This document discusses assessing the credibility of weblogs (blogs) through natural language processing (NLP) techniques. It proposes a multi-phase study to identify factors that users consider when evaluating blog credibility, test these factors by analyzing blog readers' judgments, perform NLP analysis on blogs to extract credibility profiles, and analyze comments to determine if profiles match readers who found the blogs credible. A preliminary framework identifies four credibility assessment factors: the blogger's expertise/identity, trustworthiness/values, information quality, and personal appeals.
IL Module on Evaluating Information Venteicher KKay Venteicher
The document discusses evaluating information sources based on criteria of currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. It provides examples of questions to consider for each criterion when assessing a source. Activities are included that apply each criterion to sample article abstracts and sources on the topic of distance education. The document emphasizes the importance of thoroughly evaluating information sources using these criteria to ensure sources are reliable and suitable for research needs.
This document provides guidance on evaluating information sources for use in answering questions on an online reference service. It outlines six criteria for evaluating sources: authority, currency, objectivity, coverage, accuracy/verifiability, and relevance. For each criterion, it provides examples and questions to consider to determine how well the source meets that standard of evaluation. The goal is to select sources that will provide high-quality, unbiased information to answer users' questions completely and appropriately.
The document discusses the Web Impact Factor (WIF), which aims to quantify the impact and ranking of websites, domains, and subdomains based on link analysis, analogous to the Journal Impact Factor for academic journals. It reviews how the WIF was developed and studies its advantages and disadvantages. While the WIF may be useful for intra-country comparisons, the document concludes its application beyond this has little value due to differences between web and journal content and quality controls.
This chapter discusses link analysis techniques for ranking web pages. It begins with an introduction to early search engines that relied on content similarity and the need to incorporate link information. It then covers concepts from social network analysis, including centrality, prestige, co-citation and bibliographic coupling. The chapter describes PageRank and HITS, two influential algorithms developed in 1998 that analyze the link structure of the web. PageRank powers the Google search engine by interpreting links as votes and weighting pages by their prestige.
This document discusses source evaluation and authority. It argues that authority is constructed within communities and depends on context. Standard criteria and checklists are insufficient for evaluation and need to be contextualized. True evaluation requires expertise and can be difficult due to confirmation bias and backfire effects. The document provides examples of lesson plans to teach source evaluation, including considering different perspectives, finding original sources, and comparing across sources rather than relying on judgments of a single source. Evaluation focuses on understanding authority within knowledge communities rather than viewing information as an objective commodity.
This document outlines information literacy sessions for English courses at NMC. It discusses evaluating sources, conducting research, and challenges NMC students face. The sessions are designed to help students learn skills like identifying source types, searching databases, evaluating credibility, and understanding scholarly peer review. Students will practice source evaluation and learn search strategies beyond Google. The goal is to improve students' research abilities and prepare them for college-level work.
This document provides guidance on evaluating information sources. It introduces several models for evaluating sources, including the CRAAP test and the relevance/credibility model. The CRAAP test examines the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of a source. Additional factors discussed for evaluating sources include the author's qualifications, whether the information has been peer reviewed, potential biases, and accuracy. Students are encouraged to consider these criteria when evaluating both online and print sources for a research task or assignment. The document stresses the importance of carefully evaluating all sources, especially web-based materials, given the open nature of online information.
This document discusses how to evaluate information sources. It provides criteria for evaluating authority, accuracy, objectivity, and currency of information. For authority, it considers who created the content and their credentials. For accuracy, it discusses verifying facts and citing reliable sources. For objectivity, it examines biases in presentation and purpose. For currency, it looks at when the content was created and last updated. Questions are provided for each criteria to help guide evaluation. The document also contrasts searching the web versus library databases.
IL Module on Evaluating Information Venteicher KKay Venteicher
The document discusses evaluating information sources based on criteria of currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose. It provides examples of questions to consider for each criterion when assessing a source. Activities are included that apply each criterion to sample article abstracts and sources on the topic of distance education. The document emphasizes the importance of thoroughly evaluating information sources using these criteria to ensure sources are reliable and suitable for research needs.
This document provides guidance on evaluating information sources for use in answering questions on an online reference service. It outlines six criteria for evaluating sources: authority, currency, objectivity, coverage, accuracy/verifiability, and relevance. For each criterion, it provides examples and questions to consider to determine how well the source meets that standard of evaluation. The goal is to select sources that will provide high-quality, unbiased information to answer users' questions completely and appropriately.
