This document discusses the challenges of defining and filtering spam in social networking services (SNS) like MySpace and Facebook. Unlike email, not all unsolicited contact on SNS is unwanted, as meeting new people is an inherent part of these sites. However, users risk being overwhelmed by unwanted contact. The authors aim to help users assess unknown contacts by analyzing profiles for cues about intentions. They developed a system that categorizes profiles based on their levels of sociability and promotion. This leads to 4 prototype categories that may be more useful than a binary spam/not spam classification for SNS.
Comm201 slideshare romantic relationships and tech. lingoclingo1
This document discusses how technology has impacted romantic relationships both positively and negatively. New modes of communication like texting, social media, and video chatting have introduced new complications to relationships by providing additional outlets for interaction beyond face-to-face contact. However, research also shows that establishing rules around technology use within a relationship can improve satisfaction, and that social media allows some cultures to include friends and family more in their romantic lives.
This study analyzed interviews with 11 past and present Tinder users to understand how and why people use the popular dating app. The interviews revealed that Tinder is used for a variety of purposes beyond just casual sex, contradicting popular media portrayals. Many users approach Tinder as a game to pass time by swiping through profiles. While physical attractiveness from photos is important, users have different strategies for profiles and messaging. Perceptions of Tinder depend on both individual experiences and societal narratives around dating and relationships.
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter allow people to connect with friends and share information, but they also pose risks if personal details are shared publicly. While social media can benefit relationships and businesses, young users are especially vulnerable to threats from predators if not properly monitored by parents. The document discusses both the positive and negative aspects of social networking and emphasizes the importance of privacy and parental oversight for teen users.
In Defense of Anonymous Commenters - Jen Eyer at TEDx (script)Jen Strayer Eyer
The document discusses anonymity in online commenting on news sites. It summarizes that:
1) Requiring real names reduces participation, especially from vulnerable groups, and does not guarantee civility as offensive comments still occur under real names.
2) Anonymity allows for whistleblowing and discussion of sensitive local issues. Comment moderation through clear rules, engagement, and an evolution to higher quality discussions is more effective than real names at improving civility.
3) Research shows anonymous commenters on well-moderated sites contribute valuable local information and have more positive, productive discussions than those using real names. Anonymity with moderation enables important community conversations.
Abstract— Online Social Network such as Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn e.tc, have become the preferred interaction, entertainment and socializing facility on the internet. However With the emergence of numerous social media sites, individuals, with their limited time, often face a dilemma of choosing a few sites over others. Users prefer more engaging sites, where they can find familiar faces such as friends, relatives, or colleagues. Link predictions method help find friends using link or content information. Unfortunately, whenever users join any site, they have no friends or any content generated. In this case, sites have no chance other than recommending random influential users to individuals hoping that users by befriending them create sufficient information for link prediction techniques to recommend meaningful friends. In this paper, we discussed find friends on a new a social media site when link or content information is unavailable. The purpose of this research paper is highlighting social forces in Online Social Network using minimum information with their latest solutions by using data mining techniques are dealt in this paper elaborately.
This document summarizes a student paper on the topic of whether increased use of online social networking leads to social isolation. It provides background on internet and social media usage in Malaysia. The paper discusses arguments on both sides, noting that while some research suggests heavy social media use can replace real-world interactions, others argue it simply provides new ways to socially connect. It concludes that whether social media use leads to isolation may depend more on the individual and type of real-world social connections they have outside of online interactions.
Privacy Perceptions and Gender Effects on Foursquare UsageJoshua M. Chang
Privacy is an increasing concern in the era of the social web. Foursquare, a social location sharing service, is a prime place for people to be “over-sharing” due to the nature of announcing their location to the community. The present study sought to further past research on foursquare check-in behavior, stranger friending and privacy, specifically between male and female genders.
This document discusses social network sites and how they are changing concepts of public and private spaces for teenagers. It notes that teenagers are spending significant time on social media like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. While these sites allow public interaction, they have unique properties like persistence of information, searchability, replicability of content, and invisible audiences that change social norms. These properties make context harder to interpret and change the rules of interacting online compared to physical public spaces. The document explores how teenagers navigate this new environment and the role of educators in helping guide them.
Comm201 slideshare romantic relationships and tech. lingoclingo1
This document discusses how technology has impacted romantic relationships both positively and negatively. New modes of communication like texting, social media, and video chatting have introduced new complications to relationships by providing additional outlets for interaction beyond face-to-face contact. However, research also shows that establishing rules around technology use within a relationship can improve satisfaction, and that social media allows some cultures to include friends and family more in their romantic lives.
This study analyzed interviews with 11 past and present Tinder users to understand how and why people use the popular dating app. The interviews revealed that Tinder is used for a variety of purposes beyond just casual sex, contradicting popular media portrayals. Many users approach Tinder as a game to pass time by swiping through profiles. While physical attractiveness from photos is important, users have different strategies for profiles and messaging. Perceptions of Tinder depend on both individual experiences and societal narratives around dating and relationships.
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter allow people to connect with friends and share information, but they also pose risks if personal details are shared publicly. While social media can benefit relationships and businesses, young users are especially vulnerable to threats from predators if not properly monitored by parents. The document discusses both the positive and negative aspects of social networking and emphasizes the importance of privacy and parental oversight for teen users.
In Defense of Anonymous Commenters - Jen Eyer at TEDx (script)Jen Strayer Eyer
The document discusses anonymity in online commenting on news sites. It summarizes that:
1) Requiring real names reduces participation, especially from vulnerable groups, and does not guarantee civility as offensive comments still occur under real names.
2) Anonymity allows for whistleblowing and discussion of sensitive local issues. Comment moderation through clear rules, engagement, and an evolution to higher quality discussions is more effective than real names at improving civility.
3) Research shows anonymous commenters on well-moderated sites contribute valuable local information and have more positive, productive discussions than those using real names. Anonymity with moderation enables important community conversations.
Abstract— Online Social Network such as Face book, Twitter, LinkedIn e.tc, have become the preferred interaction, entertainment and socializing facility on the internet. However With the emergence of numerous social media sites, individuals, with their limited time, often face a dilemma of choosing a few sites over others. Users prefer more engaging sites, where they can find familiar faces such as friends, relatives, or colleagues. Link predictions method help find friends using link or content information. Unfortunately, whenever users join any site, they have no friends or any content generated. In this case, sites have no chance other than recommending random influential users to individuals hoping that users by befriending them create sufficient information for link prediction techniques to recommend meaningful friends. In this paper, we discussed find friends on a new a social media site when link or content information is unavailable. The purpose of this research paper is highlighting social forces in Online Social Network using minimum information with their latest solutions by using data mining techniques are dealt in this paper elaborately.
This document summarizes a student paper on the topic of whether increased use of online social networking leads to social isolation. It provides background on internet and social media usage in Malaysia. The paper discusses arguments on both sides, noting that while some research suggests heavy social media use can replace real-world interactions, others argue it simply provides new ways to socially connect. It concludes that whether social media use leads to isolation may depend more on the individual and type of real-world social connections they have outside of online interactions.
Privacy Perceptions and Gender Effects on Foursquare UsageJoshua M. Chang
Privacy is an increasing concern in the era of the social web. Foursquare, a social location sharing service, is a prime place for people to be “over-sharing” due to the nature of announcing their location to the community. The present study sought to further past research on foursquare check-in behavior, stranger friending and privacy, specifically between male and female genders.
This document discusses social network sites and how they are changing concepts of public and private spaces for teenagers. It notes that teenagers are spending significant time on social media like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. While these sites allow public interaction, they have unique properties like persistence of information, searchability, replicability of content, and invisible audiences that change social norms. These properties make context harder to interpret and change the rules of interacting online compared to physical public spaces. The document explores how teenagers navigate this new environment and the role of educators in helping guide them.
This document provides a listing of movies available through the MyLibraryDV video streaming service. It showcases over 100 titles in the "Hollywood Favorites & World Cinema" section, with the titles presented in alphabetical order and including the starring cast for each film. The listing includes many well-known and acclaimed movies spanning various genres from different decades.
Authentic Learning Activities for Enterprise Education- HEEG 2010pompeysie
Alternate reality games use real world interactions and immersive fictional scenarios to deeply engage participants. They blur the lines between fiction and reality by hiding clues in everyday items like emails, ads, and packages. The document proposes using an alternate reality game to simulate running a failing company over 12 weeks for business students. Participants would solve authentic problems in small groups while roleplaying employees. The goal is to revive the simulated company through hands-on practice of skills like marketing, finance, and personnel management.
The Avon Foundation and actress Salma Hayek have launched a new program called Speak Out Against Domestic Violence to support education, awareness, prevention programs, and help for victims of domestic violence. One in three women experiences domestic violence. The $1 million program over two years includes distributing brochures, grassroots education, and domestic violence programs. It will also include public service announcements and global outreach. The program aims to help change domestic violence statistics.
The survey found that while Americans recognize Einstein as a top science role model, few could name living scientists like Stephen Hawking. Only 26% felt they had a good understanding of science. Most Americans do not think the US is currently a world leader in science and are pessimistic about regaining this status. The study identifies improving science education as critical, through more hands-on learning, teacher training, parental involvement, and engaging youth through science museums.
@yosun talk from EVENTBRITE: GOOGLE GLASS UX/UI/DEV & WEARABLES EVENT
From MirrorAPI to GDK to gyroFIRE platform to gyroFIRE simulator!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eventbrite-tech-talk-google-glass-uxuidev-wearables-event-tickets-10009341209?aff=eandprexshre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPprXKtfyrk&list=UUMefxd2y9YLj8BOLRJQMN6w#t=2540
This document provides information about Hotel Campari, a new advertising campaign by alcoholic beverage company Campari. The campaign stars actress Salma Hayek and was photographed by Mario Testino and directed by Matthew Rolston. It includes print ads, television commercials, an online presence, and a limited edition 2007 calendar. The campaign aims to portray passion and sensuality through evocative images and scenes captured by renowned artists to promote the iconic Italian brand.
Britney Spears wanted to shave off all her hair but her hairdresser Esther tried to talk her out of it. Esther asked Britney if she was having a bad day and might change her mind later, but Britney insisted she wanted it done now. When Esther refused, Britney grabbed the clippers and shaved her own head in the back of the salon. The media speculated this was a publicity stunt as Britney's music career was struggling.
