The emergence of interpersonal and social trust in online interactions

My PhD work is in the area of extracting and modelling user-created data on the web. In particular, I focussed on locating and extracting user data that ’signals’ the evolution of human, 1-on-1 interactions between participants of large social networks who are forever stranger to each other. The booming of ”Online Social Networks” created an opportunity for social scientists to study social phenomena at a scale unseen before. The vast amount of information combined with computer science techniques led to significant developments in a relatively new field: Computational Social Science. Furthermore, in recent years the Gig Economy and mass adoption of ”business sharing” sites such as Airbnb, Uber, or JustEat drove a new wave of computational social science research into reviews, feedback, and recommendations. All these ingredients of the larger Social Trust have been vastly discussed in the literature, in both the social aspect and computational models of trust. However, some fundamental gaps remain, and there is often confusion about when trust is being expressed and how reviews (or recommendations) relate to social trust. Additionally, the computational trust models found in the literature tend to either be entirely theoretical or focused on a specific data set, thus lacking universal applicability. The latter problem, I believe, was due to a lack of data available to researchers in the early stages of the web. Today, the broader Online Social Networks have matured and consolidated mechanisms for allowing access to data. Access to information is rarely trivial for more specialised and smaller online communities. Yet smaller, focussed platforms are precisely where social trust and interactions could be observed (or not observed) and perhaps acquire a meaning that approaches the social trust social scientists see in in-person interactions. To address this gap, we initially propose and discuss the following research question: ”Is there a meeting point between online interactions and social trust so that the core components of trust are retained? ” We addressed this general open question by working on a computational architecture for data retrieval in social media platforms that can be suitably generalised and re-applied to different platforms. Lastly, as we enjoy the luxury of vast amounts of data that closely represent interpersonal and social trust, we addressed the question of ”what models of trust emerge from data” and ”how do existing models of trust perform with the data available”. I have defined a category of online social networks that retains the core components of social trust, which we call ”Online Social Networks of Needs.” Hence, I have a classification and categorisation mechanism for grouping online social networks of needs by the level of trust necessary for cooperation (aka. the cooperation threshold) and interactions to be triggered among participating cognitive agents. My focus has always been on data acquisition, and I have designed and implemented a system for data retrieval that is easily deployed to social media/social web platforms. A case study of such a system performing in a challenging scenario is further detailed to show the more extensive applicability of such a system for data retrieval and contribution to a scenario of complete distrust, anonymity, and ephemerality of data (such as 4chan.org). Further, studying the granularity of 4Chan data, we discovered that: 1. ephemerality is not sustained, and web archiving sites have a complete view of the ephemeral data [1], 2. we can track sentiment and topic modelling of moderation in 4chan [2], and 3. it is possible to have a live view of the topics and sentiment being discussed in the live board and see how these changes over time We studied the dynamics of high trust interactions [3] and found gender biases [4,5] in care interactions. Another topic related to trust but concerning institutions and media is the ’spillover’ effect between 4Chan and the traditional media. As a premise, 4chan anonymous threads have anticipated important global trends, notably the ”Anonymous” movement. Apart from the US, how do national topics interact with the essentially global discussion that is taking place there? Again, thanks to our extensive data collection/analysis, we sought to determine the level of participation from a selected non-US country, Norway, and the degree to which Norwegian 4chan /pol/ users and domestic news influence each other [6]. We continued the journey by collecting data from eight social networks of needs into the top two high trust demanding categories. Whilst these datasets are made available to researchers [7], we further study emerging networks and their properties and project the online social networks of needs into multiplex graphs by transforming the root links. Finally, we look into the applicability and predictive power of the non-reductionist model of trust proposed by Castelfranchi. We look at total social trust holistically and consider signals to evaluate fluctuations of the social capital influenced by economic and political dynamics and domination of the public discord by conspiracy theories. Summary of contributions 1. the first comprehensive real-time scrape of 4Chan (in literature, only post hoc solutions were available); 2. the application of Castelfranchi’s theoretical model of trust to actual data from online social networks; 3. one of the first studies on the relationship between the institutional (nationwide) press and extremisms on 4Chan; 4. the study of the application of predictive models to heterogeneous multi-source data (not user-created but not very trustable either), and 5. contributing live data scraping expertise into several other publications [8] [9]. Publications [1] Ylli Prifti, Iacopo Pozzana, and Alessandro Provetti. Live monitoring 4chan discussion threads. In 7th Int’l Conference on Computational Social Science, 2021. [2] Y. Prifti I. Pozzana and A. Provetti. On-line page scraping reveals evidence of moderation in 4chan/pol/ anonymous discussion threads. In Proc. of 3rd European Symposium on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science. ETH Press, 2019. [3] Y. Prifti P. De Meo, I. Pozzana and A. Provetti. The dynamics of recommendation in high-trust personal care services. In 5th Int’l Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), 2019. [4] Y. Prifti P. DeMeo, I. Pozzana and A. Provetti. Finding gender bias in web-based, high-trust interactions. In Proc. of 2nd European Symposium on Societal Challenges in Computational Social Science, GeWISS reports, 2018. [5] Y. Prifti P. De Meo, I. Pozzana and A. Provetti. Gender bias in web-based, high-trust interactions. In 5th Int’l Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), 2019. [6] Alessandro Provetti Iacopo Pozzana, Ylli Prifti and Anders Seyersted Sandbu. Mapping the norwegian 4chan: How conspiracy theories travel the language barriers. In 7th Int’l Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), 2021. [7] Ylli Prifti. 4chan /pol board as a temporary evolution of live threads and posts., July 2021. [8] Paschalis Lagias, George D. Magoulas, Ylli Prifti, and Alessandro Provetti. Predicting seriousness of injury in a traffic accident: A new imbalanced dataset and benchmark. In Lazaros Iliadis, Chrisina Jayne, Anastasios Tefas, and Elias Pimenidis, editors, Engineering Applications of Neural Networks - 23rd International Conference, EAAAI/EANN 2022, Chersonissos, Crete, Greece, June 17-20, 2022, Proceedings, volume 1600 of Communications [9] Andrea Ballatore, A. Pang, Iacopo Pozzana, Ylli Prifti, and Alessandro Provetti. Geo-referencing as a connector between user reviews and urban environment quality. In 5th Int’l Conference on Computational Social Science, 2019