The document discusses the Web Impact Factor (WIF), which aims to quantify the impact and ranking of websites, domains, and subdomains based on link analysis, analogous to the Journal Impact Factor for academic journals. It reviews how the WIF was developed and studies its advantages and disadvantages. While the WIF may be useful for intra-country comparisons, the document concludes its application beyond this has little value due to differences between web and journal content and quality controls.
This chapter discusses link analysis techniques for ranking web pages. It begins with an introduction to early search engines that relied on content similarity and the need to incorporate link information. It then covers concepts from social network analysis, including centrality, prestige, co-citation and bibliographic coupling. The chapter describes PageRank and HITS, two influential algorithms developed in 1998 that analyze the link structure of the web. PageRank powers the Google search engine by interpreting links as votes and weighting pages by their prestige.
This document discusses source evaluation and authority. It argues that authority is constructed within communities and depends on context. Standard criteria and checklists are insufficient for evaluation and need to be contextualized. True evaluation requires expertise and can be difficult due to confirmation bias and backfire effects. The document provides examples of lesson plans to teach source evaluation, including considering different perspectives, finding original sources, and comparing across sources rather than relying on judgments of a single source. Evaluation focuses on understanding authority within knowledge communities rather than viewing information as an objective commodity.
This document outlines information literacy sessions for English courses at NMC. It discusses evaluating sources, conducting research, and challenges NMC students face. The sessions are designed to help students learn skills like identifying source types, searching databases, evaluating credibility, and understanding scholarly peer review. Students will practice source evaluation and learn search strategies beyond Google. The goal is to improve students' research abilities and prepare them for college-level work.
This document provides guidance on evaluating information sources. It introduces several models for evaluating sources, including the CRAAP test and the relevance/credibility model. The CRAAP test examines the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of a source. Additional factors discussed for evaluating sources include the author's qualifications, whether the information has been peer reviewed, potential biases, and accuracy. Students are encouraged to consider these criteria when evaluating both online and print sources for a research task or assignment. The document stresses the importance of carefully evaluating all sources, especially web-based materials, given the open nature of online information.
This document discusses how to evaluate information sources. It provides criteria for evaluating authority, accuracy, objectivity, and currency of information. For authority, it considers who created the content and their credentials. For accuracy, it discusses verifying facts and citing reliable sources. For objectivity, it examines biases in presentation and purpose. For currency, it looks at when the content was created and last updated. Questions are provided for each criteria to help guide evaluation. The document also contrasts searching the web versus library databases.
The strengthening the child welfare response to trafficking actKeri Strahler
This document is a bill introduced in the US House of Representatives to amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to better enable state child welfare agencies to prevent human trafficking of children and serve the needs of children who are victims of human trafficking.
The bill proposes developing best practice guidelines for state agencies to identify and serve victims of human trafficking. It also calls for streamlining data collection requirements to help identify victims of trafficking within state child welfare systems. Additionally, the bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to Congress on the prevalence of human trafficking among children within state welfare systems and the practices used to identify and serve victims.
From lust, desire, frustration and anger, delusion arises. When delusion increases, one loses intelligence and memory. Without intelligence or memory, one falls back into material realms until regret takes over and self-control returns.
The document then discusses how Lord Krishna driving Arjuna's chariot in the Mahabharata war can symbolize a spiritual guide driving a person towards moksha through karma yoga. It proposes combining this concept with a verse from the Bhagavad Gita to create the idea of a "Robotic Gita".
A robot represents either Krishna guiding humans, or humans making decisions through programmed algorithms rather than spontaneously. While a robot only follows its programming,
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help boost feelings of calmness, happiness and focus.
The Supreme Court of Kansas heard a case regarding the constitutionality of a Kansas statute that caps noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $250,000. The Court upheld the statute as constitutional, finding that: (1) the statute and broader medical malpractice legislation further a valid public interest in promoting public welfare and healthcare availability; and (2) the legislature substituted an adequate statutory remedy for any modification of common law rights. The Court also rejected claims that the statute violated separation of powers, equal protection, or other constitutional provisions. While the cap limits damages awards, the Court found it did not prevent reasonable compensation or obstruct the right to a jury trial.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The Secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) wrote the letter to update the recipient on DCF's review of its association with Faith Builders, a Wichita-based organization. Concerns were raised in late August about Faith Builders. DCF's legal team began a preliminary review and found possible legal issues that require confidentiality. The Secretary has requested an additional thorough review of all DCF cases involving Faith Builders. In the meantime, placements with Faith Builders-associated homes have been halted until the review is complete. The Secretary's top priority is determining if any DCF policies or procedures were violated and appropriate actions will be taken if needed.