Nine Ways to Win Investors and Influence ProspectsAtlas Integrated
R&M Resource Development and Atlas Advertising presented 9 ways to influence investors and prospects. These include knowing your goals and audiences, being strategic, differentiating yourself, managing expectations, perfecting timing, leveraging affiliations, and injecting inspiration. Data and marketing services were outlined to help economic development organizations implement these strategies through branding, fundraising campaigns, and prospect development. The presentation concluded with calls to action to discuss implementation.
This 3-sentence summary provides the key information from the given document:
The document appears to be lyrics from the song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" by Britney Spears, as it includes the title, songwriters, and copyright information. The lyrics describe a narrator who used to think they had all the answers but now realizes it is time for them to learn and grow as they are neither a girl nor yet a woman.
“How Social Media can Supercharge your Recruitment and Retention Efforts”
There is little doubt that social media is among the most underutilized and undervalued economic development business tools. With the rise of social media, how has the business attraction and retention landscape changed? Learn how social media is changing your world and how to utilize it to most effectively market your community!
The document proposes training initiators to start sustainable energy cooperatives in Germany. It discusses how the innova eG cooperative development partnership will research existing energy cooperatives to inform the training program. The training will bring together community-based active citizenship with cooperative knowledge to empower more citizens to initiate cooperatives for local solar energy production and distribution. This can help scale up citizen involvement in preventing climate change through organizational forms that are economically efficient and socially responsible.
Legacoop collaborates in the Balkan region to promote cooperation. It supports over 15,000 cooperatives, generates €5.3 billion in revenue, and employs over 430,000 people. Legacoop's activities in the Balkans include providing technical assistance, supporting cooperative organizations, and fostering business collaboration to help cooperatives in the region develop and integrate internationally. The PRO.COOP project aims to strengthen Balkan cooperative associations and promote local economic development through networking and collaboration.
The document summarizes Bruno Roelants' presentation at the Cooperatives Europe General Assembly on June 23, 2009 about CICOPA's experience in international development. CICOPA is an international organization representing industrial, artisanal, and service cooperatives with members in 30 countries across 5 continents. It has a long history and is one of the oldest cooperative sectors. Currently, it is focusing on developing a world network between itself and NGOs to facilitate international cooperative development through strategies, experts, and partner organizations.
Mayor Bloomberg launched a public awareness campaign and joined the V-Day organization to host a two-week festival called "Until The Violence Stops: NYC" to curb domestic violence in New York City. The campaign aims to encourage victims of domestic violence or those who know victims to seek help. It will include advertisements on subways, buses, and phone kiosks. Additionally, the festival from June 12-27 will feature performances by celebrities to bring more attention to the issue of violence against women.
Fahri Musliu, a correspondent from Belgrade for Kosovo media for over 30 years, discusses the challenges of his job. He faced significant difficulties reporting from 1987-1989 as anti-Albanian sentiment in Serbia increased. He had trouble finding official sources to interview until 2000. Kosovo media are still interested in Belgrade news, but some editors feel certain facts are unimportant. Musliu believes accurate reporting from Belgrade remains important for Kosovo.
Atlas CEO Ben Wright presents "Marketing for Success" at the International Economic Development Council's 2013 Marketing and Attraction Conference on October 3, 2013 in Philadelphia PA.
Cooperatives Europe is the largest membership organization for cooperatives in Europe. From 2006-2010, it aimed to unite, represent, promote and defend cooperatives across Europe. It also sought to support cooperative enterprise growth and provide consultation, research and best practices. Its objectives included gaining more influence for cooperatives, increasing membership and enterprises, and ensuring good governance. The document provides statistics on European cooperatives and discusses Cooperatives Europe's projects, activities, finances and support structures during this period.
1. The document discusses issues around detecting spam and identifying fake profiles on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Sina Weibo.
2. It notes that 20-40% of profiles on social networks could be fake, and identifies challenges in differentiating fake from legitimate profiles due to limited publicly available user data and varying privacy policies across networks.
3. The paper aims to identify approaches for detecting fake profiles using only the minimal publicly available data on each network, and to evaluate their accuracy compared to existing methods using more extensive data.
1. The document discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and how it has influenced relationship formation and online identities. Early CMC included email and online forums.
2. Research on CMC examined how online communities and social networks develop through identity presentation and relationship building. However, CMC lacks the richness of in-person interaction and can blur reality and fantasy.
3. The spread of internet memes is also discussed in the context of CMC. Memes spread and evolve through imitation, similar to genes, as they compete for attention online.
1. The document discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and how it has influenced relationship formation and online identities over the internet's history.
2. Key aspects of CMC discussed include how it allows for widespread relationship building but can also blur reality, its impacts on social media use and power dynamics, and how it facilitates the spread of internet memes from person to person.
3. While CMC enables connection, it also presents disadvantages like lack of rich communication and potential for online conflict if messages are misinterpreted. Overall CMC is shaped by both individual motivations and cultural influences online.
1. CMC has influenced relationship formation by allowing people to connect globally at all hours but relationships may not be genuine since identity is unknown.
2. A visualization of social networks would show weak communication patterns for the individual since they prefer texting over social media and only share videos, news, and images rather than build relationships.
3. The individual's favorite internet meme is the ongoing rapper feud between Drake and Meek Mill which has produced many memes and possibly transfers cultural views by influencing opinions of Meek Mill through the memes that side with the winning Drake.
1. CMC has influenced relationship formation by allowing people to connect globally at all hours but relationships may not be genuine since identity is unknown.
2. A visualization of social networks would show weak communication patterns for the individual since they prefer texting over social media and only share videos, news, and images rather than build relationships.
3. The individual's favorite internet meme is the ongoing rapper feud between Drake and Meek Mill which has produced many memes and possibly transfers cultural views by influencing opinions of Meek Mill through the memes that side with the winning Drake.
This document provides a listing of movies available through the MyLibraryDV video streaming service. It showcases over 100 titles in the "Hollywood Favorites & World Cinema" section, with the titles presented in alphabetical order and including the starring cast for each film. The listing includes many well-known and acclaimed movies spanning various genres from different decades.
Authentic Learning Activities for Enterprise Education- HEEG 2010pompeysie
Alternate reality games use real world interactions and immersive fictional scenarios to deeply engage participants. They blur the lines between fiction and reality by hiding clues in everyday items like emails, ads, and packages. The document proposes using an alternate reality game to simulate running a failing company over 12 weeks for business students. Participants would solve authentic problems in small groups while roleplaying employees. The goal is to revive the simulated company through hands-on practice of skills like marketing, finance, and personnel management.
The Avon Foundation and actress Salma Hayek have launched a new program called Speak Out Against Domestic Violence to support education, awareness, prevention programs, and help for victims of domestic violence. One in three women experiences domestic violence. The $1 million program over two years includes distributing brochures, grassroots education, and domestic violence programs. It will also include public service announcements and global outreach. The program aims to help change domestic violence statistics.
The survey found that while Americans recognize Einstein as a top science role model, few could name living scientists like Stephen Hawking. Only 26% felt they had a good understanding of science. Most Americans do not think the US is currently a world leader in science and are pessimistic about regaining this status. The study identifies improving science education as critical, through more hands-on learning, teacher training, parental involvement, and engaging youth through science museums.
@yosun talk from EVENTBRITE: GOOGLE GLASS UX/UI/DEV & WEARABLES EVENT
From MirrorAPI to GDK to gyroFIRE platform to gyroFIRE simulator!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eventbrite-tech-talk-google-glass-uxuidev-wearables-event-tickets-10009341209?aff=eandprexshre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPprXKtfyrk&list=UUMefxd2y9YLj8BOLRJQMN6w#t=2540
This document provides information about Hotel Campari, a new advertising campaign by alcoholic beverage company Campari. The campaign stars actress Salma Hayek and was photographed by Mario Testino and directed by Matthew Rolston. It includes print ads, television commercials, an online presence, and a limited edition 2007 calendar. The campaign aims to portray passion and sensuality through evocative images and scenes captured by renowned artists to promote the iconic Italian brand.
Britney Spears wanted to shave off all her hair but her hairdresser Esther tried to talk her out of it. Esther asked Britney if she was having a bad day and might change her mind later, but Britney insisted she wanted it done now. When Esther refused, Britney grabbed the clippers and shaved her own head in the back of the salon. The media speculated this was a publicity stunt as Britney's music career was struggling.
Nine Ways to Win Investors and Influence ProspectsAtlas Integrated
R&M Resource Development and Atlas Advertising presented 9 ways to influence investors and prospects. These include knowing your goals and audiences, being strategic, differentiating yourself, managing expectations, perfecting timing, leveraging affiliations, and injecting inspiration. Data and marketing services were outlined to help economic development organizations implement these strategies through branding, fundraising campaigns, and prospect development. The presentation concluded with calls to action to discuss implementation.
This 3-sentence summary provides the key information from the given document:
The document appears to be lyrics from the song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" by Britney Spears, as it includes the title, songwriters, and copyright information. The lyrics describe a narrator who used to think they had all the answers but now realizes it is time for them to learn and grow as they are neither a girl nor yet a woman.
“How Social Media can Supercharge your Recruitment and Retention Efforts”
There is little doubt that social media is among the most underutilized and undervalued economic development business tools. With the rise of social media, how has the business attraction and retention landscape changed? Learn how social media is changing your world and how to utilize it to most effectively market your community!
The document proposes training initiators to start sustainable energy cooperatives in Germany. It discusses how the innova eG cooperative development partnership will research existing energy cooperatives to inform the training program. The training will bring together community-based active citizenship with cooperative knowledge to empower more citizens to initiate cooperatives for local solar energy production and distribution. This can help scale up citizen involvement in preventing climate change through organizational forms that are economically efficient and socially responsible.
Legacoop collaborates in the Balkan region to promote cooperation. It supports over 15,000 cooperatives, generates €5.3 billion in revenue, and employs over 430,000 people. Legacoop's activities in the Balkans include providing technical assistance, supporting cooperative organizations, and fostering business collaboration to help cooperatives in the region develop and integrate internationally. The PRO.COOP project aims to strengthen Balkan cooperative associations and promote local economic development through networking and collaboration.
