iDEA Community: College of Information Science and Technology

Happily Ever After? How do Online Daters Define and Discuss Success?

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Happily Ever After? How do Online Daters Define and Discuss Success?

Authors: Mascaro, Christopher; Magee, Rachel

Abstract: Online dating has been the focus of numerous studies. Prior research focuses on the characteristics of individuals who use online dating sites (Stephure et al., 2009; Sautter et al., 2010), how individuals represent themselves on different services (Hancock & Toma 2009; Ellison et al., 2009), and the search strategies individuals utilize to find a partner (Fiore et al.,2010; Hitsch et al., 2006). To date, there have been no studies that examine success stories associated with online dating websites. The following study attempts to address this gap by examining publicly available success stories collected through a systematic random sample from online dating success sites affiliated with Match.com (n=544), eHarmony (n=213) and OkCupid (n=61). Our analysis highlights two interesting findings. First, definitions of success differ between online dating websites. eHarmony’s success stories are mostly comprised of married couples (84%), whereas the number of married couples on Match.com (46.7%) and OkCupid (23%)is significantly lower. Additionally, the number of eHarmony and Match.com success profiles increases from Dating through Engaged to Married, whereas OkCupid’s frequency decreases from Dating through Married. Second, both eHarmony and Match.com success stories were found to have a higher frequency of phrases related to more serious aspects of relationships, such as “the rest of my life” and “marry him.” OkCupid success profiles were found to have a higher frequency of phrases dealing with the situational aspects of dating such as “we decided to meet” and “to get to know.” These findings demonstrate that individuals that utilize different dating sites have different definitions of success. The motivation for these different definitions between online dating websites is unknown. The results from this study help to inform future research of the cultural dimensions associated with each site that may lead to the different definitions of success.

Discourse analysis of the digital reference service of the Internet Public Library

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Discourse analysis of the digital reference service of the Internet Public Library

Authors: Poole, Erik; Li, Jiexun; Park, Jung-ran

Abstract: The use of interpersonal communications in online settings is becoming more common. Examining why patrons continually engage in dialogue with librarians can help improve the reference service and result in increased usage. In this study, we adopted four types of stylometric features (lexical, structural, sentimental, politeness) to analyze the discourse data from the question-answering service of the Internet Public Library (IPL)’s Online Reference Service (www.ipl.org). We compared librarians’ responses that do not elicit subsequent queries from users with the ones that do elicit subsequent queries. Through the use of a Principle Component Analysis, we found specific sentimental features associated with dialogue containing subsequent queries from patrons.

Social support in online healthcare social networking

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Social support in online healthcare social networking

Authors: Chuang, Katherine; Yang, Christopher C.

Abstract: Online journals let patients share their thoughts and to easily seek support from friends by overcoming geographic and time boundaries. 3 months of journals and comments previously collected by a web crawler from Medhelp's alcoholism community were examined for social support types. Content analysis using social support defined by related literature shows that most journal posts provided information and sought more emotional support. Comments tend to offer informational support and request very minimal support. This work is a piece of an ongoing project that identifies the communication patterns of patients in online support groups.

Path analysis AftertheInjury.org using a Markov chain model

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Path analysis AftertheInjury.org using a Markov chain model

Authors: Townes, Adam; Yang, Chris

Abstract: After the Injury is a website maintained by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Its stated intention is “helping parents help their children recover”. As the title of the injury might indicate, the site is concerned with traumatic injuries, but in focused in particular on assisting parents with children who have suffered some form of trauma due to accident or injury. The site’s design is intended to guide users along an intended path. Essentially it is hoped that users will traverse the website in a certain order or by a certain pattern. This research study was undertaken to determine to what degree users have been following the intended path through website or if they follow it all. Why do we want to study the user navigation path of AfterTheInjury. This study was undertaken to assist the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in modeling user navigation paths so as to determine whether users are following intended paths and which pages users are utilizing. With the results derived from the study, the Web based intervention program can be evaluated in the context of actual use and navigation patterns and redesigned accordingly.

Designing an ontology of "deceptive communication" for analysis of phishing attacks based on communication theories

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Designing an ontology of "deceptive communication" for analysis of phishing attacks based on communication theories

Authors: Lee, Ki Jung; Song, Il-Yeol

Abstract: Although the attack mechanism of deceptive phishing has been intensively researched, current methods of understanding phishing is limited in keeping up with the evolving nature of deceptive phishing attacks. Majority of them are designed to find deceptive clues from syntactic features of phishing messages rather than fundamental nature of information embedded in the messages. In our study, we seek analytical grounds of deceptive phishing from the perspective of interpersonal communication. We define that deceptive phishing is a form of communication, while analyzing the communication in the views of existing theories such as "interpersonal deception theory" and "information manipulation theory". The objectives of this study are two-fold; analyzing deceptive phishing based on existing communication theories and designing an ontology of deceptive phishing which can provide answers to analytical questions in relation to interpretations of phishing attacks. The ontology should offer general ideas about phishing as communication, reestablish current conception of phishing analysis, and provide background for the design of fresh analytical approaches. The study will offer foundation for understanding phishing in human communication perspective and provide opportunities for many security researchers to use, modify, extend, and reuse the ontology for their own research purposes.