This study examines how blog-mediated public relations (BMPR) can influence relational trust. It hypothesizes that blog posts with high narrative structure, dialogical self, and blogger credibility will result in more relational trust than low levels of these variables. An experiment was conducted manipulating these variables in blog posts written by a marketing vice president. 314 students evaluated levels of relational trust, blogger credibility, narrative structure, and dialogical self. Results supported the hypotheses that high levels of these variables led to greater perceived relational trust than low levels.
The document provides an account of the author's journey to an indigenous community in the Amazon jungle to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony. It describes meeting the other participants in the group and arriving at the Mamallacta family's land after a long bus and foot journey. There they are greeted by Elias, the shaman's son, who welcomes them and shares about his family's eight generations of living on the land. The group has a simple meal and retires to basic sleeping huts for the night, preparing for the ayahuasca ceremony the next day.
Journalists at The Topeka Capital-Journal wrote in support of a bill to increase government transparency. They described challenges obtaining easily available public information and increasing fees charged by agencies. Examples included a department denying a records request until an adjudication ended, then charging inspection fees; a city heavily redacting emails and charging uncited review fees; and tax entities charging up to $280 for payroll records, with the journalists paying almost $1,300 total. The journalists encouraged efforts to build public trust through making information widely and easily available.
This letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists expresses concern to President Obama about actions by his administration that impede the free flow of information and discussion. It cites the use of secret subpoenas against news organizations, prosecutions that equate leaking classified documents to journalists with espionage, and increased limits on access to public interest information. The letter recommends that the administration take steps to protect journalists, increase transparency, and prevent intimidation of officials who speak to the press. It requests a meeting to discuss these issues and recommendations.
ATM Policy Paper on Mining in the PhilippinesFarah Sevilla
The document discusses the performance of the Philippine mining industry and issues with the government's policy of promoting large-scale mining. It finds that mining has contributed little to the economy and employment compared to other industries like agriculture and tourism. There are also many social and environmental problems associated with large-scale mining projects, including threats to indigenous peoples and biodiversity. The document recommends that the government drop policies to revitalize the mining industry and instead implement a more rational mineral policy that protects local communities and the environment.
The eLearning 2.0 Survival Guide - Assessing the Credibility of Web SourcesKristina Schneider
I delivered a presentation on The eLearning 2.0 Survival Guide – Assessing the Credibility of Web Sources at the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning 2008 conference which was held in San Jose, September 2008.
Presentation Summary
It is no surprise that integrating Web 2.0 tools to learning is an innovative practice that is catching on quickly. Pushing the Web’s potential for democratizing information, Web 2.0 social computing practices are well aligned with constructivist learning strategies. Enabling learners to develop multiple perspectives can foster analytical and critical thinking.
What is worrisome is the transition from a spoon-fed model of education to a self-discovery and self-directed model without reconfiguring the approach to learning. Are individuals applying fact-checking rigour to the content they access? What criteria are they using? What do they consider to be expert knowledge? Are they simply looking for other sources to confirm what they’ve found or are they actually analysing the source of the information? Are they aware that information, correct and otherwise, spreads like memes on Web?
My presentation was largely be based on research I have done for my M.A. in Educational Technology thesis which is a qualitative study of people who write blogs on training to be used in the professional development of people who work in the field. The question lies in the authority and credibility of these blogs, and by extension Web content in general.
This my presentation on Bhagwat Gita for my Human Bheviour course. And since I am studying Electrical engineering, I decided to present Gita with Digital electronics concepts.
This study examined how eighth graders evaluate the trustworthiness of sources presenting opposing views on a controversial issue. The students rated the trustworthiness of five news articles on whether school staff should carry guns. Students differentiated trustworthiness between sources, though reading ability correlated with greater differentiation. Prior opinions influenced ratings, somewhat mediated by reading level. Students focused on content over authorship, though high readers considered authorship more. The data suggest average and low readers had difficulty staying focused on evaluation. Teaching source authorship and providing scaffolds may help students critically evaluate controversial issues.