The document summarizes Bruno Roelants' presentation at the Cooperatives Europe General Assembly on June 23, 2009 about CICOPA's experience in international development. CICOPA is an international organization representing industrial, artisanal, and service cooperatives with members in 30 countries across 5 continents. It has a long history and is one of the oldest cooperative sectors. Currently, it is focusing on developing a world network between itself and NGOs to facilitate international cooperative development through strategies, experts, and partner organizations.
Mayor Bloomberg launched a public awareness campaign and joined the V-Day organization to host a two-week festival called "Until The Violence Stops: NYC" to curb domestic violence in New York City. The campaign aims to encourage victims of domestic violence or those who know victims to seek help. It will include advertisements on subways, buses, and phone kiosks. Additionally, the festival from June 12-27 will feature performances by celebrities to bring more attention to the issue of violence against women.
Fahri Musliu, a correspondent from Belgrade for Kosovo media for over 30 years, discusses the challenges of his job. He faced significant difficulties reporting from 1987-1989 as anti-Albanian sentiment in Serbia increased. He had trouble finding official sources to interview until 2000. Kosovo media are still interested in Belgrade news, but some editors feel certain facts are unimportant. Musliu believes accurate reporting from Belgrade remains important for Kosovo.
Atlas CEO Ben Wright presents "Marketing for Success" at the International Economic Development Council's 2013 Marketing and Attraction Conference on October 3, 2013 in Philadelphia PA.
Cooperatives Europe is the largest membership organization for cooperatives in Europe. From 2006-2010, it aimed to unite, represent, promote and defend cooperatives across Europe. It also sought to support cooperative enterprise growth and provide consultation, research and best practices. Its objectives included gaining more influence for cooperatives, increasing membership and enterprises, and ensuring good governance. The document provides statistics on European cooperatives and discusses Cooperatives Europe's projects, activities, finances and support structures during this period.
1. The document discusses issues around detecting spam and identifying fake profiles on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Sina Weibo.
2. It notes that 20-40% of profiles on social networks could be fake, and identifies challenges in differentiating fake from legitimate profiles due to limited publicly available user data and varying privacy policies across networks.
3. The paper aims to identify approaches for detecting fake profiles using only the minimal publicly available data on each network, and to evaluate their accuracy compared to existing methods using more extensive data.
1. The document discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and how it has influenced relationship formation and online identities. Early CMC included email and online forums.
2. Research on CMC examined how online communities and social networks develop through identity presentation and relationship building. However, CMC lacks the richness of in-person interaction and can blur reality and fantasy.
3. The spread of internet memes is also discussed in the context of CMC. Memes spread and evolve through imitation, similar to genes, as they compete for attention online.
1. The document discusses computer-mediated communication (CMC) and how it has influenced relationship formation and online identities over the internet's history.
2. Key aspects of CMC discussed include how it allows for widespread relationship building but can also blur reality, its impacts on social media use and power dynamics, and how it facilitates the spread of internet memes from person to person.
3. While CMC enables connection, it also presents disadvantages like lack of rich communication and potential for online conflict if messages are misinterpreted. Overall CMC is shaped by both individual motivations and cultural influences online.
1. CMC has influenced relationship formation by allowing people to connect globally at all hours but relationships may not be genuine since identity is unknown.
2. A visualization of social networks would show weak communication patterns for the individual since they prefer texting over social media and only share videos, news, and images rather than build relationships.
3. The individual's favorite internet meme is the ongoing rapper feud between Drake and Meek Mill which has produced many memes and possibly transfers cultural views by influencing opinions of Meek Mill through the memes that side with the winning Drake.
1. CMC has influenced relationship formation by allowing people to connect globally at all hours but relationships may not be genuine since identity is unknown.
2. A visualization of social networks would show weak communication patterns for the individual since they prefer texting over social media and only share videos, news, and images rather than build relationships.
3. The individual's favorite internet meme is the ongoing rapper feud between Drake and Meek Mill which has produced many memes and possibly transfers cultural views by influencing opinions of Meek Mill through the memes that side with the winning Drake.
Gunalan Ranganahan is presenting a final year project on the negative impacts of social networking. The project will use projection mapping to demonstrate how social networking can negatively impact individuals and society through teasing. Research found that while users are aware of potential downsides, many underestimate the risks or become addicted. The presentation will last 2-5 minutes and use text, images, video, animation and sound effects to metaphorically portray social networking's downsides like privacy issues, stress on families, and addiction. The goal is to educate viewers on social media's realities beyond communication.
The Dark Side Unveiled How Social Media Can Be a Bane to Society.pdfSEOHabibi
Delve into the shadowy aspects of social media's impact as we unveil how it can exacerbate societal challenges, shedding light on its potential negative consequences.
Social Network Analysis is a study of relationships and ties between nodes/actors in a network. It seeks to understand the structure of relationships and how an individual's position in a network affects opportunities and constraints. SNA can be used to map and analyze networks in fields like public health, national security, and design. It provides insights into topics like information diffusion, social influence, and identifying important actors. SNA tools help visualize networks and analyze metrics like centrality, density, and connectivity.
Social networks allow individuals to construct online profiles, connect with other users, and share content. While early social networks focused only on connecting users, now most provide ways to interact through messaging, share multimedia content, and use applications. Some key concerns about social networks include privacy issues, identity theft through phishing, stalking, bullying, and how personal information shared could affect job opportunities. The future of social networks may see greater integration of mobile access and location-based features, as people increasingly belong to multiple networks. Ensuring privacy and portability of user data and identities across platforms will also be important issues going forward.
The document summarizes research into the growth of cybercrime on social media platforms. Some key findings include:
- Over 500 fraud groups on social media were investigated, with over 220,000 members total, and over 133,000 members on Facebook alone.
- Most fraud groups are public and openly share stolen financial and personal information, cybercrime tutorials, and tools.
- The rise of social media dramatically changed how fraudsters communicate, allowing large criminal communities to form in plain sight on these platforms.
- While Facebook remains the most widely used, certain regions show preferences for other platforms like WhatsApp, based on language and community.
Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on individuals and society. The document discusses some of the benefits of social media, such as enabling connection with friends and family, facilitating information sharing, and aiding in business and political organizing. However, it also notes potential downsides like reduced privacy, spread of misinformation, distraction from work/study, and increased stress from social comparison. The author presents arguments both supporting the idea that social media is good for society by enhancing communication, and counterarguments about ways it could undermine well-being, relationships, and productivity.
The document summarizes research into cybercrime on social media platforms in Russia and China. It finds over 500 fraud-dedicated groups on these platforms with over 220,000 members. Most groups are public and openly share stolen financial and personal information, cybercrime tutorials, and commercial offerings like malware. The most active platforms for Russian-speaking fraudsters are VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, while Chinese fraudsters predominantly use QQ and Baidu Tieba. The document analyzes the structure and relationships between groups and members on these platforms.
Social Network Sites: identity performances and relational practicesFrancesca Comunello
The document discusses research on identity performances and sociability in social network sites. It provides an overview of key topics like personal profiles, friend lists, and how online and offline social worlds intersect. Preliminary findings show that users strategically disclose some information to curate their profiles while retaining privacy over other details. Friend lists are also managed selectively, though not always in line with stated privacy preferences. The researchers argue for studying these issues in the broader context of networked individualism and sociability across online and offline domains.
This document outlines several potential dangers of social media use for minors under the age of 18. It discusses risks like cyberbullying, identity theft, distraction from schoolwork, exposure to drugs and alcohol, negative impacts on mental health, and more. The document argues that social media can expose minors to inappropriate content, waste their time, invade their privacy by collecting personal data, and influence them to seek validation online rather than from real relationships. Overall, it takes the position that social media should be illegal for minors due to these various risks and dangers.
Social networking sites allow users to create personal profiles and connect with other users online. They enhance social experiences by enabling new relationships and strengthening existing bonds. For students, social networking provides easy opportunities to conduct surveys. Social networking sites are beneficial for keeping in touch with friends and family globally if used ethically, but can be harmful if exploited by criminals. They connect people through communication tools like email, instant messaging, live chats and video calls. While social networking increases communication, overuse can reduce real-life relationships to online interactions and likes/comments. Users must be careful not to reveal too much personal information or share photos that could be misused.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Social NetworkingSofia Naznim
Social networking provides both advantages and disadvantages. The key advantages are worldwide connectivity that allows users to connect with friends and make new connections globally, real-time information sharing so users can exchange information quickly, and free advertising opportunities for businesses. However, social networking also poses risks like cyber bullying, higher risks of fraud and identity theft since personal information can be easily accessed, and privacy issues since users often share too much private information publicly.
Social Networking Websites and Image PrivacyIOSR Journals
The document discusses privacy issues related to social networking websites. It begins by providing background on social networking sites and how they allow users to construct profiles, connect with other users, and share content. However, it notes that a lack of awareness and proper privacy tools means users' personal data is at risk.
It then proposes several new privacy policies and describes their implementation in a social networking site built with PHP. These include an "Album Privacy Policy" that allows customizing access permissions for specific albums and photos, and an "Image Protection Policy" that prevents other users from copying or downloading protected images without permission. The goal is to provide users more flexible privacy controls over their data.
The document presents Kimberly Cardinal's theory of convenience, which argues that people are increasingly sharing details about their personal lives online rather than communicating via phone or letters due to convenience. As technology allows people more control over their schedules, social media images have become normalized in society. People are thus more inclined to post about their daily lives online to keep friends and family updated in a time-efficient way, which can reinforce individualism if overused. The theory is classified as interpretive as it aims to understand this phenomenon of increased online self-sharing rather than scientifically explain or predict human behavior.
Social networking can have negative impacts such as privacy issues, addiction, and diminished social skills. Privacy issues arise because social networks require personal information that is then used for targeted advertising. Addiction can occur when users feel compelled to constantly check social networks for updates instead of engaging in real-world social interactions. Heavy social network use is linked to poorer social skills and health issues due to less face-to-face socializing.
FakeSocialDetect is an advanced AI-powered system designed to identify and flag suspicious activity on social media platforms. Using cutting-edge algorithms, it analyzes user behavior, content patterns, and network interactions to swiftly detect and mitigate the presence of fake accounts, misinformation, and deceptive practices, ensuring a more authentic and trustworthy online environment.
The Vagina Monologues started as a solo Broadway show by Eve Ensler that celebrated women's sexuality and condemned the violation of it. It grew into an international grassroots movement called V-Day dedicated to stopping violence against women. The documentary V-DAY: UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS follows how the play and movement empowered and inspired communities to raise awareness of violence against women through benefit performances and interviews with celebrities involved in the cause.