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2015

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) of Old Dominion University hosted the 2015 Modeling, Simulation, & Visualization Student capstone Conference on April 16th. The Capstone Conference features students in Modeling and Simulation, undergraduates and graduate degree programs, and fields from many colleges and/or universities. Students present their research to an audience of fellow students, faculty, judges, and other distinguished guests. For the students, these presentations afford them the opportunity to impart their innovative research to members of the M&S community from academic, industry, and government backgrounds. Also participating in the conference are faculty and judges who have volunteered their time to impart direct support to their students’ research, facilitate the various conference tracks, serve as judges for each of the tracks, and provide overall assistance to this conference. 2015 marks the ninth year of the VMASC Capstone Conference for Modeling, Simulation and Visualization. This year our conference attracted a number of fine student written papers and presentations, resulting in a total of 51 research works that were presented. This year’s conference had record attendance thanks to the support from the various different departments at Old Dominion University, other local Universities, and the United States Military Academy, at West Point. We greatly appreciated all of the work and energy that has gone into this year’s conference, it truly was a highly collaborative effort that has resulted in a very successful symposium for the M&S community and all of those involved. Below you will find a brief summary of the best papers and best presentations with some simple statistics of the overall conference contribution. Followed by that is a table of contents that breaks down by conference track category with a copy of each included body of work. Thank you again for your time and your contribution as this conference is designed to continuously evolve and adapt to better suit the authors and M&S supporters. Dr.Yuzhong Shen Graduate Program Director, MSVE Capstone Conference Chair John ShullGraduate Student, MSVE Capstone Conference Student Chai

Implementation methodology for using concurrent and collaborative approaches for theorem provers, with case studies of SAT and LCF style provers

