735 research outputs found
'Enclaves of exposure' : a conceptual viewpoint to explore cross-ideology exposure on social network sites
Previous studies indicate mixed results as to whether social media constitutes ideological echo chambers. This inconsistency may arise due to a lack of theoretical frames that acknowledge the fact that contextual and technological factors allow varying levels of cross-cutting exposure on social media. This study suggests an alternative theoretical lens, divergence of exposure â co-existence of user groups with varying degrees of cross-ideology exposure related to the same issue â as a notion that serves as an overarching perspective. We suggest that mediated spaces, such as social media groups, can serve as enclaves of exposure that offer affordances for formation of user groups irrespective of offline social distinctions. Yet social elements cause some of them to display more cross-ideology exchange than others. To establish this claim empirically, we examine two Facebook page user networks (âSri Lankaâs Killing Fieldsâ and âSri Lankans Hate Channel 4â) that emerged in response to Sri Lankaâs Killing Fields, a controversial documentary broadcast by Channel 4 that accused Sri Lankan armed forces of human rights violation during the final stage of the separatist conflict in Sri Lanka. The results showed that the Facebook group network that supported the claims made by Channel 4 is more diverse in terms of ethnic composition, and is neither assortative nor disassortative across ethnicity, suggesting the presence of cross-ethnicity interaction. The pro-allegiant group was largely homogenous and less active, resembling a passive echo chamber. âSocial mediationâ repurposes enclaves of exposure to represent polarized ideologies where some venues display cross-ideology exposure, while others resemble an âecho chamberâ
Automated Coaching of Collaboration based on Workspace Analysis: Evaluation and Implications for Future Learning Environments.
Representational practices in VMT.
This chapter analyzes the interaction of three students working on mathematics problems over several days in a virtual math team. Our analysis traces out how successful collaboration in a later session was contingent upon the work of prior sessions, and shows how representational practices are important aspects of these participantsâ mathematical problem solving. We trace the formation, transformation and refinement of one problem-solving practiceâproblem decompositionâand three representational practicesâinscribe first solve second, modulate perspective and visualize decomposition. The analysis is of theoretical interest because it suggests that âsituated cognitionâ is contingent upon not only the immediate situation but also the chronologically prior resources and associated practices; shows how inscriptions become representations for the group through an interactive process of interpretation; and sheds light on âgroup cognitionâ as an interactional process that is not identical to individual cognition yet that draws upon a dynamic interplay of individual contributions
Characterizing Communication Networks Associated with Political Hashtags.
Among the diverse forms of communication and information networks found in the Web 2.0 environment, âsocialâ and âinformationalâ communication networks have been characterized in terms of their network metrics. Although Twitter is partly based on relationships between actors, activity has been shown to reflect characteristics of
information networks. This study examines activity in Twitter within spaces defined by hashtags on political topics. We gathered our own data on a hashtag associated with the 2012 Hawaii senatorial race and compared our results to those from other political
hashtag networks, and to typical social and information networks as well as random graphs. Results show that hashtag-centered reply and retweet networks in this domain do not fall clearly into the social or informational categories. There appears to be a third kind of network associated with political debate. More generally, it may be productive to
conceive of communication networks in terms of multidimensional characteristics rather than categories
MetRxn: a knowledgebase of metabolites and reactions spanning metabolic models and databases
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasingly, metabolite and reaction information is organized in the form of genome-scale metabolic reconstructions that describe the reaction stoichiometry, directionality, and gene to protein to reaction associations. A key bottleneck in the pace of reconstruction of new, high-quality metabolic models is the inability to directly make use of metabolite/reaction information from biological databases or other models due to incompatibilities in content representation (i.e., metabolites with multiple names across databases and models), stoichiometric errors such as elemental or charge imbalances, and incomplete atomistic detail (e.g., use of generic R-group or non-explicit specification of stereo-specificity).</p> <p>Description</p> <p>MetRxn is a knowledgebase that includes standardized metabolite and reaction descriptions by integrating information from BRENDA, KEGG, MetaCyc, Reactome.org and 44 metabolic models into a single unified data set. All metabolite entries have matched synonyms, resolved protonation states, and are linked to unique structures. All reaction entries are elementally and charge balanced. This is accomplished through the use of a workflow of lexicographic, phonetic, and structural comparison algorithms. MetRxn allows for the download of standardized versions of existing genome-scale metabolic models and the use of metabolic information for the rapid reconstruction of new ones.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The standardization in description allows for the direct comparison of the metabolite and reaction content between metabolic models and databases and the exhaustive prospecting of pathways for biotechnological production. This ever-growing dataset currently consists of over 76,000 metabolites participating in more than 72,000 reactions (including unresolved entries). MetRxn is hosted on a web-based platform that uses relational database models (MySQL).</p
On Online Collaboration and Construction of Shared Knowledge: Assessing Mediation Capability in Computer Supported Argument Visualization Tools
Collaborative Computer-Supported Argument Visualization (CCSAV) has often been proposed as an alternative over more conventional, mainstream platforms for online discussion (e.g., online forums and wikis). CCSAV tools require users to contribute to the creation of a joint artifact (argument map) instead of contributing to a conversation. In this paper we assess empirically the effects of this fundamental design choice and show that the absence of conversational affordances and socially salient information in representation-centric tools is detrimental to the users' collaboration experience. We report empirical findings from a study in which subjects using different collaborative platforms (a forum, an argumentation platform, and a socially augmented argumentation tool) were asked to discuss and predict the price of a commodity. By comparing users' experience across several metrics we found evidence that the collaborative performance decreases gradually when we remove conversational interaction and other types of socially salient information. We interpret these findings through theories developed in conversational analysis (common ground theory) and communities of practice and discuss design implications. In particular, we propose balancing the trade-off between knowledge reification and participation in representation-centric tools with the provision of social feedback and functionalities supporting meaning negotiation
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