This document provides background information on the biography Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera, including a brief introduction to the book, information about the author Hayden Herrera, and topics and questions for further discussion. It also includes an interview with Salma Hayek about her role playing Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic Frida.
- An online survey of over 26,000 people in 47 countries found that Al Gore was seen as the most influential spokesperson on climate change. Nearly 1 in 5 respondents globally picked Gore.
- Oprah Winfrey and Kofi Annan were the second and third most influential according to respondents. Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela rounded out the top five.
- Those who saw Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" reported being more convinced of climate change and more likely to change their habits as a result of seeing the film. The film increased awareness and action on climate change issues.
This document provides a summary of the contents of the spring 2008 issue of the magazine "vim&vigor". It highlights several articles on topics related to healthy living such as cancer prevention, diabetes prevention, joint health, and important health screenings. It also provides information about the leadership and board of Community Healthcare System, the organization that oversees the hospitals featured in the magazine.
This document summarizes the state of the Mexican film industry from 1990-2002. It describes how the industry declined in the 1980s due to changes in government policy and the rise of private film companies that produced low-quality films. Production fell dramatically in the late 1990s. However, some Mexican films achieved great international success and recognition in festivals during this period. The document also discusses new directors, actors, and production companies that emerged and helped revive Mexican cinema artistically, if not commercially. It argues that for the industry to fully rebound, the government needs to implement stronger policies and incentives to support national film production as a viable business.
This document contains an English lesson about family traits and physical appearances. It includes exercises about correcting descriptions of family members, identifying people in pictures, and answering questions about oneself and one's family. Vocabulary is focused on physical features and ways of describing similarities and differences between family members. Conversations practice asking and answering questions to identify people when only partial information is known. The lesson also covers grammar points about using verb tenses and prepositions to describe people.
Salma Hayek will star in a new biopic about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Hayek beat out other actresses like Jennifer Lopez and Madonna who had expressed interest in portraying Kahlo. The film, titled "Frida Kahlo," will begin filming this weekend in Mexico City under Miramax and producer Sarah Green. Kahlo's turbulent life and relationship with muralist Diego Rivera, played by Alfred Molina, provides rich material for a feature film about the artist's political activism and self-portraits depicting her physical and emotional suffering. Libraries use various amnesty programs to encourage patrons to return overdue books, but some librarians find that such programs are not always effective and
Nina Tassler is the president of CBS Entertainment, the highest ranking Latina in network television. She oversees primetime, late night, and daytime programming at CBS, keeping the network at the top of ratings. The document profiles 5 influential Hispanic women in the media industry, including Tassler, Belinda Menendez of NBC Universal International Television Distribution, actress and producer Salma Hayek, Lucia Ballas-Traynor of MTV Tr3s, and Alina Falcon of Univision. It discusses their accomplishments over the past year and their goals for the future.
This document provides an agenda for the "Espacio USA: Vanguardia Latina 2009" conference to be held from May 4-6, 2009 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The agenda includes 5 roundtable discussions on topics like migration, Latinos and Obama's agenda, Latino media, promoting Latin America, and security. It also details breakout sessions for students to discuss issues and draft a youth charter. High-profile speakers like Hillary Clinton, Salma Hayek, and Juan Manuel Santos are scheduled. The event concludes with the presentation of a youth charter to guests including the Mayor of LA and CEO of Grupo Televisa.
This document discusses ways for English speakers to express uncertainty in their speech. It analyzes a conversation between Catherine and Elena where they try to guess the identity of a woman in a picture but are uncertain. It explains how English uses question tags, modal verbs like "might" and "could", words like "maybe" and "perhaps", and intonation to convey different levels of certainty or uncertainty. The document concludes by revealing the identity of the woman is the picture.
The American Cinematheque will present the 2nd Annual Contemporary Mexican Films Series from October 4-7, 2002 at the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre in Hollywood. The series will feature seven Mexican films, including five West Coast premieres, and seven short films. Filmmakers and actress Salma Hayek will be in attendance for discussions. Highlights include the sneak preview of Frida starring Salma Hayek, Jorge Fons' Miracle Alley also starring Hayek, and Ignacio Ortiz Cruz's Stories to Put the Crocodiles to Sleep. The series aims to showcase new films that explore modern and traditional Mexico.
This document lists the names of 6 notable Hispanic Americans: Carlos Santana, Salma Hayek, Ellen Ochoa, Edward James Olmos, and Sandra Cisneros. It appears to provide a list of influential Hispanic individuals across various fields but does not include any additional context.
ABC will promote its hit shows "Desperate Housewives" and the premiere of "Ugly Betty" on Transit TV's mobile broadcast network. The commercials will air in Spanish on thousands of transit vehicles across major cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Orlando. This will help ABC target the Hispanic audience as it launches the new seasons of these shows. Transit TV reaches over 11 million weekly viewers through its screens on nearly 4,000 transit vehicles, providing a new way for advertisers to promote to an untapped audience.
Established in 1994, Contacto Magazine is a bilingual publication aimed at the Hispanic community in Greater Los Angeles. [1] It covers topics of interest to this community such as immigration, culture, health and politics. [2] The magazine has a readership of 20,000 people in Central LA, Southeast LA and the San Fernando Valley, with an average age of 35-55 and a household income of $85,000. [3]
The document contains lyrics to 4 songs by Britney Spears:
1) "Email My Heart" is about sending emails begging for another chance after a breakup.
2) "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" expresses sadness over a lost love and first love.
3) "Heart" is about working through relationship struggles and heartbreak together over time.
4) "Piece of My Heart" is about wanting back the piece of heart that was given in the relationship and needing to let go.
1) Madonna and Guy Ritchie arrived in Inverness, Scotland to begin preparations for their wedding in the small coastal town of Dornoch.
2) They rented a castle for a month to have more privacy for the wedding away from the media attention their first wedding received.
3) A small group of fans waited at the airport to see Madonna arrive, excited to see a celebrity of her stature in the quiet Scottish town.
This document summarizes a new malware distribution scheme identified by BitDefender that uses spam emails containing sensationalized headlines about celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Britney Spears to trick users into downloading malicious files. The emails direct users to pages pretending to have video clips, but instead install Trojan malware like Trojan.Downloader.Tibs.GZM by posing as Flash player updates. While similar to previous celebrity-themed spam campaigns, the new malware and hosting servers have been changed to avoid detection. BitDefender solutions detect and filter these spam emails and malicious files.
The cats, Sunny and Rishi, are brothers who live with their sister, Jessica, and their grandmother, Susie. They work as cleaners but wish to seek other kinds of employment that are better than their current jobs. New career adventures await Sunny and Rishi!
How OTT Players Are Transforming Our TV Viewing Experience.pdfGenny Knight
The advent of Over-The-Top (OTT) players has brought a seismic shift in the television industry, transforming how we consume media. These digital platforms, which deliver content directly over the internet, have outpaced traditional cable and satellite television, offering unparalleled convenience, variety, and personalization. Here’s an in-depth look at how OTT players are revolutionizing the TV viewing experience.
Party Photo Booth Prop Trends to Unleash Your Inner StyleBirthday Galore
Are you planning an unforgettable event and looking for the best photo booth props to make it a memorable night? Party photo booth props have become essential to any celebration, allowing guests to capture priceless memories and express their personalities. Here, we'll explore the hottest party photo booth prop trends that will unleash your inner style and create a buzz-worthy experience with Birthday Galore!
For more details visit - birthdaygalore.com
You know you're an adult when every check-up gets you down. View What Going to the Doctor is Like as an Adult and more funny posts on salty vixen stories & more-saltyvixenstories.com
Tom Cruise Daughter: An Insight into the Life of Suri Cruisegreendigital
Tom Cruise is a name that resonates with global audiences for his iconic roles in blockbuster films and his dynamic presence in Hollywood. But, beyond his illustrious career, Tom Cruise's personal life. especially his relationship with his daughter has been a subject of public fascination and media scrutiny. This article delves deep into the life of Tom Cruise daughter, Suri Cruise. Exploring her upbringing, the influence of her parents, and her current life.
Follow us on: Pinterest
Introduction: The Fame Surrounding Tom Cruise Daughter
Suri Cruise, the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, has been in the public eye since her birth on April 18, 2006. Thanks to the media's relentless coverage, the world watched her grow up. As the daughter of one of Hollywood's most renowned actors. Suri has had a unique upbringing marked by privilege and scrutiny. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Suri Cruise's life. Her relationship with her parents, and her journey so far.
Early Life of Tom Cruise Daughter
Birth and Immediate Fame
Suri Cruise was born in Santa Monica, California. and from the moment she came into the world, she was thrust into the limelight. Her parents, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Were one of Hollywood's most talked-about couples at the time. The birth of their daughter was a anticipated event. and Suri's first public appearance in Vanity Fair magazine set the tone for her life in the public eye.
The Impact of Celebrity Parents
Having celebrity parents like Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes comes with its own set of challenges and privileges. Suri Cruise's early life marked by a whirlwind of media attention. paparazzi, and public interest. Despite the constant spotlight. Her parents tried to provide her with an upbringing that was as normal as possible.
The Influence of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
Tom Cruise's Parenting Style
Tom Cruise known for his dedication and passion in both his professional and personal life. As a father, Cruise has described as loving and protective. His involvement in the Church of Scientology, but, has been a point of contention and has influenced his relationship with Suri. Cruise's commitment to Scientology has reported to be a significant factor in his and Holmes' divorce and his limited public interactions with Suri.
Katie Holmes' Role in Suri's Life
Katie Holmes has been Suri's primary caregiver since her separation from Tom Cruise in 2012. Holmes has provided a stable and grounded environment for her daughter. She moved to New York City with Suri to start a new chapter in their lives away from the intense scrutiny of Hollywood.
Suri Cruise: Growing Up in the Spotlight
Media Attention and Public Interest
From stylish outfits to everyday activities. Suri Cruise has been a favorite subject for tabloids and entertainment news. The constant media attention has shaped her childhood. Despite this, Suri has managed to maintain a level of normalcy, thanks to her mother's efforts.