The document discusses a study that observed 15 women searching online for information about menopause and hormone replacement therapy over 4 weeks. It aimed to test a model of how trust in online health information develops in stages. The study found that poor visual design was the primary factor leading women to quickly reject websites, while credible information content and personalization were factors that led women to select and potentially trust websites. The results provided support for the staged model where design influences initial mistrust and credibility and personalization influence later trust decisions.
The document summarizes a study on blog readers' innovativeness and its relationship to their cognition of blog attributes and relationship quality. It outlines the research background, problem statement, purposes, questions, and proposed methodology. The study aims to investigate how cognition of blog attributes relates to relationship quality and how this relationship differs among clusters of readers with varying levels of innovativeness. The methodology section describes the research framework, hypotheses, participants, instruments, and data analysis plan.
Provide individualized suggestions
of data or products related to users’ needs
by Recommender systems (RSs). Even
if RSs have created substantial progresses
in theory and formula development and
have achieved many business successes, a
way to operate the wide accessible info in
online social Networks (OSNs) has been
mainly overlooked. Noticing such a gap in
the existing research in RSs and taking
into account a user’s choice being greatly
influenced by his/her trustworthy friends
and their opinions; this paper proposes a,
Fact Finder technique that improves the
prevailing recommendation approaches by
exploring a new source of data from
friends’ short posts in microbloggings as
micro-reviews.Degree of friends’
sentiment and level being sure to a user’s
choice are known by victimisation
machine learning strategies as well as
Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression and
Decision Trees. As the verification of the
proposed Fact finder, experiments
victimisation real social data from Twitter
microblogger area unit given and results
show the effectiveness and promising of
the planned approach.
The document summarizes a research study that investigated how blog readers' level of innovativeness impacts their perceptions of blog attributes and relationship quality. The study examined how perceptions of blog information, system quality, and functions relate to relationship satisfaction, trust and commitment. It also analyzed differences in these perceptions and relationships among clusters of readers with varying levels of innate, cognitive, and sensory innovativeness.
Determining Relevance Rankings with Search Click LogsInderjeet Singh
This document provides an abstract and introduction for a thesis proposal to develop a user behavior model from search click logs that considers trust bias and clicks on other parts of search pages. The model will estimate document relevance to overcome limitations of existing models. The proposal outlines related work on using click logs to estimate document relevance, modeling trust bias, and automatically generating training data labels. It proposes evaluating the new model by comparing relevance estimates to editorial judgments and earlier models, and testing an improved ranking function.
The strengthening the child welfare response to trafficking actKeri Strahler
This document is a bill introduced in the US House of Representatives to amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to better enable state child welfare agencies to prevent human trafficking of children and serve the needs of children who are victims of human trafficking.
The bill proposes developing best practice guidelines for state agencies to identify and serve victims of human trafficking. It also calls for streamlining data collection requirements to help identify victims of trafficking within state child welfare systems. Additionally, the bill requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to Congress on the prevalence of human trafficking among children within state welfare systems and the practices used to identify and serve victims.
From lust, desire, frustration and anger, delusion arises. When delusion increases, one loses intelligence and memory. Without intelligence or memory, one falls back into material realms until regret takes over and self-control returns.
The document then discusses how Lord Krishna driving Arjuna's chariot in the Mahabharata war can symbolize a spiritual guide driving a person towards moksha through karma yoga. It proposes combining this concept with a verse from the Bhagavad Gita to create the idea of a "Robotic Gita".
A robot represents either Krishna guiding humans, or humans making decisions through programmed algorithms rather than spontaneously. While a robot only follows its programming,
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help boost feelings of calmness, happiness and focus.
The Supreme Court of Kansas heard a case regarding the constitutionality of a Kansas statute that caps noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $250,000. The Court upheld the statute as constitutional, finding that: (1) the statute and broader medical malpractice legislation further a valid public interest in promoting public welfare and healthcare availability; and (2) the legislature substituted an adequate statutory remedy for any modification of common law rights. The Court also rejected claims that the statute violated separation of powers, equal protection, or other constitutional provisions. While the cap limits damages awards, the Court found it did not prevent reasonable compensation or obstruct the right to a jury trial.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
The Secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) wrote the letter to update the recipient on DCF's review of its association with Faith Builders, a Wichita-based organization. Concerns were raised in late August about Faith Builders. DCF's legal team began a preliminary review and found possible legal issues that require confidentiality. The Secretary has requested an additional thorough review of all DCF cases involving Faith Builders. In the meantime, placements with Faith Builders-associated homes have been halted until the review is complete. The Secretary's top priority is determining if any DCF policies or procedures were violated and appropriate actions will be taken if needed.