An analysis of the skills and educational requisites in knowledge management job ads

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: An analysis of the skills and educational requisites in knowledge management job ads

Authors: Willever-Farr, Heather; Marion, Linda; Lisl, Zach

Abstract: This poster reports the results of a preliminary investigation on the skills and educational requisites that appear in knowledge management (KM) job advertisements. KM is generally understood to encompass tactics and practices that enable organizations to identify, capture, represent, and make available understandings and insights that can be found within individuals and groups. The question of what skills employers are specifically seeking to support KM functions within their organizations is relevant to disciplines such as Library and Information Science (LIS), which prepare students to enter the workforce in information-related positions. LIS curricula provide students with skills in information organization, access methods, and content representation, as well as knowledge of human information behavior, which are related to KM activities. Identification and analysis of the skill requirements that appear in KM ads provides key data for determining whether information science programs are facilitating the development of KM skills that employers are seeking. This study examined a sample of 100 online advertisements for KM positions to ascertain the skills and educational requirements required for these positions. Relevant text from the ads was placed in a content analysis software program and analyzed to find common terms in skill requirements. Similar skills were grouped into of clusters of co-occurring terms, and their co-occurrences were visually displayed. This analysis is part of a larger study to investigate the range of skills and knowledge sought by employers in the area of KM and competitive intelligence. The findings from this portion of the study will contribute to the understanding of what specific skills and educational backgrounds are sought by employers in the KM field. Additional research will be done to investigate comparable data in the competitive intelligence field as well as other criteria, such as work experience, that are sought by employers.

Towards a faceted classification for ipl2

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Towards a faceted classification for ipl2

Authors: Hall, Catherine

Abstract: This poster represents research exploring the potential for applying a faceted classification scheme to the digital library, IPL2. A faceted classification was designed for a subset of IPL2 resources based on a literature review and user surveys. The classification is presented here along with an example of an interface design. It is proposed that a faceted design may help widen and improve access to IPL2 materials.

Modeling and Analyzing Privacy Managing Behavior of Users on Online Social Networks

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Modeling and Analyzing Privacy Managing Behavior of Users on Online Social Networks

Authors: Lee, Kijung; Song, Il-Yeol

Abstract: In this study, we develop and test a causal model of user's cognitive and behavioral experience in relation to managing their privacy options on online social networking services. The model consists of research constructs concerning perceived threats from cybercrime, perceived threats from providing information to vendor, and perceived threats from revealing information in public as antecedents and privacy management options in terms of controlling input and output of information flow as dependent measures mediated by concerns of communication privacy and concerns of information privacy. We follow a systematic process to create and test the causal model. The model is created based upon a set of theories, i.e., theory of planned behavior and communication privacy management theory, and salient constructs, and evaluated using Structural Equation Modeling technique. The model and our study will make contributions, first in theory testing, in applying conventional theories to the privacy issues in the use of online social networking services, and second, practically, in serving as a reference for system designers and service users to reach a consensual point in regards to managing privacy on online social networks.

Overcoming groupthink in distributed heterogeneous data analysis

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Overcoming groupthink in distributed heterogeneous data analysis

Authors: Pellegrino, Don; Chen, Chaomei

Abstract: The aim of this project is to decrease researchers' susceptibility to groupthink and associated deficiencies in the decision making and discovery processes. Many fields have ongoing initiatives to increases digitization of resources which are already growing at an exponential rate. Examples include digital archives of journal articles, e-science, open-notebook science and national intelligence data. Many research initiatives attempt to address the issues of data overload although recent research in citation analysis has shown that increasing the online availability of articles may accelerate the development of consensus viewpoints. This may have the effect of stifling novel or surprising views in favor of the popular view. It is hypothesized that information retrieval (IR) algorithms such as Google's PageRank, which weigh the results by popularity and recency factors, contribute to the acceleration of consensus building. As information retrieval results are often a significant part of the input to a decision making process they may be systematically introducing a bias into the overall discovery processes. It is further hypothesized that interfaces which stress simplicity over transparency such as keyword based search and list based result views compound this issue as users are generally unaware of the existence of such bias and are therefore unable to properly account for it. Measures of interest such as those that have been successfully applied in bioinformatics might be applied in IR to provide results that complement the consensus hits with meaningful alternative viewpoints. Information visualizations may be used to increase the transparency of results and expose more sophisticated dimensions of relevance. The research question is how such measures and visualizations can best be applied to the design of IR systems to help researchers overcome the limitations of groupthink.

Q&A service overload: how many does the web really need?

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:58:59 GMT

Title: Q&A service overload: how many does the web really need?

Authors: Rozaklis, Lillian; MacDonald, Craig M.

Abstract: Question asking is an ordinary and everyday activity that people spend a considerable amount of time engaged in. A familiar approach for locating answers to questions is by typing keywords into search engines, but an alternative route is soliciting help from others. Historically, librarians have played a major role in assisting people in finding answers to their questions, and have extended their reach into the online environment (e.g., Ask Here PA). Similarly, educational institutions, including museums and universities, have provided services which connect experts with users around domain-specific problems (e.g., Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Ask Joan of Art). But, in recent years, there has been a proliferation of online question answering services spearheaded by commercial entities (e.g., Yahoo! Answers), with users themselves answering others’ questions. The New York Times’ observation that “everybody’s an expert” is even truer today than when it was first made in 2000. The purpose of this research is to create a typology of online question answering services from a sample of commercial and noncommercial sites. On a small scale, this examination will yield observations about the dimensions which distinguish one service from the others, and may provide users with guidance when selecting which service to consult with their question. On a larger scale, this typology presents a broad overview of the types of services available to global information users, allows for speculation about what may be lacking or necessary for future development, and offers information professionals the opportunity to explore what role they can play in this increasingly crowded online information space.