The Evolution and Impact of Tom Cruise Long Hairgreendigital
Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood's most iconic figures, known for his versatility, charisma, and dedication to his craft. Over the decades, his appearance has been almost as dynamic as his filmography, with one aspect often drawing significant attention: his hair. In particular, Tom Cruise long hair has become a defining feature in various phases of his career. symbolizing different roles and adding layers to his on-screen characters. This article delves into the evolution of Tom Cruise long hair, its impact on his roles. and its influence on popular culture.
Follow us on: Pinterest
Introduction
Tom Cruise long hair has often been more than a style choice. it has been a significant element of his persona both on and off the screen. From the tousled locks of the rebellious Maverick in "Top Gun" to the sleek, sophisticated mane in "Mission: Impossible II." Cruise's hair has played a pivotal role in shaping his image and the characters he portrays. This article explores the various stages of Tom Cruise long hair. Examining how this iconic look has evolved and influenced his career and broader fashion trends.
Early Days: The Emergence of a Style Icon
The 1980s: The Birth of a Star
In the early stages of his career during the 1980s, Tom Cruise sported a range of hairstyles. but in "Top Gun" (1986), his hair began to gain significant attention. Though not long by later standards, his hair in this film was longer than the military crew cuts associated with fighter pilots. adding a rebellious edge to his character, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
Risky Business: The Transition Begins
In "Risky Business" (1983). Tom Cruise's hair was short but longer than the clean-cut styles dominant at the time. This look complemented his role as a high school student stepping into adulthood. embodying a sense of youthful freedom and experimentation. It was a precursor to the more dramatic hair transformations in his career.
The 1990s: Experimentation and Iconic Roles
Far and Away: Embracing Length
One of the first films in which Tom Cruise embraced long hair was "Far and Away" (1992). Playing the role of Joseph. an Irish immigrant in 1890s America, Cruise's long, hair added authenticity to his character's rugged and determined persona. This look was a stark departure from his earlier. more polished styles and marked the beginning of a more adventurous phase in his hairstyle choices.
Interview with the Vampire: Gothic Elegance
In "Interview with the Vampire" (1994). Tom Cruise long hair reached new lengths of sophistication and elegance. Portraying the vampire Lestat. Cruise's flowing blonde locks were integral to the character's ethereal and timeless allure. This hairstyle not only suited the gothic aesthetic of the film but also showcased Cruise's ability to transform his appearance for a role.
Mission: Impossible II: The Pinnacle of Long Hair
One of the most memorable instances of Tom Cruise long hair came in "Mission: Impossible II" (2000). His character, Ethan
From Teacher to OnlyFans: Brianna Coppage's Story at 28get joys
At 28, Brianna Coppage left her teaching career to become an OnlyFans content creator. This bold move into digital entrepreneurship allowed her to harness her creativity and build a new identity. Brianna's experience highlights the intersection of technology and personal branding in today's economy.
Enhance Your Viewing Experience with Gold IPTV- Tips and Tricks for 2024.pdfXtreame HDTV
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital entertainment, IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) has emerged as a popular alternative to traditional cable and satellite TV services. Offering unparalleled flexibility, a vast selection of channels, and affordability, IPTV services like Gold IPTV have revolutionized the way we consume television content. This comprehensive guide will delve into everything you need to know about Gold IPTV, its features, benefits, setup process, and how it can enhance your viewing experience.
The Midnight Sculptor.pdf writer by Ali alsiadali345alghlay
The city of Ravens burg was known for its gothic architecture, fog-covered streets, and an eerie silence that seemed to hang over the town like a shroud.
Sara Saffari: Turning Underweight into Fitness Success at 23get joys
Uncover the remarkable journey of Sara Saffari, whose transformation from underweight struggles to being recognized as a fitness icon at 23 underscores the importance of perseverance, discipline, and embracing a healthy lifestyle.
Leonardo DiCaprio Super Bowl: Hollywood Meets America’s Favorite Gamegreendigital
Introduction
Leonardo DiCaprio is synonymous with Hollywood stardom and acclaimed performances. has a unique connection with one of America's most beloved sports events—the Super Bowl. The "Leonardo DiCaprio Super Bowl" phenomenon combines the worlds of cinema and sports. drawing attention from fans of both domains. This article delves into the multifaceted relationship between DiCaprio and the Super Bowl. exploring his appearances at the event, His involvement in Super Bowl advertisements. and his cultural impact that bridges the gap between these two massive entertainment industries.
Follow us on: Pinterest
Leonardo DiCaprio: The Hollywood Icon
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 11, 1974. His journey to stardom began at a young age with roles in television commercials and educational programs. DiCaprio's breakthrough came with his portrayal of Luke Brower in the sitcom "Growing Pains" and later as Tobias Wolff in "This Boy's Life" (1993). where he starred alongside Robert De Niro.
Rise to Stardom
DiCaprio's career skyrocketed with his performance in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993). earning him his first Academy Award nomination. He continued to gain acclaim with roles in "Romeo + Juliet" (1996) and "Titanic" (1997). the latter of which cemented his status as a global superstar. Over the years, DiCaprio has showcased his versatility in films like "The Aviator" (2004). "Start" (2010), and "The Revenant" (2015), for which he finally won an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Environmental Activism
Beyond his film career, DiCaprio is also renowned for his environmental activism. He established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, focusing on global conservation efforts. His commitment to ecological issues often intersects with his public appearances. including those related to the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl: An American Institution
History and Significance
The Super Bowl is the National Football League (NFL) championship game. is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. First played in 1967, the Super Bowl has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. featuring high-profile halftime shows, memorable advertisements, and significant media coverage. The event attracts a diverse audience, from avid sports fans to casual viewers. making it a prime platform for celebrities to appear.
Entertainment and Advertisements
The Super Bowl is not only about football but also about entertainment. The halftime show features performances by some of the biggest names in the music industry. while the commercials are often as anticipated as the game itself. Companies invest millions in Super Bowl ads. creating iconic and sometimes controversial commercials that capture public attention.
Leonardo DiCaprio's Super Bowl Appearances
A Celebrity Among the Fans
Leonardo DiCaprio's presence at the Super Bowl has noted several times. As a high-profile celebrity. DiCaprio attracts
Explore Treydora's VR economy, where users can trade virtual assets, earn rewards, and build digital wealth within immersive game environments. Learn more!
Taylor Swift: Conquering Fame, Feuds, and Unmatched Success | CIO Women MagazineCIOWomenMagazine
From country star to global phenomenon, delve into Taylor Swift's incredible journey. Explore chart-topping hits, feuds, & her rise to billionaire status!
1. Is Britney Spears Spam?
Aaron Zinman Judith Donath
Sociable Media Group Sociable Media Group
MIT Media Lab MIT Media Lab
Cambridge, MA 02139 Cambridge, MA 02139
+1.617.452.5606 +1.617.253.5098
azinman@media.mit.edu judith@media.mit.edu
someone intrigued by your witty profile, or is it phony façade that
ABSTRACT
will lead to a torrent of advertising? And others are a different
We seek to redefine spam and the role of the spam filter in the
class of unwelcome communication: contact from an unknown
context of Social Networking Services (SNS). SNS, such as
person that is not malicious or deceptive, yet is still unwanted by
MySpace and Facebook, are increasing in popularity. They
the recipient. Differentiating between welcome and unwelcome
enable and encourage users to communicate with previously
communication is subjective, dependent on the taste and interests
unknown network members on an unprecedented scale. The
of the user.
problem we address with our work is that users of these sites risk
being overwhelmed with unsolicited communications not just The problem we address with this work is that users of these sites
from e-mail spammers, but also from a large pool of well risk being overwhelmed with unsolicited communications. Those
intending, yet subjectively uninteresting people. who wish to remain open to meeting new people must spend a
large amount of time evaluating these contacts to determine which
Those who wish to remain open to meeting new people must
are desirable. Our goal is to assist the user in making this
spend a large amount of time estimating deception and utility in
determination. Identifying clear cases of undesirable spam is one
unknown contacts. Our goal is to assist the user in making these
part of the task, but it also requires helping them to assess the
determinations. This requires identifying clear cases of
more ambiguous ones. Our approach is to present an analysis of
undesirable spam and helping them to assess the more ambiguous
the salient features of the sender’s profile and network that
ones. Our approach is to present an analysis of the salient features
provides useful and otherwise hard to perceive cues about their
of the sender’s profile and network that contains otherwise hard to
likely intentions.
perceive cues about their likely intentions.
Understanding the culture of SNS is essential for this task. Their
As with traditional spam analysis, much of our work focuses on
key features are that each user is represented by a self-made
detecting deception: finding profiles that mimic ordinary users but
descriptive profile that includes links to other chosen members of
which are actually commercial and usually undesirable entities.
the site, and that users can leave publicly readable comments on
We address this within the larger context of making more legible
their friends' profiles. These links to other users make up the
the key cues presented by any unknown contact.
extensive network that characterizes these sites.
We have developed a research prototype that categorizes senders
Links on most sites are mutual, i.e. both parties must agree to
into broader categories than spam/not spam using features unique
connect to each other. To reduce spam, many sites (including
to SNS. We discuss our initial experiment, and its results and
MySpace, the subject of our analysis) require that one be a
implications.
member of someone’s personal network of links in order to leave
comments on their profile. Spammers often pose as attractive
1. INTRODUCTION young girls or other intriguing characters to lure users to accept
People use social networking services (SNS) such as MySpace them into their personal network. Once a member, they exploit
and Friendster both to stay in touch with people in their existing the connection by flooding the unwary user with a barrage of
social network and to expand their networks by establishing new unexpected advertisements. To prevent such attacks, users must
connections. Communication with strangers is often an inherent first judge the character of a virtual identity using any available
part of that world: SNS exist in part to enable unsolicited, yet information before accepting the connection. As the number of
friendly and welcome communication. friend requests increases, so does the cost of manually examining
each profile.
This openness to messages from strangers leaves users of these
sites vulnerable to a growing quantity of unwelcome contact, With the continued growth of social networking comes greater
including spam. Some would look familiar to any email user: ads promotional use of these sites. Entities from pornographic
for Viagra™ and breathy invitations to pornographic websites. websites to political candidates are attracted to the huge audience
Some have agendas that are more ambiguous: is that “friend and atmosphere of trust. While some users are not interested in
request” from an attractive stranger a genuine gesture from connecting with any such commercial groups, others are. They
may welcome news about a favorite band’s upcoming tour; they
may wish to express their liking for a celebrity, a political
candidate, or a brand of beer. Many even enjoy populating their
CEAS 2007 – Fourth Conference on Email and Anti-Spam, August 2-3,
personal network with pornographic profiles.
