Alan Stevenson

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Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:42:47 -0500

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lacittavita: Pedestrian bridge over canal in Annedal,...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:56:18 -0500

lacittavita:

Pedestrian bridge over canal in Annedal, Sweden.

(via Boutställning i sagornas tecken | Byggnadsarbetaren)

forlackofabettercomic: And he never moved again.

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:31:29 -0500

forlackofabettercomic:

And he never moved again.

Harvard researchers underwhelmed by peer influence on Facebook - Bob Brown via NetworkWorld

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:02:16 -0500

Harvard researchers underwhelmed by peer influence on Facebook - Bob Brown via NetworkWorld:

stoweboyd:

Harvard researchers Kevin Lewis, Marco Gonzalez and Jason Kaufman published a paper called Social selection and peer influence in an online social network, and it seems to suggest that peers have a smaller influence on what we like than people may think:

Bob Brown via NetworkWorld

Using the Facebook data from a group of more than a thousand college students at one college, the researchers found that students whose music and movie tastes were similar were more likely to become friends or influence the formation of new friends, though book tastes were less of a factor in either case (maybe it would be different for older people, once the book club years kick in?). The fact that music and movies tend to be more social activities probably has a bearing on their influence on friendships, the researchers write. They found tastes in classical and jazz music were more likely to get passed along through friendships than tastes in indie/alternative music, where the aficionado of such music might be the sort to be the token indie/alt music lover in a group.

Devin Coldewey doesn’t buy this at all:

[…] the study is also clearly flawed in ways that those versed in social graphs are likely to easily perceive. Pulling useful data from social networks is like catching lightning in a bottle, and I wonder whether the findings may in fact be, as the study attempts to avoid, “a spurious consequence of alternative social processes.”

The central source of data for the study, in fact, doesn’t strike me as solid. Tracking the interests of college kids is a sketchy endeavor in and of itself, but tracking it via their Facebook favorites (i.e. what shows on your profile, not what you post about or share) seems unreliable.

After all, not only does everyone use the network in their own way, but the network itself has changed. Putting Wilco in your favorites is a different act from liking Wilco’s Facebook page, their official band site, or posting their latest video. Gauging someone’s interest in a movie or band by the favorites factor alone is inadequate. Their findings are essentially that taste doesn’t diffuse the way you might expect. But while the data support this, nothing supports the data.

Flattening huge sets of data and removing potentially conflative or distracting connections (“disentangling,” to use the researchers’ well-chosen word) is the bane of social research, and with a limited window on a huge field of data, like that these researchers had, it’s especially hard.

Who among these people was a supernode? What were their Twitter counts? What was the most common unit of interest? How many total posts, how many total favorite changes, how many total friends? The process of disentanglement only gets harder and harder, and the amount of indispensable data grows. The researchers have used advanced statistical techniques, but the data they were interpreting doesn’t seem to be at all complete.

The study does establish something that I think we perhaps understand is true already: you befriend people because of your overlaps in taste, but it’s rare that your existing friends change the tastes you already have. This is as much true out in the “real” world as it is online.

Coldewey is a bit off kilter with his general pronouncements about the difficulty of pulling factual information from social netwroks: they have been shown in many studies, for decades, to be immensely important predictors of health, happiness, trust, and a long list of other factors.

Still, I have to agree that since the results are so counterintuitive, it might be important to segregate friends from influencers. My hunch is that influence follows the power laws, and so unless you find the people that have super levels of influence — and see what strange gravity disturbances they cause — you might not think that there is anything going on at all.

Thought provoking article

soupsoup: Christopher Hitchens describing his North Korea visit...

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:43:59 -0500

soupsoup:

Christopher Hitchens describing his North Korea visit (via @Alex_Ogle)

Staff to be banned from sending emails - Telegraph

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:06:53 -0500

Staff to be banned from sending emails - Telegraph:

stoweboyd:

Henry Samuel via The Telegraph

Thierry Breton, CEO of Atos and a former French finance minister, wants a “zero email” policy to be in place within as early as 18 months, arguing that only 10 per cent of the 200 electronic messages his employees receive per day on average turn out to be useful. Instead he wants them to use an instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface.