Theorem provers are faced with the challenges of size and complexity, fueled by the increasing range of applications. The use of concurrent/ distributed programming paradigms to engineer better theorem provers merits serious investigation, as it provides: more processing power and opportunities for implementing novel approaches to address theorem proving tasks hitherto infeasible in a sequential setting. Investigation of these opportunities for two diverse theorem prover settings with an emphasis on desirable implementation criteria is the core focus of this thesis. Concurrent programming is notoriously error prone, hard to debug and evaluate. Thus, implementation approaches which promote easy prototyping, portability, incremental development and effective isolation of design and implementation can greatly aid the enterprise of experimentation with the application of concurrent techniques to address specific theorem proving tasks. In this thesis, we have explored one such approach by using Alice ML, a functional programming language with support for concurrency and distribution, to implement the prototypes and have used programming abstractions to encapsulate the implementations of the concurrent techniques used. The utility of this approach is illustrated via proof-of-concept prototypes of concurrent systems for two diverse case studies of theorem proving: the propositional satisfiability problem (SAT) and LCF style (first-order) theorem proving, addressing some previously unexplored parallelisation opportunities for each, as follows:. SAT: We have developed a novel hybrid approach for SAT and implemented a prototype for the same: DPLL-Stalmarck. It uses two complementary algorithms for SAT, DPLL and Stalmarck’s. The two solvers run asynchronously and dynamic information exchange is used for co-operative solving. Interaction of the solvers has been encapsulated as a programming abstraction. Compared to the standalone DPLL solver, DPLL-Stalmarck shows significant performance gains for two of the three problem classes considered and comparable behaviour otherwise. As an exploratory research effort, we have developed a novel algorithm, Concurrent Stalmarck, by applying concurrent techniques to the Stalmarck algorithm. A proof-of-concept prototype for the same has been implemented. Implementation of the saturation technique of the Stalmarck algorithm in a parallel setting, as implemented in Concurrent Stalmarck, has been encapsulated as a programming abstraction. LCF: Provision of programmable concurrent primitives enables customisation of concurrent techniques to specific theorem proving scenarios. In this case study, we have developed a multilayered approach to support programmable, sound extensions for an LCF prover: use programming abstractions to implement the concurrent techniques; use these to develop novel tacticals (control structures to apply tactics), incorporating concurrent techniques; and use these to develop novel proof search procedures. This approach has been implemented in a prototypical LCF style first-order prover, using Alice ML. New tacticals developed are: fastest-first; distributed composition; crossTalk: a novel tactic which uses dynamic, collaborative information exchange to handle unification across multiple sub-goals, with shared meta-variables; a new tactic, performing simultaneous proof-refutation attempts on propositional (sub- )goals, by invoking an external SAT solver (SAT case study), as a counter-example finder. Examples of concrete theorem proving scenarios are provided, demonstrating the utility of these extensions. Synthesis of a variety of automatic proof search procedures has been demonstrated, illustrating the scope of programmability and customisation, enabled by our multilayered approach

An anatomy of a social network : momentum, enhanced engagement and social media fatigue : a qualitative case study of situated literacy and engagement among further education re-sit students in the UK

The thesis presents a case study of how an online social network supported the classroom learning experienced by students undertaking the GCSE English re-sit. Inherent to the study is the problem of engagement and motivation among students ambivalent to this compulsory curriculum. The case study compares uses of the network between 16-19 year olds and adults in a Further Education college in the northwest of England.A theoretical model was constructed from a content analysis of communication posts across two years and four separate groups (n = 87) using the social network Edmodo.com. This was complemented by interviews with 15 students and observations of blended (classroom-based) use of the network. Coding of network communications showed how high levels of engagement assisted the negotiation of actions towards goals through co-operative communities of practice. High instances of affective disclosures in the network reveal apprehension to mobile provision, as well as opportunities for transformed perspective framed as decision-making thresholds.Students‘ posts lead to a profiling based on the frequency and types of communication posts made to the network, enabling insights into use and the design of a Continuum of Engagement. The theoretical continuum illustrates how momentum occurs through increased activity across time through socially cohesive communities that can help orientate learners to objectives, albeit, mainly among adult learners and specifically where blended to classroom use. Further conceptualisation of the inhibitors that exist with younger and peripheral members are presented as ontological thresholds of online presence – barriers to community participation based upon individual‘s affective dispositions. These factors may contribute to a sense of resistance to online learning, labelled Social Media Fatigue, indicating divergence with social learning models. Underscoring all activity are technological features perceived variably by students as affordances or as inhibitors to participation. Pedagogical strategies and interventions by educators are recommended that illustrate how students can be supported to negotiate ontological thresholds creating momentum in engaged agency towards increased self-determination