This study examines how blog-mediated public relations (BMPR) can influence relational trust. It hypothesizes that blog posts with high narrative structure, dialogical self, and blogger credibility will result in more relational trust than low levels of these variables. An experiment was conducted manipulating these variables in blog posts written by a marketing vice president. 314 students evaluated levels of relational trust, blogger credibility, narrative structure, and dialogical self. Results supported the hypotheses that high levels of these variables led to greater perceived relational trust than low levels.
The document provides an account of the author's journey to an indigenous community in the Amazon jungle to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony. It describes meeting the other participants in the group and arriving at the Mamallacta family's land after a long bus and foot journey. There they are greeted by Elias, the shaman's son, who welcomes them and shares about his family's eight generations of living on the land. The group has a simple meal and retires to basic sleeping huts for the night, preparing for the ayahuasca ceremony the next day.
Journalists at The Topeka Capital-Journal wrote in support of a bill to increase government transparency. They described challenges obtaining easily available public information and increasing fees charged by agencies. Examples included a department denying a records request until an adjudication ended, then charging inspection fees; a city heavily redacting emails and charging uncited review fees; and tax entities charging up to $280 for payroll records, with the journalists paying almost $1,300 total. The journalists encouraged efforts to build public trust through making information widely and easily available.
This letter from the Committee to Protect Journalists expresses concern to President Obama about actions by his administration that impede the free flow of information and discussion. It cites the use of secret subpoenas against news organizations, prosecutions that equate leaking classified documents to journalists with espionage, and increased limits on access to public interest information. The letter recommends that the administration take steps to protect journalists, increase transparency, and prevent intimidation of officials who speak to the press. It requests a meeting to discuss these issues and recommendations.
ATM Policy Paper on Mining in the PhilippinesFarah Sevilla
The document discusses the performance of the Philippine mining industry and issues with the government's policy of promoting large-scale mining. It finds that mining has contributed little to the economy and employment compared to other industries like agriculture and tourism. There are also many social and environmental problems associated with large-scale mining projects, including threats to indigenous peoples and biodiversity. The document recommends that the government drop policies to revitalize the mining industry and instead implement a more rational mineral policy that protects local communities and the environment.
The eLearning 2.0 Survival Guide - Assessing the Credibility of Web SourcesKristina Schneider
I delivered a presentation on The eLearning 2.0 Survival Guide – Assessing the Credibility of Web Sources at the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning 2008 conference which was held in San Jose, September 2008.
Presentation Summary
It is no surprise that integrating Web 2.0 tools to learning is an innovative practice that is catching on quickly. Pushing the Web’s potential for democratizing information, Web 2.0 social computing practices are well aligned with constructivist learning strategies. Enabling learners to develop multiple perspectives can foster analytical and critical thinking.
What is worrisome is the transition from a spoon-fed model of education to a self-discovery and self-directed model without reconfiguring the approach to learning. Are individuals applying fact-checking rigour to the content they access? What criteria are they using? What do they consider to be expert knowledge? Are they simply looking for other sources to confirm what they’ve found or are they actually analysing the source of the information? Are they aware that information, correct and otherwise, spreads like memes on Web?
My presentation was largely be based on research I have done for my M.A. in Educational Technology thesis which is a qualitative study of people who write blogs on training to be used in the professional development of people who work in the field. The question lies in the authority and credibility of these blogs, and by extension Web content in general.
This my presentation on Bhagwat Gita for my Human Bheviour course. And since I am studying Electrical engineering, I decided to present Gita with Digital electronics concepts.
This study examined how eighth graders evaluate the trustworthiness of sources presenting opposing views on a controversial issue. The students rated the trustworthiness of five news articles on whether school staff should carry guns. Students differentiated trustworthiness between sources, though reading ability correlated with greater differentiation. Prior opinions influenced ratings, somewhat mediated by reading level. Students focused on content over authorship, though high readers considered authorship more. The data suggest average and low readers had difficulty staying focused on evaluation. Teaching source authorship and providing scaffolds may help students critically evaluate controversial issues.
