Thumbs up? Sentiment Classification using Machine Learning Techniques

We consider the problem of classifying documents not by topic, but by overall sentiment, e.g., determining whether a review is positive or negative. Using movie reviews as data, we find that standard machine learning techniques definitively outperform human-produced baselines. However, the three machine learning methods we employed (Naive Bayes, maximum entropy classification, and support vector machines) do not perform as well on sentiment classification as on traditional topic-based categorization. We conclude by examining factors that make the sentiment classification problem more challenging.Comment: To appear in EMNLP-200

The state-of-the-art in personalized recommender systems for social networking

With the explosion of Web 2.0 application such as blogs, social and professional networks, and various other types of social media, the rich online information and various new sources of knowledge flood users and hence pose a great challenge in terms of information overload. It is critical to use intelligent agent software systems to assist users in finding the right information from an abundance of Web data. Recommender systems can help users deal with information overload problem efficiently by suggesting items (e.g., information and products) that match users’ personal interests. The recommender technology has been successfully employed in many applications such as recommending films, music, books, etc. The purpose of this report is to give an overview of existing technologies for building personalized recommender systems in social networking environment, to propose a research direction for addressing user profiling and cold start problems by exploiting user-generated content newly available in Web 2.0

Digital Literacies And “glee”: The Role Of Fan Fiction Virtual Writing And Social Commentary In Response To Bullying Themes With Adolescent Writers

ABSTRACT DIGITAL LITERACIES AND “GLEE”: THE ROLE OF FAN FICTION VIRTUAL WRITING AND SOCIAL COMMENTARY IN RESPONSE TO BULLYING THEMES WITH ADOLESCENT WRITERS by MANDY STEWART May 2017 Advisor: Dr. Gina DeBlase Major: Curriculum and Instruction Degree: Doctor of Philosophy As the education system turns its attention to climate, bullying, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) issues in the classroom, there is a focus on developing our student population abilities to be more accepting and tolerant of diversity. This study explored how ten students, aged 16-17, interacted with virtual literacy events on www.fanfiction.net, and how that contributed to their refinements in understandings, perspectives, actions and tolerance of diversity, particularly as it related to LGBT teens and bullying, as demonstrated in original writing as well as in commentaries and responses to other writers. As these teenagers wrote about LGBT topics in their published writing, interacted with other participants through their reviews/online messaging, and read other fan fiction stories focused on LGBT bullying storylines, it allowed participants’ to have ongoing and emerging understandings of LGBT issues in an anonymous, virtual space. This study explored how the participants navigated the www.fanfiction.net site, within a virtual fan fiction community devoted to the television program Glee, which features LGBT bullying plots. The study participants wrote original stories and published them on the site, followed other fan fiction authors, and actively read/reviewed stories on these topics. The norms of this virtual community discourages negative commentary, while favoring interactions that encourage writers, creating an affinity space that participants described as welcoming and supportive as they explored LGBT topics that might be perceived as offensive in the real world. With case studies on the three most prolific writers, this research demonstrates the diverse backgrounds, interests, and writing styles of fan fiction participants, even with writing focused on the same television show, and allows the reader to delve into what the experience of interacting on the site is like from the writer’s perspective. In analyzing all participant data, I found that literacy transactions on the fan fiction website allowed for participants’ ongoing and emerging understandings of LGBT issues, the anonymity of the website created a safe space which allowed for exploration of LGBT topics, and the positive acceptance of LGBT storylines during interactions on www.fanfiction.net gave opportunities to further explore LGBT issues/themes

ChatterCrop: Reaping the benefits of online product reviews

Web 2.0 has allowed online shoppers to become not just information seekers but also information providers. Many e-commerce venues allow users to share their experiences in the form of textual product reviews. While textual product reviews represent a wealth of information for candidate buyers, finding pertinent information becomes difficult, as the number of reviews for a particular product becomes large, or if the buyer is interested in particular features of an item. We present ChatterCrop, a tool that uses text summarization. ChatterCrop condenses the information from a large set of reviews into a few sentences, and allows users to customize these summaries for feature-focused search. In a user study, subjects used ChatterCrop and a sortable list of reviews, to answer questions about two camcorder models. When looking for information about particular features, ChatterCrop outperformed the list, in terms user confidence and perceived ease in finding pertinent information. ChatterCrop's summaries also provided users with starting points to guide further research, and were particularly helpful in the early stages of sensemaking.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61339/1/1450440246_ftp.pd

Conceptualizing the Electronic Word-of-Mouth Process: What We Know and Need to Know About eWOM Creation, Exposure, and Evaluation

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a prevalent consumer practice that has undeniable effects on the company bottom line, yet it remains an over-labeled and under-theorized concept. Thus, marketers could benefit from a practical, science-based roadmap to maximize its business value. Building on the consumer motivation–opportunity–ability framework, this study conceptualizes three distinct stages in the eWOM process: eWOM creation, eWOM exposure, and eWOM evaluation. For each stage, we adopt a dual lens—from the perspective of the consumer (who sends and receives eWOM) and that of the marketer (who amplifies and manages eWOM for business results)—to synthesize key research insights and propose a research agenda based on a multidisciplinary systematic review of 1050 academic publications on eWOM published between 1996 and 2019. We conclude with a discussion of the future of eWOM research and practice

Report from Dagstuhl Seminar 23031: Frontiers of Information Access Experimentation for Research and Education

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 23031 ``Frontiers of Information Access Experimentation for Research and Education'', which brought together 37 participants from 12 countries. The seminar addressed technology-enhanced information access (information retrieval, recommender systems, natural language processing) and specifically focused on developing more responsible experimental practices leading to more valid results, both for research as well as for scientific education. The seminar brought together experts from various sub-fields of information access, namely IR, RS, NLP, information science, and human-computer interaction to create a joint understanding of the problems and challenges presented by next generation information access systems, from both the research and the experimentation point of views, to discuss existing solutions and impediments, and to propose next steps to be pursued in the area in order to improve not also our research methods and findings but also the education of the new generation of researchers and developers. The seminar featured a series of long and short talks delivered by participants, who helped in setting a common ground and in letting emerge topics of interest to be explored as the main output of the seminar. This led to the definition of five groups which investigated challenges, opportunities, and next steps in the following areas: reality check, i.e. conducting real-world studies, human-machine-collaborative relevance judgment frameworks, overcoming methodological challenges in information retrieval and recommender systems through awareness and education, results-blind reviewing, and guidance for authors.Comment: Dagstuhl Seminar 23031, report