e.g., Wikipedia). In the future, it is expected that schools and teacher education institutions will let students make contributions in these online settings to a greater degree. The present study explored how student groups worked with different wiki assignments in one specific teacher education course. A range of different types of data (group interviews, video data, screen capture data, and wiki log data) were collected. By utilizing two theoretical concepts (germ cell and contradictions) from cultural-historical activity theory, help was identified as the singular entity that exhibited the simplest possible characteristics of CKA as a pedagogical practice. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that three different types of help are particularly important. These include help as informal peer feedback, which relies on spontaneous verbalization of ongoing thoughts, and help that is provided through the open publication of student work in the online setting. The third type of help requires that all students be assigned as helpers for each other so they can share the workload more equally. This dissertation contributes to educational research in five ways. First, the findings indicate that different types of informal teaching are important components of CKA as a pedagogical practice. Second, the results also describe new types of authentic learning that build on interactions between students and outsiders in the online setting. Third, the findings suggest that it is possible to turn campus-based teaching into a “practicum period” by letting students experiment with new types of collaboration. Fourth, the findings show that a polycontextual pedagogical practice emerges in the interplay between an offline setting and several different online settings. Finally, the analysis demonstrated that the notion of a germ cell provides a powerful means of studying different types of pedagogical practice. NORSK: Denne avhandlingen har som formål å beskrive og analysere kollektiv kunnskapsutvikling som en pedagogisk praksis i lærerutdanningen. Bakgrunnen er at internett nå muliggjør mange nye typer autentisk kunnskapsproduksjon der hvem som helst kan være med å bidra (for eksempel Wikipedia). Man vil kunne forvente at både lærerutdanning og skoler i større grad vil la elever være aktive bidragsytere i slike online-miljø. Denne forskningsstudien utforsker hvordan studenter samarbeider når de løser ulike wikioppgaver på et studium i lærerutdanningen. Flere ulike typer data har blitt samlet inn (gruppeintervju, videoopptak av studentsamarbeid, skjermaktivitet på datamaskin og wikilogg). Ved å ta i bruk to teoretiske begreper (kimcelle og kontradiksjoner) fra kulturhistorisk aktivitetsteori, så blir hjelp identifisert som den minste meningsfulle enheten som beskriver hva som karakteriserer kollektiv kunnskapsutvikling som en pedagogisk praksis. Studien viser at særlig tre spesifikke typer hjelp er viktig. Den første typen er hjelp som skjer i form av uformelle tilbakemeldinger mellom medstudenter. Her oppstår den spontant i verbale samtaler. Den andre typen er hjelp som blir gitt ved åpen publisering av studentarbeid i ulike online-miljø. Det tredje typen hjelp består i at alle studenter bør ha en rolle som hjelpere for hverandre i undervisningen slik at arbeidsbyrden blir fordelt mer rettferdig. Denne avhandlingen bidrar til utdanningsforskningen på fem ulike måter. For det første viser den at ulike typer uformell undervisning er sentrale i en pedagogisk praksis som bygger på kollektiv kunnskapsutvikling. For det andre beskriver funnene en ny type autentisk læring som bygger på kommunikasjon mellom studenter og utenforstående i et online-miljø. For det tredje viser funnene at lærerstudentene kan få en form for “praksistrening” på campus ved å eksperimentere med nye samarbeidsformer. For det fjerde viser funnene at den pedagogiske praksis kan analyseres som polykontekstuell fordi studentene deltar i både et lokalt offline-miljø og flere online-miljø. For det femte viser analysen at begrepet kimcelle kan brukes for å prøve å få en dypere forståelse for hva som kjennetegner ulike pedagogiske praksiser.publishedVersio

Establishing group norms through wiki technologies within a health-care setting: a case study

2011 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Within rapidly changing environments in today's health care organizations, new technologies are sought to bridge gaps in processes, create connections between people, and facilitate workplace efficiencies. This study, anchored in diffusion of innovation theory, examined how one new technology is being utilized and diffused in a medium sized, multi-hospital health care system. Wiki technology allows multiple users opportunities to asynchronously collaborate and communicate through a web (internet) based application. Although potential benefits of this technology are exciting, the diffusion of this technology within a complex system is still a relatively unknown process. This case study examined how actors, or users, of three wikis perceived the establishment of group norms and rules that helped govern use of the wiki and diffusion of the technology to other members. Perception was measured through the distribution of an online questionnaire, interviews with the wiki administrators, and examination of wiki content. It was determined that group norms were ultimately helpful as new members learned how to use the wiki. In addition to wiki specific norms, this study determined group norms were perceived to be established at a higher organizational level than the wikis themselves; meaning, organization norms and rules strongly influenced how wiki specific norms and rules were determined. This study highlights the importance of strong organizational culture as it relates to members trying and adopting new, web-based technologies

Collaboratory Digital Libraries for Humanities in the Italian context

The study investigates the approach to collaboration in Humanities, within the Italian context, to test the possibility of collaborative digital library for scholars. The research hypothesis is that collaboration can foster innovation and scienti c development: therefore, within Humanities, digital libraries can be the collaborative laboratory for research. Thus, understanding perception of scholars towards collaboration, especially online, and comprehending if wiki systems could be the framework of collaboration were the objectives of the study. A qualitative approach has been adopted, using case study as research method: in-depth, semi-structured interviews to Digital Humanities scholars provide data integrated with interviews with two key informants (one of which is prof. Umberto Eco). The results of the study show that Humanities, within Italian context, do appreciate collaboration and the concept of a collaboratory digital library, though several issues need to be solved. In fact, Humanities are still tied with individual work and collaboration is not easy to pursue, for cultural, technical and political reasons. Great e ort needs to be done at many different levels to eliminate obstacles and facilitate online collaboration for scholars. The study provides a draft model for a collaborative digital library arisen from gathered data