2007, Mountain View, California USA
2. The definition of what constitutes spam in SNS is thus subjective. SNS we first need to judge character. Requests to join a
For example, one might receive a friend request from a celebrity member’s social network are nearly content-less, containing only
such as Britney Spears1. Whether we like her or her music may be a link to the sender’s profile. Thus, we are forced to first judge
independent of whether we wish to interact with her virtual the sender by any available public information.
persona. But unlike Viagra ads in e-mail, a non-trivial population
If we are still only detecting the presence of select categories such
actually does want to join her network even if they understand it
as penny stocks or pornographic webcams, we can simply redirect
only exists for public relations purposes. The official Britney
current content analysis techniques to the profile. But if we are
Spears’ profile on MySpace has 135,385 links as of June 10,
rejecting a sender only because they are a celebrity, we are
2007. There are also numerous other profiles devoted to her;
rejecting a social prototype [17] of a human rather than simply
some are fan clubs, while others seem to be spam-like fronts for
detecting one. Without the capability for machines to subjectively
pornography sites using the popular and provocative singer’s
reason about people, we cannot adapt current spam techniques to
name and image as enticement.
SNS; Britney Spears and Viagra are similarly evaluated into the
The role of the SNS filter thus needs to be more than a marker of same binary world.
unambiguous spam. It needs to assist the user in assessing
Filtering based upon wide category memberships is a far more
profiles by highlighting and clarifying the most salient features of
complicated task than is possible using current spam filtering
an unknown contact, making it easier and more efficient for the
methodologies. As humans, we cast profiles into different types
human user to determine whether they wish to accept the
and categories, accepting those that appear interesting while
invitation. This determination may vary greatly for the same
rejecting those that do not meet our subjective criteria. Such
contact across different users.
assessment is prone to deception, as the malicious keep their
If all contacts were honest about their identity and intention, the intentions well hidden. Ideally, spam filters would help prevent
user’s task of determining with whom to connect would be much deception and the uninteresting by assessing honesty and
simpler. But they are not: the numerous spam senders mimic character.
ordinary human users, creating credible profiles and even
Ultimately, a people-oriented AI reasoning engine is needed to
networks of reassuring, though fictional, friends. Detecting these
interpret virtual identities and present the results. It would differ
deceptive entities is not impossible, but it takes considerable
from current spam techniques in how people are evaluated
effort. Much of our work is focused on assisting this task – of
(moving from templates to more holistic and necessarily
highlighting the often subtle features that are characteristic of
subjective approaches) and how the results are presented (the
deceptive versus honest profiles and networks.
machine’s categories matching human categories). It could no
longer interact with the user solely through binary spam flags; the
2. PROBLEM ranges of unsolicited senders in SNS are far more graded than in
Vaughan-Nichols noted that spam is almost impossible to define e-mail. Desirability is dependent upon the recipient's current
[21]. A penny stock ad is widely considered spam, but an personal value system which in turn may change over time. Some
extraneous advertisement from your bank might still be might approve a link to Britney Spears simply because they think
considered legitimate. Yet despite the gray area, spam has a clear she's beautiful, while others appreciate her iconic status as a
enough definition that e-mail providers Google and Yahoo will try deviant. To account for the wide variety of preferences and
to filter it by starting from a master universal filter. Such master criteria, we seek richer representations of people and content for
filters work for Google under the assumption unsolicited the purposes of modeling social cognition and facilitating
messages about medication, penny stocks, fake university degrees, interaction with the results.
and software discounts are universally undesirable. When Google
Creating an expressive socially minded representation of virtual
misclassifies our mail, we correct it by toggling a binary spam
personas for presentation to end-users and for evaluation by
flag. This approach towards e-mail spam is reasonable given a)
machines is non-trivial. As humans, we judge others on higher-
we typically are not contacted by unknown ordinary people, and
level social rules than is_penny_stock. Disambiguating counter-
b) there is near universal consensus regarding which messages
culture from weird and undesirable can be difficult even for
should be declared spam. But what happens when both of these
humans, let alone a machine.
assumptions fail?
Our long-term goal is to represent the character of senders using a
In SNS, we can no longer assume that unsolicited likely means
notion of prototypes, or conceptual categories [13, 17], and more
unwanted. SNS facilitate desirable unsolicited communications,
immediately using a selection of feature bundles. Prototypes are
opening a large gray area for “spam” classification. Should spam
difficult to define as “a large proportion of our categories are not
filters take on the role of sorting through the full gamut of
categories of things; they are categories of abstract entities. We
desirable and undesirable unsolicited communications? We
categorize events, actions, emotions, spatial relationships, social
believe so.
relationships, and abstract entities of an enormous range:
We postulate that for SNS, the redefinition of spam filters should governments, illnesses, and entities in both scientific and folk
start by focusing on the sender rather than the message. Content theories, like electrons and colds” [17]. Thus, prototypes we
analysis might be enough to discover a Viagra ad, but often in might use in SNS are largely dependent on the goals of the user
and the underlying system. If one chooses to reject a link to
Britney Spears (see Appendix 1), is it because she is a celebrity (a
1 high-level social characterization), or is it because she only
Britney Spears is currently a popular singer and cultural icon in
unidirectionally broadcasts uniform information (a lower-level
the United States and worldwide.
3. characterization of network usage, or what we term a feature Specifically, our system describes a profile’s valence in two
bundle)? Feature bundles are much closer to what we can extract independent dimensions: sociability and promotion. We evaluate
without high-level reasoning and/or cognitive models. They are sociability by the presence of information of social nature. A
not the language commonly used by people in every day large number of personal comments, graphical customization, and
descriptions, but they are still useful the context of SNS while other pieces of normally practiced social activity on MySpace
simultaneously easier to algorithmically generate. Examples of a yield a higher score. Promotion is evaluated by the amount of
feature bundles include “someone who sends more movie clips to information meant to influence others, whether of political beliefs
their friends than they receive” and “someone with little public or of commercial nature. Typical e-mail spam would rate high in
information available.” They are likely to be the basis upon promotion, but low in sociability as they try to influence
which we unconsciously generate our prototypes of the world, and recipients without social dialogue. By contrast, a local rock band
therefore, if well-chosen, they can provide the necessary social likely will score high in both dimensions since they actively
cues to aid the user in navigating a virtual social sphere. communicate with their fan base on a personal level. Note we
naïvely performed this experiment without a people-oriented
The situation is further complicated depending if one is solely
reasoning engine, relying on basic machine learning techniques
trying to detect classical spam, or classify and separate ordinary
and a moderately small collection of feature bundles.
humans into our own categories. In the case of classic spam,
standard network-based metrics such as clustering coefficients [4] Further note that sociability does not simply refer to the amount of
can work well without the need for prototypes or high-level any information or content available. For example, we found that
characterization. However, the “spam” problem in SNS will soon it is customary in MySpace to post a “thank you” message to
be further complicated when many unwanted contact attempts another member’s public bulletin board upon joining their social
come from real, ordinary social people rather than deceiving network. Surprisingly, this happens frequently even on profiles
robots. In this scenario, forms of categorization have to separate that have no intrinsic social value, i.e. pornographic webcams.
out different classes of people that match the conceptual We consider such messages to be somewhat sociable, but without
categories of the user’s model of the world. Most users do not use additional personal content the cumulative social score for these
clustering coefficients to assess who might be a desirable generic messages would be very low. On the other hand, Britney
acquaintance. If a machine is able to accurately state that another Spears could score high despite being a commercial entity in the
member is central to the local punk rock scene, or that they share presence of personalized communications to and from her fan
and pass on similar kinds of media, then we are approaching the base.
end-user’s mental model and reasoning methodology. Until our
We chose sociability and promotion because we believe the
long-term goal of subjective machine assessment using relevant
quadrants of their intersection could be the basis of initial
social prototypes is reached, our categories ought to be less
expansion from spam/not spam to four useful categories:
subjective and more quantitative.
Prototype 1: Low sociability and low promotion. This user might
Some researchers have proposed that we can filter unwanted
be a new member to the site, or might be a low-effort spammer
senders by injecting explicit or implicit trust values into the
who does not care about posing as something real. Without
network [9, 11, 14, 19]. Such an act is a subtle blend between
information to judge, we cannot tackle their classification.
human detection and type characterization; we “trust” our friends’
judgments to be valid across all dimensions. Assuming trust Prototype 2: Low sociability and high promotion. This is typical
values provide a desirable statistic, these systems can only work of a promotional entity using SNS as a marketing opportunity.
reliably well in an open environment within the limited scope of They only broadcast uniform information to their network, while
friend-of-a-friend. As we compound multiple trust values to simultaneously trying to expand its membership as much as
evaluate a node many hops away, our confidence in trust quickly possible. Examples include Britney Spears (who does not
diminishes as the nodes effectively become strangers [7]. This communicate individually with her network members), a Viagra
would not be such as much a problem in closed environments ad, and a pornographic webcam.
such as corporations, but in SNS, it is precisely these complete
Prototype 3: High sociability and low promotion. Such a rating is
strangers that we desire to evaluate most.
indicative of normal social-oriented humans. They connect and
Trust metrics are also problematic in that their definition is often communicate with their social network on a personal level by
one-dimensional. A single quantitative value cannot take into posting pictures of themselves with their friends, results of
account how context and time changes the relationship between random pop quizzes, and publicly host a suite of personal
members. For example, we trust a friend to not intentionally send comments posted by their friends. Fortunately, they still
us a virus, but we may not trust them to not send us marketing constitute the majority of active SNS users.
information about their new company. With each hop they
Prototype 4: High sociability and high promotion. Unlike the
compound changing social practices and contexts in which the
generic marketing approach of Prototype 2, these promotional
value was originally assigned, quickly abstracting their value into
entities engage with their network on an individual basis. Often
a higher dimensional space than their single dimensional can
small-scale media producers (local bands, aspiring YouTube-
afford.
based directors) fit this characterization by using SNS to connect
with their audience.
3. EXPERIMENT
3.1 User Characterization To reason about virtual entities more holistically, we require some
minimum of information to judge. Therefore, it is reasonable that
We began our analysis by attempting automatic characterization
we assumed network history to be a prerequisite for our analysis.
of MySpace profiles using higher-level social categories.
