2.英文原版,PDF格式;
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Online Social Media (OSM) have revolutionized the way people interact and share information. Many recent events and developments have shown that OSM are very powerful tools for people to organize and take action. Examples include the
‘Occupy’ movement, ‘Sandy’ relief efforts, and the ‘Arab Spring’. OSM have offered a real and viable alternative to conventional mainstream media. The latter is often accused of being biased. Spin and constraints imposed by regulating or funding bodies can hinder mainstream media outlets’ unbiased reporting. They often omit (intentionally or otherwise) certain details in their reporting. On the other hand, OSM are likely to provide “raw”, unedited information and the details can be overwhelming with the potential of misinformation and disinformation. Yet, OSM are leading to the democratization of knowledge and information. OSM is allowing almost any citizen to become a journalist reporting on specific events of interest. This is resulting in unimaginable amounts of information being shared among huge numbers of OSM participants. As of this writing, twitter claims to have 271 million monthly active users, producing 500 million tweets per day. Facebook grew by the end of 2013 to 1.23 billion users with 757 million users logging on every day. Facebook now has a user base comparable to the population of India! The Daily Mail further reports that the average American daily spends 40 min on Facebook. This is resulting in several billion “likes” and several 100 million posted pictures in a single day.
This book contains 10 contributions that tackle challenges of the subject of OSM analysis and visualization from different angles.
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