We consider this work as a first step towards the definition of Social Games With A Purpose: games that could take advantage of the specific properties of social networks.

1. Social Tagging Revamped
Supporting the Users’ Need of
Self-promotion through
Persuasive Techniques
Mauro Cherubini, Alejandro Gutiérrez (UIUC),
Rodrigo de Oliveira, and Nuria Oliver

2. How many ‘friends’ do you have on Facebook?
~30 ~100 ~300
information
overload
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

3. Facebook statistics
• 100 Million photos uploaded to the site each day
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news
stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each
week
• Average user has 130 friends on the site
• Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content
each month
• Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content
each month
source: Facebook
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

4. automatic filtering
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

5. automatic filtering
‘black box’
intelligence
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

6. automatic filtering
‘black box’
intelligence
cap
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

7. automatic tagging
von Ahn & Dabbish, CHI’04
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

8. automatic tagging
von Ahn & Dabbish, CHI’04
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

9. social mechanisms
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

10. social mechanisms
social
filtering
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

11. social mechanisms
social
filtering
social navigation
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

12. problem space
probability to miss
relevant content
auto. filtering
auto. tagging
social filtering
social navigation
effort required from user
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

13. problem space
probability to miss
relevant content
auto. filtering
auto. tagging
social filtering
social navigation
social tagging
effort required from user
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

14. social tagging?
the activity of producing collaboratively metadata
in the form of keywords to shared content
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

15. social tagging?
the activity of producing collaboratively metadata
in the form of keywords to shared content
the activity of producing with peers in a SN metadata in
the form of descriptors to shared content
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

16. social tagging?
the activity of producing collaboratively metadata
in the form of keywords to shared content
the activity of producing with peers in a SN metadata in
the form of descriptors to shared content
- mutual modeling
- persuasive techniques
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

17. methodology
study 1:
is it really
a problem?

18. methodology
study 2:
study 1:
can we take advantage
is it really
of the fact that peers
a problem?
know each-other?

19. methodology
study 2:
study 1:
can we take advantage
is it really
of the fact that peers
a problem?
know each-other?
study 3:
can social tagging
support
self-promotion?

20. study 1
• 48 Facebook users
• m: 36, f: 12, median age: 26.5 years
• 3 independent social networks
• exploratory questionnaire
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

21. Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of
updates from your friends’ activity on Facebook?

22. Do you feel overwhelmed by the amount of
updates from your friends’ activity on Facebook?
66.6% of the respondents perceived
the ‘Facebook fatigue’

23. What strategies do you use to keep up with what
your friends are doing on Facebook?

24. What strategies do you use to keep up with what
your friends are doing on Facebook?
only 31% of the respondents declared to have a
strategy to deal with information overload

25. summary study 1
These results confirm that information overload is a
problem in social networking sites.
Most of the respondents felt overwhelmed by the
amount of updates in FB and they adopted few
strategies to overcome it.
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

26. study 2: playing with
mutual-modeling
• 9 participants (m: 8, f:1) were recruited by
mail advertisement
• average 31y (age ranged from 23 to 46)
• CS students, researchers, administrative
assistants
• tagging exercise (comprising 3 phases)
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

27. a) add single-word tags
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

28. b) add commentaries
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

29. c) rate the comments
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

30. People tend to like photo comments from their
peers, mostly when they include jokes.
“I REALLY liked to see my friends’ comments on my picture”
(participant 2)
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

31. Commenting is typically a communication
activity directed to a person,
while tagging is impersonal.
“I think that keyword based tagging is better for content retrieval
because the addressee of the communication is the anonymous
world and thus the terms are often chosen in order to explain the
picture. As for the comment, I directed my communication to the
author of the image”
(participant 4)
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

32. Relationships between peers are different and
affect comment appreciation.
“Knowing who the owner of the picture is may result in different
comments or tagging”
(participant 6)
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

33. 1- most of the specific single-word keywords were
contained in the commentaries
2- descriptors of peers were more specific

34. 1- most of the specific single-word keywords were
contained in the commentaries
2- descriptors of peers were more specific

35. 1- most of the specific single-word keywords were
contained in the commentaries
2- descriptors of peers were more specific

36. 1- most of the specific single-word keywords were
contained in the commentaries
2- descriptors of peers were more specific

37. 1- most of the specific single-word keywords were
contained in the commentaries
2- descriptors of peers were more specific

38. summary study 2
this study suggested the idea that commentaries
could be used as a source of metadata instead of
single-word tags
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

39. summary study 2
this study suggested the idea that commentaries
could be used as a source of metadata instead of
single-word tags
tagging and commenting has a potential beyond
search and retrieval
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

40. study 3: self-promotion experiment
• 51 Facebook users (m:40, f:11)
• 3 separate social networks
- SN1: 17 part. US residents (av. age 27y)
- SN2: 14 part. US residents (av. age 28y)
- SN3: 20 part. CS researchers Spain (31y)
• controlled experiment
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

41. persuasive techniques
PhotoBest CommBest
➀ user X
➀ user X
uploads an album uploads a picture
➁
➁
for best picture
peers write a
peers vote
comment
➂
user X
➂ the 3 best pictures are
published on the main feed selects the best comment
➃ the picture plus the best comment
are published on the main feed
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

42. why FB comments are
no good?

43. experiment
sn1
sn2
low-tech
prototype
Social networks sn3
‘viewers’
describers
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

44. self-promotion experiment
PhotoRnd
taken from FB
CommRnd
PhotoBest
CommBest
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

45. results

46. results

47. results

48. results

49. results

50. take home message 1:
there is a need for
signaling strategies
the abundance of less relevant content
might “crowd out” more relevant content
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

51. take home message 2:
peers generate
descriptors which are
more specific
users naturally take advantage of their implicit knowledge
about their peers when tagging content
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

52. take home message 3:
designing quality-control
mechanisms
contextualized comments might allow the users of social
networking sites to gain access to interpretative information
they could not gain elsewhere
intro → definitions → exp 1 → exp 2 → exp 3 → conclusion

53. Q&A
Social Tagging Revamped
take away messages:
1) there is a need for signaling strategies
2) peers generate descriptors which are more specific
3) SGWAP
mauro@tid.es

54. Mauro Cherubini, Alejandro Gutiérrez (UIUC),
Rodrigo de Oliveira, and Nuria Oliver
end
thanks
mauro@tid.es
http://www.i-cherubini.it/mauro/blog/
http://research.tid.es/multimedia/