In Theory, There\u27s Hope: Queer Co-(m)motions of Science and Subjectivity

Given the state of the planet at present —specifically, the linked global ecological and economic crises that conjure dark imaginings and nihilistic actualities of increasing resource depletion, poisonings, and wide-scale sufferings and extinctions—I ask What might we hope now? What points of intervention offer possibility for transformation? At best, the response can only be partial. The approach this thesis takes initiates from specific pre-discursive assumptions. The first understands current conditions as having been produced, and continuing to be so, through practices that enact and sustain neoliberal relations. Secondly, these practices are expressive of a subjectivity tied to a Cartesian worldview, which, therefore, needs to be interrupted at its foundational roots. Thirdly, the scaffolding that supports this subjectivity draws on Newtonian science and neo-Darwinian narratives deemed to be natural law and, therefore, ontological, immutable reality. Contrary to modernist thinking, I premise that these two strains, subjectivity and science, are neither autonomous nor ontological, but that they are materially and contingently integral. Finally, this thesis presumes that different and life-affirming trajectories are, in fact, desired. An integral framing of science and subjectivity provides a productive method of feminist science studies analysis and theorization. Observing the capitalist Western social imaginary through this lens reveals its philosophical and scientific infrastructures to be outdated and crumbling. Observing how emerging scientific narratives in quantum physics and systems-biology intersect with marginalized theories in process-philosophy and subjectivity reveals a life-affirming imaginary of difference, one that arrests nihilism and sets ethical trajectories in motion. Certain, though not all, percepts of feminist new materialism engage twentieth and twenty-first century sciences successfully to show that ethicality matters. Though many questions remain, this points auspiciously towards the possibility for a transformed politics of justice

Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud

Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conway’s life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MR’s applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithms’ performance on Amazon’s Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp

Attribute-Level Versioning: A Relational Mechanism for Version Storage and Retrieval

Data analysts today have at their disposal a seemingly endless supply of data and repositories hence, datasets from which to draw. New datasets become available daily thus making the choice of which dataset to use difficult. Furthermore, traditional data analysis has been conducted using structured data repositories such as relational database management systems (RDBMS). These systems, by their nature and design, prohibit duplication for indexed collections forcing analysts to choose one value for each of the available attributes for an item in the collection. Often analysts discover two or more datasets with information about the same entity. When combining this data and transforming it into a form that is usable in an RDBMS, analysts are forced to deconflict the collisions and choose a single value for each duplicated attribute containing differing values. This deconfliction is the source of a considerable amount of guesswork and speculation on the part of the analyst in the absence of professional intuition. One must consider what is lost by discarding those alternative values. Are there relationships between the conflicting datasets that have meaning? Is each dataset presenting a different and valid view of the entity or are the alternate values erroneous? If so, which values are erroneous? Is there a historical significance of the variances? The analysis of modern datasets requires the use of specialized algorithms and storage and retrieval mechanisms to identify, deconflict, and assimilate variances of attributes for each entity encountered. These variances, or versions of attribute values, contribute meaning to the evolution and analysis of the entity and its relationship to other entities. A new, distinct storage and retrieval mechanism will enable analysts to efficiently store, analyze, and retrieve the attribute versions without unnecessary complexity or additional alterations of the original or derived dataset schemas. This paper presents technologies and innovations that assist data analysts in discovering meaning within their data and preserving all of the original data for every entity in the RDBMS

Building civic architecture in cyberspace: digital civic spaces and the people who create them

At the same time as we are seeing ever increasing numbers of people actively using social networking sites, and growing evidence of increased participation in campaigning and digital activism, we are seeing a decline in democratic participation in the UK at both a national and local level. This thesis examines these two contrasting effects within the context of Local Government in the UK and explores what the impact might be at the neighbourhood level. The work discusses the influence of place based online activity on democratic decision-making Local Government and the ways in which traditional processes of decision-making, democratic participation and community engagement practice may need to change to reflect the upward pressure that is being exerted by citizen use of new technologies and adjust the way in which Local Government facilitates citizen participation in decision-making. The work develops the concept of Digital civic space as an alternative to eParticipation platforms and discusses how such spaces are being used to connect online activity with democratic processes at present and how present experience may be used to inform future developments. Employing an Action Research method, the research analyses three projects in order to examine the nature of the pre-existing participation online and the impact of creating online civic spaces to connect the participants both to each other and to local decision-makers. Design criteria are proposed which describe the necessary qualities of public-ness, openness, co-production, definition of place and identity and the thesis reaches conclusions as to how these criteria might better connect local resident with the democratic decision-making processes for their communities