[…]

“The email is no longer the appropriate (communication) tool.

“The deluge of information will be one of the most important problems a company will have to face (in the future). It is time to think differently.” Reading useless messages is terrible for concentration, as it takes 64 seconds to get back on the ball after doing so, according to a recent study by the social and business responsibility watchdog ORSE. “Poorly controlled, the email can become a devastating tool,” it warned.

“The email is a real problem,” Nicolas Moinet, information and communication professor at Poitiers University. “We have now reached crazy situations where employees go to a meeting, continue to send emails and then ask colleagues present to send them an email to know what was said during that meeting,” he told 20 Minutes news website.

The younger generation have already all but scrapped the email, with only 11 per cent of 11 to 19 year-olds using it, according to silicon.fr, and online social networking is now more popular than email and search.

“Companies must prepare for the new wave of usage and behaviour,” said Mr Breton.

He wants staff to use chat-type collaborative services inspired by social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

I predicted the death of email back in 2005, saying it would take 5-10 years and that something based on instant messaging style communication would replace it.

I was openly ridiculed at Supernova in 2005 for saying email sucks at what we want to use it for, generally — communicating with people that are known to us — and it is really good at what we hate about email — the ease of emailing to people who aren’t known to us.

Amy Wohl asked if I was unaware that email was the killer app of the internet, for example. Esther Dyson shook her head. Some unnamed fellow in the back was furious, furious that in a session called ‘The Future of Email’ I suggested that the future of email was its eventual demise.

But it is all becoming apparent that email will soon join fax and telegrams on the dust heap of obsolete media.

A large number of readers might hasten to make some gradualist arguments — its going to be around in some form forever, it has its uses, etc. — but trust me, it’s almost dead, and you merely have to look at the kids to see that it’s near.

Very interesting

fastcompany: General Assembly, founded in January 2011 in a...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:35:10 -0500

fastcompany:

General Assembly, founded in January 2011 in a 20,000-square-foot loft in New York’s Flatiron District by four friends in their late twenties and early thirties, is a campus for technology, design, and entrepreneurship. It’s not a degree-granting college; it’s not a high school; it’s not a traditional trade school. It’s something new—augmented education, a stopgap for the startup economy.

In the future of education, some General Assembly may be required.

springwise: Stickers turn cardboard trash into playtime...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:31:12 -0500

springwise:

Stickers turn cardboard trash into playtime treasure

Even in today’s world where children are being treated to their own range of tablet computers, it’s still the case that many are quite content to while away their hours playing with simple cardboard boxes. With that in mind, Arizona-based Box Play for Kids now offer a range of whimsical stickers designed to jump-start kids’ imagination when playing with cardboard. READ MORE…

Good idea, sticky and sustainable

springwise: Farmers’ cooperative pairs up singles with leftover...

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:47:06 -0500

springwise:

Farmers’ cooperative pairs up singles with leftover food

Recent variations of the online dating game have included dating in pairs and matches based on social media activity. Now in Sweden, farmers’ cooperative Lantmannen pairs up singles with leftover dishes or ingredients to create an environmentally-friendly dinner date. READ MORE…

5 Artistic Uses of Google Street View

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:29:39 -0500

5 Artistic Uses of Google Street View:

Like these a lot

Smartphone technology used for portable ultrasound imaging device

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:27:26 -0500

Smartphone technology used for portable ultrasound imaging device:

Cool tech

New technology can democratise development | Caroline Anstey

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:19:32 -0500

New technology can democratise development | Caroline Anstey

thisbigcity: Sexiest bike share ever? 好誘人的單車租賃系統。

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:40:23 -0500

thisbigcity:

Sexiest bike share ever?

好誘人的單車租賃系統。