Syndio Social co-founded by SONIC alum and Northwestern graduate, Zachary Johnson, was ranked #8 on the 2011 Empact100 list of top companies run by entrepreneurs age 30 and under. For more information see: http://empact100.com/list.php
CSCW Paper on MTML Model of Wikipedia Coauthorship
A paper coauthored by Brian Keegan, Noshir Contractor, and assistant professor Darren Gergle examining the coauthorship networks of Wikipedia articles was accepted to the 2012 ACM conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Abstract:
Prior scholarship on Wikipedia’s collaboration processes has examined the properties of either editors or articles, but not the interactions between both. We analyze the coauthorship network of Wikipedia articles about breaking news demanding intense coordination and compare the properties of these articles and the editors who contribute to them to articles about historical airline accidents. Using p*/ERGM methods to test a multi-level, multi-theoretical model, we identify how editors’ attributes and editing patterns interact with articles’ attributes and authorship history. Editors’ attributes like prior experience have a stronger influence on the self-organization of the collaboration, but article attributes also play significant roles. Finally, we discuss the implications our findings and methods have for understanding the socio-material duality of collective intelligence systems beyond Wikipedia.
How to get started with p*/ERGM
What’s all this about p*/ERGM? So you’ve just experienced Prof. Noshir Contractor’s keynote, and he was all over this new-fangled technique for the statistical modeling of social networks, and you’ve never heard of it. Curious? Try one of these articles from our collaborators, generally acknowledged as excellent starting points:
- Anderson, C. J., Wasserman, S. and Crouch, B. (1999) “A p* primer: logit models for social networks.” Social Networks, 21: 37-66.
- Robins, G., Pattison, P., Kalish, Y., & Lusher, D. (2007). “An introduction to exponential random graph (p*) models for social networks.” Social Networks, 29(2): 173-191.
Read both – a slight edge to Robins, Pattison, Kalish and Lusher on the strength of their Figures which may elicit a genuine “Ah, ha!” moment, while the worked examples in Anderson, Wasserman, and Crouch are more substantial.
Professor Contractor featured in NCA Communication Scholar video
Professor Contractor is one of four communication scholars featured in a video titled Grantseeking Basics: A Guide for the Communication Scholar prepared by the National Communication Association (NCA) and to be showcased at the NCA annual convention in New Orleans on Friday November 18 from 12:30-1:45 pm in LaGalerie 1 on the second floor of the Marriott Hotel, New Orleans. Video can be viewed at: http://www.natcom.org/Default.aspx?id=2147484475&libID=2147484475
Contractor Delivers keynote at ACM Conference on Recommender Systems
SONIC Lab director Noshir Contractor delivers opening keynote address titled “From Understanding to Enabling Networks: Using Web Science to Enhance Recommender Systems” at the 5th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, Chicago IL on October 24th For more information see:
Roger Leenders SONIC Speaker Series
On Thursday, October 27, from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Prof. Dr. Roger Leenders will be giving a presentation in Room 1-483 of Frances Searle Building on the Northwestern University Evanston Campus. The talk is entitled “Competition and the Gender of Team Creativity”. The presentation reports on several studies on the effect of interteam competition on the creativity of teams. In particular, a recent study proposing that having groups go head-to-head is stimulating to the creativity of groups composed of men but detrimental to the creativity of groups composed of women. Lab studies showed differential effects of competition on the creativity of male versus female groups, especially at the higher end of the competition spectrum. The researchers also found that, based on network theory, these effects were mediated by in-group collaboration. The effects were also replicated in a field setting involving R&D teams.
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Creativity of Teams
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Wikipedia Work Featured on PBS Idea Lab
Our Wikisym paper on the dynamics and structure of Wikipedia’s coverage of the 2011 Japanese earthquake was featured in a blog post at the PBS Idea Lab.
Contractor to present at Chicago Humanities Festival
Contractor presented “Traces in a Tangled Web” on October 16 at the Chicago Humanities Festival. For more information follow the link: http://www.chicagohumanities.org/en/Profile/Bio.aspx?userid=24eddb81-05b3-4cbf-b95c-79a9d00a8d69
Contractor to deliver plenary address at CIC CIO Tech Forum
Noshir Contractor will deliver a plenary address titled “Understanding and Enabling Collaboration in 21st Century Teams” at the CIC CIO TechForum 2011 on October 11, 2011. The Tech Forum is held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in Champaign, Illinois.
For further details see: http://www.cic.net/Home/Calendar/Conferences/TechForum/2011/Home.aspx
Contractor to deliver keynote at SocInfo’11 Oct. 7
SONIC lab director Noshir Contractor will be giving a keynote address on October 7th titled Using Web Science to Understand and Enable 21st Centuryy Multidimensional Networks at the 3rd International Conference on Social Informatics (SocInfo’11) in Singapore.
For more details go to http://www.sis.smu.edu.sg/SocInfo2011/index.html