The document discusses a study that observed 15 women searching online for information about menopause and hormone replacement therapy over 4 weeks. It aimed to test a model of how trust in online health information develops in stages. The study found that poor visual design was the primary factor leading women to quickly reject websites, while credible information content and personalization were factors that led women to select and potentially trust websites. The results provided support for the staged model where design influences initial mistrust and credibility and personalization influence later trust decisions.
The document summarizes a study on blog readers' innovativeness and its relationship to their cognition of blog attributes and relationship quality. It outlines the research background, problem statement, purposes, questions, and proposed methodology. The study aims to investigate how cognition of blog attributes relates to relationship quality and how this relationship differs among clusters of readers with varying levels of innovativeness. The methodology section describes the research framework, hypotheses, participants, instruments, and data analysis plan.
Provide individualized suggestions
of data or products related to users’ needs
by Recommender systems (RSs). Even
if RSs have created substantial progresses
in theory and formula development and
have achieved many business successes, a
way to operate the wide accessible info in
online social Networks (OSNs) has been
mainly overlooked. Noticing such a gap in
the existing research in RSs and taking
into account a user’s choice being greatly
influenced by his/her trustworthy friends
and their opinions; this paper proposes a,
Fact Finder technique that improves the
prevailing recommendation approaches by
exploring a new source of data from
friends’ short posts in microbloggings as
micro-reviews.Degree of friends’
sentiment and level being sure to a user’s
choice are known by victimisation
machine learning strategies as well as
Naive Bayes, Logistic Regression and
Decision Trees. As the verification of the
proposed Fact finder, experiments
victimisation real social data from Twitter
microblogger area unit given and results
show the effectiveness and promising of
the planned approach.
The document summarizes a research study that investigated how blog readers' level of innovativeness impacts their perceptions of blog attributes and relationship quality. The study examined how perceptions of blog information, system quality, and functions relate to relationship satisfaction, trust and commitment. It also analyzed differences in these perceptions and relationships among clusters of readers with varying levels of innate, cognitive, and sensory innovativeness.
Determining Relevance Rankings with Search Click LogsInderjeet Singh
This document provides an abstract and introduction for a thesis proposal to develop a user behavior model from search click logs that considers trust bias and clicks on other parts of search pages. The model will estimate document relevance to overcome limitations of existing models. The proposal outlines related work on using click logs to estimate document relevance, modeling trust bias, and automatically generating training data labels. It proposes evaluating the new model by comparing relevance estimates to editorial judgments and earlier models, and testing an improved ranking function.
The document summarizes research on students' ability to critically evaluate information found online. It discusses how students struggle with skills like determining a website's credibility and relevance. The study aimed to compare the strategies used by students who were successful versus less successful on a task evaluating the reliability of websites. By analyzing think-aloud protocols, researchers hoped to better understand the relationship between offline and online evaluation skills and identify common markers used to judge a site's reliability.
This document summarizes research into how people assess the credibility of online restaurant reviews. The researchers conducted a survey of 1,979 people to understand what attributes influence credibility judgments of reviews. Key findings include:
1) Reviewer identity like using a real name versus pseudonym can impact perceived credibility.
2) Reviewer status signals such as number of reviews written or followers can also influence credibility assessments.
3) The sentiment or valence of a review - whether it is positive, negative, or balanced - affects judgments of credibility. Reviews with balanced sentiment may be viewed as most credible.
This document discusses evaluating the transfer of learning from educational programs to the workplace. It presents a framework involving people, timing, and strategies to facilitate learning transfer. The framework suggests engaging learners, facilitators, and other stakeholders before and after educational programs. Learners are asked to participate in retention programs designed for their specific needs and learning transfer goals. Funding is also considered to ensure the selected programs can be implemented.
An Attempt to Automate the Process of Source EvaluationIDES Editor
Credibility of a web-based document is an
important concern, when a large number of documents is
available on internet for a given subject. In this paper, various
criteria that affect the credibility of a document are explored.
An attempt is made to automate the process of assigning a
credibility score to a web-based document. Presently the
prototype of the tool developed is restricted to only four criteria
– type of website, date of update, sentiment analysis and a
pre-defined Google page rank. Also a separate module for
checking “link integrity” of a website is developed. To obtain
empirical validity of the tool, a pilot study is conducted which
collects credibility scoring for a set of websites by human
judges. The correlation between the scores given by human
judges and the scores obtained by the tool developed is low.
