SONIC happily welcomes Silvia Andreoli, visiting scholar from University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Noshir Contractor presented SONIC research at Cornell University’s Information Science Colloquium co-sponsored by Yahoo! on October 15, 2014
For more information, see here
Now Hiring Undergraduate Researchers!
To apply, please email the contact for each position with your resume and a paragraph on your interest in the position.
MTS Research Assistant
As a Research Aide at Noshir Contractor’s SONIC Lab, you will assist graduate researchers on a wide array of Communications and Engineering projects. While our largest study, the Multi-Team Systems Experiment (MTS), will require a large portion of your focus, you are encouraged to get to know other lab members and become involved in other projects as well. Please set up a time to meet with us and learn more about what we do!
This position is open to all students, freshman-senior level. Pay rate is variable depending on standing and experience. Links to the tiered positions are provided below. You are encouraged to apply for the highest level position for which you feel qualified (i.e. you don’t have to be a Junior to apply for the “Research Aide 3” position).
QUALIFICATIONS:
Must be an NU undergraduate student with a Federal Work-Study allotment for the 2014-15 academic year.
Interest in field under study; some clerical experience, typing ability, and familiarity with the library preferred. Highly conscientious, hard worker. Well-versed in Microsoft Office suite. Interest in research is absolutely necessary. Some experience working with data.
CONTACT NAME: Eric Forbush
CONTACT PHONE NUMBER: 847-491-2104
CONTACT EMAIL: eric.forbush@northwestern.edu
Privacy Leaks: Snapchat
After Apple’s celebrity photo leaks, now it comes to everyone. CNN Money reported that numerous third-party apps like SaveSnap, SnapBox and SnapSpy offer to save incoming photos. And some of them got hacked. We are back to the square one of network security: usability vs. privacy.
How to protect personal communication in an open network environment? Snapchat’s business model has a big challenge.
Moreover, Snapchat Stories has been introduced last week.
Massively Multiplayer Online Game “Travian” Functions as Social Networking Site in Saudi Arabia
This article sheds some light on a new game that the SONIC Lab will be looking at as part of the Virtual Worlds Exploratorium.
“Travian is the 7th-most popular site in Iran, 9th-most in Libya, 11th-most in Kuwait, and 12th-most in Palestine, and 25th in Iraq.”
“…the key to being successful in Travian is the ability to build a strong network with other users to reach the goal of endgame.”
“Nearly all social networking sites facilitate interactions between people, and massive multiplayer games can often act as social networks.”
Read more here:
Facebook’s Audience Network Opens to Advertisers Worldwide
Companies worldwide now have access to the Facebook’s user information database, and can use this information to target ads towards users in mobile applications outside of the Facebook network. This transfer of information across networks will likely have a profound impact on the world of digital advertising.
In April, the social network announced it would begin tapping its enormous vault of personal information on users to show them ads on mobile apps outside of Facebook. At the time, the ads were available only to a small number of advertisers and mobile apps. Now, they can be purchased by any of Facebook’s 1.5 million advertisers, and can appear on any app.
Read more here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/07/facebooks-ad-network-opens-to-everyone/
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2014/10/07/facebooks-audience-network-now-available-worldwide/
Caroline S. Wagner to present in the SONIC Speaker Series
SONIC Lab is proud to welcome Caroline S. Wagner, who will present a talk on Monday, October 13, 2014 2:00 P.M. in SONIC Lab in the Frances Searle Building room 1.459. All are welcome to attend. To schedule a one-on-one meeting with a Dr. Wagner please schedule a time at http://bit.ly/1qPpBW7. Please contact Nancy McLaughlin with any questions/comments.
How Much Do We Know about Knowledge-creating Networks?
The early excitement of network analysis has given way to a long slog towards testing the meaning of network structures. Software allows us to picture network typology, but we do not yet know how to read the typology in relationship to the value being created. Knowledge-creating networks often involve informal groupings that self-organize into teams. Various data allow us to measure network structures. However, a gap exists between the ability to draw and measure networks on one hand, and the ability to interpret the network data in terms of the value of the structure to participants and beneficiaries. To gain insight into the relationship between the whole network typology and the individual role within the network, testable hypotheses need refinement, and more detailed studies are needed. This talk benchmarks where we are now in our understanding of team networks, and outlines the challenges faced by those of us who study networks, teams, and communication dynamics to outline the research questions we face as we move into the next phases of research.
About Caroline Wagner
Dr. Caroline S. Wagner, an expert in the field of science and technology and its association to policy, society, and innovation, holds the Ambassador Milton A. and Roslyn Z. Wolf Chair in International Affairs at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, Ohio State University, where she also serves as the Director of the Battelle Center for Science & Technology Policy and a faculty member. She earned a doctorate from the University of Amsterdam in Science and Technology Dynamics with a focus on collaborative research networks. Her career in science and technology policy analysis has spanned more than thirty years and three continents. She has worked for government, non-profits, and academic institutions.
SONIC research on “Pairing Social Networks with Social Motives to Close the Science Gap” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Contractor delivered the inaugural Elihu Katz colloquium at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania on Sep 5, 2014
Paper by Yun Huang, Anup Sawant, and Noshir Contractor titled “Enabling teams to self-assemble: the my dream team tool” was presented at the 5th Annual International Science of Team Science (SciTS) Conference in Austin, TX on August 8, 2014
Paper by Yun Huang, Anup Sawant, and Noshir Contractor titled “Enabling teams to self-assemble: the my dream team tool” was presented at the 5th Annual International Science of Team Science (SciTS) Conference in Austin, TX on August 8, 2014