Presentation at SMARTLIFE - The First International Workshop on Social Computing and Urban Intelligence and Smarter Lives May 27 – May 31, 2014

1. Carlos Cardonha
chcardo@br.ibm.com
IBM Research
Kelly Shigeno
kshigeno@br.ibm.com
Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo
Universidade de Sao Paulo
Sergio Borger
sborger@br.ibm.com
IBM Research
Ricardo Herrmann
rhermann@br.ibm.com
IBM Research
Fernando Koch
f ernando.koch@samsung.com
SAMSUNG Research Institute
Mateus M. Motta
mottam@br.ibm.com
Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas
Universidade de Sao Paulo
IBM Research | Brazil © 2014 IBM Corporation1/4
Inferring Social Intelligence through
Open Communication Interfaces
SMARTLIFE The First International Workshop on Social Computing and Urban Intelligence and Smarter Lives
May 27 – May 31, 2014

2. IBM Research | Brazil © 2014 IBM Corporation2/4
Proposal
The Shared Message Board is a tool to
foment local communities communication
through digital technology.
Target Audience: low-income communities
Main Components:
Installed in public and open areas (e.g., lobbies of
charity institutions, open squares). Basically, they are
responsible for displaying the content.
1. Public Panels
Establishes a short-messaging services (SMS)-based
communication channel between the platform’s back-
end and the community.
2. Gateway Application
Provide easy visualization of the board interface in
different communities; implement the business logic
for moderation, text filtering, and blocking; and deliver
the display interface.
3. Cloud Computing Services
SMS
Inject
Message
Shared
Message
Board
Users viewing the board
and interacting with it
Gateway
App
Analytics
Packages
Social Analytics
Models
Bus
Logic
Web
Service
Request Board
Contents
Message
Repository

3. IBM Research | Brazil © 2014 IBM Corporation
Case Study
News (Notícias)
Ride Offers (Ofereço Carona)
Ride Requests (Busco Carona)
Open Forum (Fala, IBMista!)
All of them have smartphones
Ages: 21 - 54 years
10 Interviews
3/4
Successfully used the platform
insiders
outsiders
Knew about the Message Board
Didn’t know about the Message Board
Two major groups of potential users were identified:
insiders (individuals who work in the building), and
outsiders (whose opinions were neutral and are not
discussed in this work).
Insiders were divided in four categories:
passive individuals, who used the board only to follow news;A.
individuals who did not use the tool and made suggestions;B.
individuals who did not use the board but were sympathetic with the
chosen topics;
C.
individuals who did not use the tool and were unsatisfied with the
topics.
D.
The concerns transmitted
by users in category B
evolve around four elements:
location, technology,
communication, and topic.
The main reason why users
in categories C and D did
not use the tool was the
topic. Those in D explicitly
mentioned that carpooling
was not interesting for them.

4. Conclusions
IBM Research | Brazil © 2014 IBM Corporation4/4
The richness of local context information
in “social media for local community”
provides remarkable value in understanding
communities behavior and needs.
Our analysis of the collected data shows that:
In our scenario, we concluded that in face of immediate need, people leaned towards using the board to solve
an immediate problem. Moreover, there is a tendency to follow the “wisdom of the crowds”, even in a closed
environment. Thus, the more people use specific board’s threads, the more it will draw attention.
- Situational context highly influences social behavior
That is, one must consider the impact of local situational events (e.g., a storm is expected by the end of the work
journey) and model how it influences people’s utilitarian thinking to predict and promote the technology’s utilization.
- Community engagement is driven by both familiarity and need
An adequate communication process comes from understanding community’s context and behavior. Thus, in order
to foster adoption, one must consider deploying shared message boards in controllable environments and implement
continuous learning about the community behavior, which can be facilitated with the support of Social Analytics.
- Technology adoptions is driven by customization of the communication process