Presented in Issues (2013), the following explores what we can learn about social human behavior by observing actions on the Web and at scale.

1. What the Web Can Tell us About
Human Behavior
Presented by:
Kristine Gloria
The Tetherless World Constellation
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
With thanks to the extended RPI Tetherless World Team
Wednesday, July 10, 13

2. AGENDA
2
I. Background
II. Tetherless World Constellation
III. Current Research
IV. Future Research
Wednesday, July 10, 13

3. 3
• Bachelor’s in Journalism from UT - Austin
• Master’s in Media Studies from UT - Austin
• Worked:
• Microsoft, AMD, Rambus, etc.
• New America Foundation in D.C.
• Texas House of Representatives - Austin, TX
• U.S. Congressional Race - TX - District 38 in South in Texas
• Co-founder of PolitiHacks
What does this have to do with
Cognitive Science?
Wednesday, July 10, 13

4. 4
communication politics
TECHNOLOGY
motivations?
behavior?
design?
values?
Wednesday, July 10, 13

5. Why the Web?
5
Wednesday, July 10, 13

6. Why RPI?
6
• Engineering/ technical expertise
• Deep knowledge of the Web’s infrastructure
• Expertise in Semantic Web
• Cognitive Science Department
• Multidisciplinary nature gives me flexibility to firm
up gaps in my knowledge
• Prof. Jim Hendler
• Understood / support for exploring the
intersection of technology, politics, social
behavior
Wednesday, July 10, 13

7. Tetherless World Constellation
7
“ . .is a constellation of multidisciplinary researcherswho study the scientific and engineering principlesthat underlie the Web, to enhance the Web's reachbeyond the desktop and laptop computer, anddevelops new technologies and languages thatexpand the capabilities of the Web.”
Wednesday, July 10, 13

8. 9
Future Knowledge Base
communication politics
cognitive &
social
psychology
TECHNOLOGY
Wednesday, July 10, 13

9. Wednesday, July 10, 13

10. Key authors
Sherry
Turkle:
Department
of
Science,
Technology,
and
Society
at
MIT
•Life
on
the
Screen:
Iden1ty
in
the
Age
of
the
Internet
(1997)
•Simula1on
and
Its
Discontents
(2009)
•Alone
Together:
Why
We
Expect
More
from
Technology
and
Less
from
Each
Other
(2011)
Helen
Nissenbaum:
Media,
Culture,
and
CommunicaAon
&
Computer
Science
Director,
InformaAon
Law
InsAtute
at
NYU
•“Where
Computer
Security
Meets
NaAonal
Security
“(2007)
•“Embodying
Values
in
Technology:
Theory
and
PracAce”
(2008)
•Privacy
in
Context:
Technology,
Policy,
and
the
Integrity
of
Social
Life
(2011)
Danny
Weitzner:
MIT
CSAIL
Decentralized
InformaAon
Group
•"DirecAng
Policy-­‐Making:
Beyond
the
Net's
Metaphor”
(1997)
•"InformaAon
Accountability”(2008)
•“Foreign
Policy
of
the
Internet”
(2011)
Wednesday, July 10, 13

11. Wednesday, July 10, 13

12. Current Research
What
can
the
Web
tell
us
about
human
social
behavior?
•How
is
social
distance[1][2]
altered
or
effected
by
computer
mediated
systems
(aka
the
Web)
in
projecAng
mental
states
onto
other
people?
•How
and
can
this
informaAon
be
used
to
develop
public
policy?
[1]
Machews,
JusAn
L.,
and
Teenie
Matlock.
"Understanding
the
link
between
spaAal
distance
and
social
distance."
Social
Psychology
42.3
(2011):
185-­‐192.
[2]
Bar-­‐Anan,
Yoav,
et
al.
"AutomaAc
processing
of
psychological
distance:
Evidence
from
a
Stroop
task."
Journal
of
experimental
psychology.
General136.4
(2007):
610.
Wednesday, July 10, 13

13. Current Research
How
does
this
phenomena
(e.g.
the
Web,
structured
data,
etc.)
change
our
quesEons
about
our
methods,
accountability,
ethics,
and
underlying
biases
in
our
research?
•What
of
arAficial
environments?
"Visual complexity produces opacity. Massive
individualizing data produces beautiful, playful
hairballs which show us nothing."
- Bruno Latour, CHI2013
Wednesday, July 10, 13

14. Current Research
InformaEon
Sharing
Online
Project
(preliminary
work)
•To
explore
the
process
of
"structuraAon",
in
which
decisions
are
influenced
by
contextual
factors
(episodic)
during
trade-­‐off
decisions•ReconceptualizaAon
of
a
model
for
privacy
comparing
“face-­‐to-­‐face”
offline
communicaAon
pracAces
with
human-­‐computer
mediated
communicaAon
[1]
•Understanding
trade-­‐offs:•Convenience
v.
privacy•Socio-­‐technical
(e.g.
design
of
technologies,
influence
of
public
insAtuAons,
governments
etc.)
[1]
Pierre,
J.
"Reverse
Privacy
Engineering."
ACM
Web
Science
Conference.
In
Proceedings.
(2013).
Wednesday, July 10, 13

15. Mixed Methods Approach
To
begin,
we
embarked
on
a
mixed
methods
approach:
•CreaAon
and
administraAon
of
survey
•Exploring
quesAons
related
to
four
key
topics
(per
literature
review):
• Security,
accountability,
privacy,
&
transparency
• Episodic
in
content
• Both
qualitaAve
and
quanAtaAve
quesAons
were
asked
Wednesday, July 10, 13

16. Sample results
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17. Wednesday, July 10, 13

18. • Explores the
relationships of people
and semantics in the
graph database
• Users can visualize and
analyze different types
of sub-graphs
Twitter Network Observatory
Makani, B. & Zhang, Q.
Wednesday, July 10, 13

19. Wednesday, July 10, 13

20. How it all fits together
communication
politics
cognitive &
social
psychology
design
technologyWednesday, July 10, 13

21. QuesAons?
21
Wednesday, July 10, 13

22. Semantic Web
8
• Inclusion of semantic content in web pages
• Inserting of machine-readable metadata
• Giving structure to current unstructured data on the web
• Resource Description Framework (RDFs)
• Objective: support the interoperability of metadata
Example: “Katie knows Jane Doe”
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23. Katie | knows | Jane Doe
uri://people#KatieSmith12
http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows
uri://
people#JaneDoe45
Subject Predicate Object
9
Wednesday, July 10, 13