4. It is not without precedent; Boykin could well identify spam by that network statistics influenced by cultural practices will
analyzing the structure of social networks build from personal e- usefully highlight normal social processes.
mail archives [4]. However, e-mail archives are private and
incomplete. SNS already provide a rich source of public
information in their network structure and collections of past Table 1: Distribution of profiles by sociability and promotional
actions. Any public profile (which we calculate to be 78.7% on
s=1 s=2 s=3 s=4 s=5
MySpace as of December 2006) yields a user’s entire social
-- 93 99 85 123
p=1
network, a self-made virtual identity, and a set of public messages
1 5 7 16 60
p=2
sent to them by their verified network. The better and more
complete the information, the more accurately we can judge the 3 2 4 3 6
p=3
person. Fortunately for us, the current youth culture has fully 46 17 5 3 5
p=4
adapted the desire to live public network lives [2,3]. 183 54 11 4 5
p=5
3.2 Data Collection
3.3 Feature Extraction
We conducted an initial investigation to see if standard machine
Determining the best features for our prototypes is non-trivial
learning techniques could accurately predict the classification of
when their successful evaluation requires separating generic from
MySpace profiles in sociability and promotion using a collection
personal relationships. We hypothesize that network-focused
of features specific to the network and its culture. We tried to
metrics are among the most important statistics to distinguish
capture a spread of commercial, nonprofit, and noncommercial
between usage types in SNS, for the purposes of both human
persona by picking MySpace profiles at random. MySpace
detection and human categorization. The construction of
exposes their user IDs as integers, which monotonically increase
individual profile is low cost compared to the potential of
over time. This exposed database structure allows us to randomly
deception it brings in isolation. Yet, the construction of an entire
choose profiles by algorithmically generating a list of
network and its falsified chronology of activity is costly. Even
pseudorandom numbers in the valid range of IDs, which we then
when deception is not a problem, network activity (messages to
fetch using an automated script. After collecting all the profiles,
and from friends) gives clues to a potential acquaintance as to
we hand rated each profile from one-to-five in sociability and
what they might expect by joining the private network.
promotion. A higher score in a given dimension corresponds to a
higher valence. We will now refer each score by the variables s
The structure of a network alone can be used for human detection.
and p, representing sociability and promotion, respectively.
Boykin and Roychowdhury showed that e-mail spammers reliably
have many edges but few wedges [4]. Wedges arise from shared
We only entered profiles into our dataset where at least s>1 or
communities and geography, a common feature which spammers
p>1 in order to process profiles with some minimum of
lack. Yet a clustering coefficient alone cannot tell us that Tila
information to judge. As we reached the thousandth profile, only
Tequila [5], who tries to speak to as many strangers as possible, is
11% of our database had p>1; the majority were bands which
not typical spam. In her case it would be better to search for
already have a reliable special flag on MySpace. We know that
different network-based cues and feature bundles, such as the bi-
the number of promotional profiles is increasing, but our data
directionality in communication with her fan base, and whether
suggests MySpace still has far more social-oriented content than
her “friends” propagate her media to their friends.
non-social (disregarding bands). Therefore, we focused on
growing our promotional dataset specifically until we reached 400
We selected our features by thinking broadly about how people
profiles where p>1.
use MySpace. This includes information available on the user
profile, as well as the comments written on one's top friends'
The 400 p>1 profiles were balanced against 400 profiles of p=1
profiles. Our choice of features reflects social trends on the site,
for learning purposes. That is, we had 400 promotional-oriented
such as the common use of easily detectable third-party content
versus 400 promotional-less. If we use the current real-world
oriented towards MySpace profiles. Table 2 shows a hierarchy of
distribution, a random guess of p=1 would be correct 89% of the
our egocentric features, where “top n” refers a user’s top friends,
time. Given that we do not know if any of our features (to be
and “us” refers to the user in question. When we say “percent of
explained) are meaningful, or if our dimensions are learnable,
our comments’ hrefs that are unique,” we are referring to
90% accuracy is too close to a goal score. Therefore, we opted to
hyperlinks found within our entire dataset to the same Internet
balance the two sets by allocating 50% of the data to p=1.
address located in the comments posted by the user in question.
However, the 400 p=1 profiles were selected such that they
Thus, it is possible many profiles in all of MySpace link to the
maintained the same distribution in the sociability dimension as
same place, but we were unable to capture that in our subset of
the larger data set contained where p=1. Table 1 shows the
data. As a result, some of our features are inherently unreliable in
breakdown.
our current configuration.
After obtaining the contents and rating of each profile, we further
collected the profiles of each person's “top friends”. Top friends
are a special subset of friends that one can specifically select to be
displayed on their main profile page. This is interpreted in the
culture of MySpace as showing one’s “best friends” [1]. We
chose to use this subset for two reasons: 1) the full graph two
hops from 800 profiles is especially large, and 2) we hypothesized
5. Figure 1. A histogram showing the results of network-based features. Each data point is put into one of two potential columns
depending on its promotional score, independent its sociability score. This separates promotional entities (right and red) from the
non-promotional (left and green). Note these specific distributions are a better shown by clipping the graph at 100 members on the
y-axis as to visually concentrate the reader on the important details of the distribution while maintaining a small graph size for the
purposes of publication.
6. Figure 2. A histogram showing the results of profile-based features. Like Figure 1, each data point is put into one of two potential
columns depending on its promotional score, separating promotional entities (right and red) from the non-promotional (left and
green).
We normalized each feature from 0 to 1 so that all dimensions
3.4 Machine Learning
could be compared in the same linear space. Figures 1 and 2 show
As we did not know if our features or dimensions were learnable,
a histogram of the feature distributions of promotional-oriented
we choose to survey many types of algorithms to see if any were
profiles and those with no promotion. Despite a large bin around
suitable for our problem. We used linear regression, k nearest-
0, most features display normal or power-law distributions. It is
neighbors, back-propagation neural networks (with varying
interesting that for several of the features, such as “percent our
number of hidden units and layers), and naïve Bayesian networks.
comments have images”, the type of distribution changes
Each algorithm ran multiple times with varying permutations of
depending if p=1 or p>1. Thus we have evidence promotional
the following feature sets: profile-based, network-based, and
entities use the network differently than non-promotional entities.
mixed.
Our illustrated separation of data points is close to the notion of
spam/non-spam in e-mail.
7. Table 2: Features extracted by category
Network/Comment Based
percent of our comments that are from our top n
percent of our top n comments that are from us
percent of our comments’ images that are unique
percent of our comments’ hrefs that are unique
percent of our comments to our top n that have unique hrefs
percent of our comments to our top n that have unique
images
average number of posters that use the same images in our
comments to our top n
average number of posters that use the same images in our
comments
average number of posters that use the same hrefs in our
comments
average number of posters that use the same hrefs in our
comments to our top n
total number of comments from anyone to our top n
total number of images in comments
total number of hrefs in comments
total number of images in our comments to our top n
total number of hrefs in our comments to our top n
percent of our comments that have images
percent of our comments that have hrefs
percent of our comments in our top n that have hrefs
percent of our comments in our top n that have images
number of independent images in our comments
number of independent hrefs in our comments
number of independent images in our comments to our top n
number of independent hrefs in our comments to our top n
User/Profile Based
number of friends
number of youtube movies
number of details
number of comments
number of thanks
number of survey
number of ‘I’
number of ‘you’ Figure 3. Graphs showing the best performance of each
missing picture classifier permutation for each of the three threshold-based
mp3 player present tests.
static url to profile available
has a school section
3.5 Results
has blurbs
In this paper we will only discuss the results of our neural
the page is personalized through CSS
networks and naïve Bayes experiments. Their scores were better
has a networking section
or similar to our attempts with linear regression and k nearest-
has a company section
neighbors.
has blog entries
Our networks performed poorly in correctly classifying a profile
Given 40 dimensions and only 800 data points (600 for training,
in both dimensions simultaneously. The network did not do much
200 for testing), we feared the curse of dimensionality. We
better than 30-50% in any configuration, which is still better than
approximated feature selection using Principal Component
random (see Table 3 for typical performance).
Analysis (PCA) to reduce our space. We varied the number of
dimensions kept with each learning algorithm, from 1 to 40. As we will later discuss, there was a large amount of subjectivity
in the hand rating of the profiles. Due to time constraints, our
hand rating only underwent a single pass per profile. Thus there
is a high probability that another pass at the same profiles would
result in the slightly different score, even from the same original
8. see a large increase in e-mail of image-based spam, simply
Table 3: Exact classification rates using two layer neural
because it is more costly for modern filters to handle. While
network and combined feature set on testing data
spammer techniques will always adapt around the current
s=1 s=2 s=3 s=4 s=5
detection technology, we believe a network-centric approach is
-- 0% 0% 0% 70.5%
p=1 ultimately more robust.
43.5% 0% 0% 28.6% 7.7%
p=2
26.9% 0% 0% 0% 0%
p=3
4. FUTURE DIRECTIONS
-- -- -- -- --
p=4 We believe we have identified a promising conceptual scaffold to
55.6% 0% 0% -- 0%
p=5 filter solicitations in SNS by using the concepts of prototypes and
feature bundles. Although our preliminary results are less
reviewer. To handle this situation and get closer to how a human substantial than we had expected, we believe the flaw to be in the
might expect to interact with a filtering agent, we created several choice of analytical techniques rather than the underlying
new tests based upon a notion of thresholding. Our thresholding network-centric approach. Our next step is to use more advanced
function seeks to correctly guess which side of given value (from techniques to analyze the network for the separate purposes of
two to five) a profile falls in a given dimension. For example, if deception detection and human categorization.
our threshold is at three, and the data is actually one and we guess
As previously mentioned, Boykin and Roychowdhury have shown
two, we would count that as correct because everything is on the
the clustering coefficient of a generated social network to be
same side of three. However, if we guessed three and the correct
useful in fighting email spam [4]. They first examine the headers
answer was two, our test would evaluate to false. The
of an individual’s email archive to approximate the actual social
thresholding function reduces the subjectivity in our original
graph, then using its network properties classify users into white
ratings by fuzzing the scores while concentrating on a single
and black lists. While their methods could only be applied 47%
dimension.
of the time due to algorithmic constraints, when applicable it
We created threshold tests to classify each dimension works fantastically well. Clustering coefficients are a promising
independently, in addition to a special “firewall” threshold that example that network properties can at least usefully distinguish
crosses both dimensions. Firewall is a special test that tries to normal human behavior from the purely deceptive and malicious.
represent the spirit behind current spam filtering, which is to Kimura et al. showed a similar technique can work well for search
block out non-social promotional entities. It is the same as the engine spam within trackback networks [15]. As we have already
promotional threshold test except we also require s>1 (the profile discussed, it remains an open question which network properties
is at least somewhat social). The user then sets the maximum are appropriate given the changing subjective goals of a
promotional value a profile may score and still be let through. classification and the typical usage properties of a given site.
Clustering coefficients are only useful if the culture of the
All of our threshold tests unsurprisingly performed significantly
network supports it.
better than the exact requirement tests, showing that at least
something useful could be extracted from our features and dataset. We believe more research in passively generated statistics of SNS
For the firewall test, our performance ranged from 90-93%, with usage can get us much of the way there. Usage is influenced by
the best performance at t=4. pre-existing social conditions; we bring our cultural norms,
communities, schools, geography, and friends into the networks
Surprisingly, we found that reducing dimensionality using PCA
we use. Sometimes local properties like geography can be a
did not improve performance: much of the reduction actually gets
stronger force to grow the network than the network itself [20].
performed by the trained network. This was also evident by the
Some patterns, such as temporal rhythms [12], function well as
fact that fewer hidden nodes performed extremely well in our
markers of average human activity. More social science research
Neural Networks. Thus, we conclude the task may be inherently
into SNS is needed to distinguish the different types of users and
more linear or less multivariate than we previously assumed.
cultures within a given network [1, 8, 12]. Such work is
The best performance came from using both feature sets in a invaluable when algorithmically applied to detect humans and the
single layer neural network (Figure 3). However, this was only various categories within them.
marginally better than using only profile-based features. We
The features we choose directly impacts what we can predict and
conclude that there is still value in including network usage
what we can show the user. If the desired categorization is too
statistics, but our profile-only features were good enough to get us
ambiguous or high-level, even the best classifier engine is likely
most of the way there. The network-only tests fell between 78-
to perform poorly. We chose sociability because we believed it
83% accuracy, much lower than with the profile-based features.
matched the raison d'être of SNS; promotion reflected the growing
While this might seem discouraging when our goal is to use
misuse of SNS. We now realize they were inappropriate choices
network-based features, we hypothesize that our preliminary
because their evaluation requires value judgments. For example,
feature set has much room for improvement by using more robust
how sociable is (MySpace commercial entity) Britney Spears? Do
network statistics. For example, we did not include timestamps of
personal responses from separate public relations interns
comments in our features. The networks and comments of a
constitute sociability? Do her “friends” need to actually know her
“real” persona are built up organically over time, a process and
in real life? As we further dive into the analysis of profiles, we
resulting network and communication pattern that is difficult for
uncover even deeper philosophical questions that challenge our
spammers to mimic.
assumptions and expectations of a virtual identity. Must only one
Profile scoped features will have a limited time that they can be mind to represent an entity? Does “it” need to be human? Does it
considered useful in the spam/anti-spam arms race. We currently need to be just one human, or can it be two humans and a dog?
9. What if it is clearly a human but is primarily about their business? surprising, but the differing traits go beyond “how many people
Such questions highlight how arbitrary our current definitions they attempt to befriend or contact.” Clustering coefficients,
might be as computer scientists when proposing generic anti-spam gradients of bi-directionality in communication, and media
solutions. sharing practices all give us insight into the behavior of entities
that may be otherwise unreadable or too easily falsified. Future
Until we have reliable agents using a fine-tuned subjective
combinations of natural language processing with social network
cognitive model of the user, a better approach is to expose the
analysis have the potential to give an accurate prediction of what
end-user to a digestible form of the raw features and let them
to expect from an unknown entity. It should be principally
decide how to proceed. For example, the average ratio of
supported by examining an entity’s role within the context of their
messages sent to received might be enough for most people to
friends and the culture across the entire site.
filter a majority of profiles to their liking at a first approximation.
This works because by itself it can be understood as meaningful As John Keats famously wrote, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that
social statistic: “Britney Spears” can be worthwhile as long as it is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” In the
usually converses back. Well-chosen fact-oriented metrics move vulnerable world of SNS, the truth may be ugly, but being able to
value judgment to the only place they can be reliably interpreted reliably digest and present usage facts may be their only hope to
across contexts: the user. preserve utility and curb chaos.
5. CONCLUSION 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Computer-mediated communication is expanding our social We would to thank sponsors of the Media Lab, including News
boundaries. On the positive side, we in an information-based Corporation, for supporting this work. We also extend special
society are increasingly willing to make contact and develop thanks to Paulina Modlitba for helping perform the experiment
relationships with people we have never met in person. On the and with the concept. Finally, we thank Greg Elliott, Nick Knouf,
negative side, we are also increasingly the recipients of spam and Tyler Maxwell, Christine Liu, Jonah Knobler, and Erik Sparks for
other unwelcome contact. The new social sphere of potential their comments.
contacts, both desirable and not, is immense - and clearly we need
7. APPENDIX
technological assistance in sorting through it.
[1] In SNS like MySpace, mainstream promotional entities are
Our fundamental argument in this paper has been that this sorting
creating profiles and joining as many social networks as possible.
needs to be more nuanced than the black and white, spam or not
Their connections are often used as a marketing opportunity to
spam classification typical of most email analysis tools. We need
open a one-way communications channel without consideration
to be able to classify a range of potential contacts to assist users of
for the recipients concerns.
varying interests and tolerances in deciding which unknown
contacts to accept and which to discard.
8. REFERENCES
We attempted to do so by creating a model that could rate profiles
[1] boyd, d. Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8: Writing
in the dimensions of sociability and promotion. However, we
community into being on social network sites. First
quickly found that doing so requires placing a value judgment.
Monday, vol 11, no. 12, December 2006.
When we, humans, were hand rating profiles to generate our data
[2] boyd, d. Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?
set, we often disagreed about what score a particular profile
Knowledge Tree 13, May 2007.
should take. For example, are political activists promotional, or is
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/?page_id=28
that only reserved for those selling something? If it is difficult for
humans to agree on a particular rating due to subjectivity, how [3] boyd, d. Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role
can we expect machines to perform the same tasks for us? of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. MacArthur
Foundation on Digital Learning, Identity Volume (ed. David
Only the user can decide if Britney Spears is spam. Yet the
Buckingham). (in press) MIT Press. 2007.
design of SNS and their associated services can speed this
evaluation through digestion and presentation of information that [4] Boykin, P. and Roychowdhury, V. Leveraging Social
would otherwise be hidden. Facebook has already begun the Networks to Fight Spam. Computer, vol. 38, no. 4,April
practice of publicly consolidating and aggregating activity of its 2005, 61-68.
users for consumption in its popular “News Feed” feature. [5] Caplan, J., Kingsbury, K., Jakes, S., Ressner, J., Rosenberg,
However, it functions as a social radar at a literal level rather than G., and Walsh, B. Tila Tequila. TIME Magazine. December
a predictor of potential activity. If we expect the concept of social 16, 2006.
networking to become ubiquitous and of high utility, new
[6] Donath, J. (in review) Connecting the dots: Social networks
interfaces will have to be built that highlight any past behavior
sites as sketches of the future. Journal of Computer-
indicative of future behavior. Without advanced AI, we presently
Mediated Communication, 2007.
advocate the presentation of facts without using subjective
language or categorization. [7] Donath, J., and boyd, d. Public displays of connection. BT
Technology Journal. vol 22, no 4, October 2004, 72-81.
We are confident that harbingers of promotional intent will
[8] Fiore, A.T. Romantic Regressions: An Analysis of Behavior
emerge through analysis of network usage qualities. Regardless
in Online Dating Systems. Master's Thesis, MIT Media Lab.
of our subjective follies, our histograms have shown at minimum
September 2004.
that ordinary people and promotional entities have some differing
character traits in network usage. At first this may not seem
10. [9] Gil, Yolanda, and Ratnakar. Trusting Information Sources [15] Kimura, M., Saito, K., Kazama, K., and Sato, S. Detecting
One Citizen at a Time. Proceedings of the First International Search Engine Spam from a Trackback Network in
Semantic Web Conference (ISWC). Sardinia, Italy. June Blogspace. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 3684,
2002. 2005.
[10] Girvan, M., and Newman, M.E.J. Community structure in [16] Krebs, V. Data mining email to discover social networks and
social and biological networks. Proceedings of the National communities of practice. Available from
Academy of Sciences USA. 99, no. 12. 2002. 7821-7826 http://www.orgnet.com/email.html.
[11] Golbeck, J., and Hendler, J. Reputation Network Analysis for [17] Lakoff, G. Women, fire, and dangerous things: What
Email Filtering. Proceedings of the First Conference on categories reveal about the mind. University Of Chicago
Email and Anti-Spam (CEAS), 2004. Press. 1987.
[12] Golder, S., Wilkinson, D., and Huberman, B. Rhythms of [18] Lenhart, A., and Madden, M. Social networking websites and
teens: An overview. Pew Internet and American Life Project.
social interaction: messaging within a massive online
network. http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.CY/0611137, 2006. 2002.
[13] Holland, D., and Skinner, D. Prestige and Intimacy: The [19] Levin, Raph and Aiken. Attack resistant trust metrics for
Cultural Models Behind Americans' Talk about Gender public-key certification. Proceedings of the 7th USENIX
Types. In Cultural Models in Language and Thought, D. H. Security Symposium, San Antonio, Texas, January 1998.
a. N. Quinn (Ed.), New York: Cambridge University Press. [20] Marmaros, M., and Sacerdote, B. How do friendships form?
1987. 78-111. Quarterly Journal of Economics. MIT Press. February 2006
[14] Kamvar, S., Schlosser, M.T., and Garcia-Molina, H. The [21] Vaughan-Nichols, S.J. Saving Private E-mail. IEEE
EigenTrust Algorithm for Reputation Management in P2P Spectrum. vol. 40, no. 8, 2003. 40-44.
Networks. Proceedings of the 12th International World Wide
Web Conference. Budapest, Hungary. May 20-24 2003.