The possible reasons for the low correlation are firstly, the
tool is restricted to only four criteria, and secondly, subjects
themselves had no agreement. Apparently they judged the
website on different criteria, and not weighted overall. Further
enhancements to the work done in this paper can be of great
use to a novice user, who wishes to search a reliable webbased
document on any specific topic. This can be done by
including all criteria (discussed in this paper) for calculating
the credibility score of a website.
Ccr a content collaborative reciprocal recommender for online datingSean Chiu
This document presents a new hybrid content-collaborative recommender system called CCR for online dating. CCR uses both user profile data and interaction data between users to generate reciprocal recommendations. The system first analyzes a large online dating dataset and finds that similar users, as defined by their profiles, tend to like and dislike similar users and be liked and disliked by similar users. Based on this finding, CCR uses a content-based approach to identify similar users and then a collaborative filtering approach to leverage the interactions of similar users to produce recommendations. Evaluation shows CCR's recommendations have a success rate of 69.26% compared to the baseline of 35.19% for top 10 recommendations.
This document discusses using text mining of online social networks to classify user personality traits. It examines using status updates from Facebook profiles as text data to extract features and classify personalities according to the Big Five model using an RBF neural network. The results showed RBF neural networks achieved higher precision than other common classifiers like SVM and Naive Bayes.
This document examines how blogs influence consumers' purchase intentions. It proposes a conceptual model relating perceived blog credibility, interactivity, usefulness, and ease of use to consumers' attitudes toward blogs, and how attitude then impacts purchase intention. The model was tested via a survey of 245 internet users. Results found perceived credibility, usefulness and ease of use positively influenced attitude toward blogs, and attitude positively impacted purchase intention. The findings provide marketers insights into how blogs can be used as an advertising and communication tool to influence consumers.
Pre Assessment Quantitative And Qualitative Data EssayTiffany Sandoval
Here are the key factors to consider when deciding between quantitative and qualitative data:
- Sample size - Qualitative data uses smaller samples to gain an in-depth understanding of each case, while quantitative data relies on larger samples for generalizability.
- Data type - Quantitative data is numerical and can be easily grouped, compared, and analyzed statistically. Qualitative data includes text, images, and narratives that require different analysis methods.
- Research questions - Qualitative research is best for exploring a problem or generating hypotheses, while quantitative research tests hypotheses and measures outcomes.
- Resources - Qualitative data collection and analysis takes more time and resources per subject compared to quantitative methods with standardized instruments.
- Validity - It can
One fundamental problem in sentiment analysis is categorization of sentiment polarity. Given a piece of written text, the problem is to categorize the text into one specific sentiment polarity, positive or negative (or neutral). Based on the scope of the text, there are three distinctions of sentiment polarity categorization, namely the document level, the sentence level, and the entity and aspect level. Consider a review “I like multimedia features but the battery life sucks.†This sentence has a mixed emotion. The emotion regarding multimedia is positive whereas that regarding battery life is negative. Hence, it is required to extract only those opinions relevant to a particular feature (like battery life or multimedia) and classify them, instead of taking the complete sentence and the overall sentiment. In this paper, we present a novel approach to identify pattern specific expressions of opinion in text.
This document discusses different sources of information and how to evaluate their reliability and accuracy. It identifies libraries, the internet, and mass media as key sources. Libraries are often considered highly reliable due to processes like peer review and ISBN registration. Information online can vary greatly in quality and requires validation of sources. Mass media provides speed but information may be biased. Some tips for evaluating sources include checking the author, date, citations, domain or owner, and writing style to assess reliability, and looking for facts, consistency with other sources, and objectivity to determine accuracy. Developing these evaluation skills benefits information literacy.
Niso Article Level Metrics Presentation For Online 2Liz Allen
The document discusses article-level metrics that provide usage and impact data for individual research articles. It describes PLoS's efforts to aggregate metrics like citations, social media mentions, bookmarks and downloads for each of its articles. This will allow readers to better evaluate an article's influence and filter research. The presentation outlines PLoS's rollout of metrics and their plans to expand the data, ensure standards and share this information to advance scholarly evaluation.
This document discusses how to critically evaluate information sources. It begins by explaining the importance of evaluation in becoming an effective researcher and producing high-quality work. Several criteria for evaluation are then outlined, including authority, accuracy, currency, relevance, objectivity, coverage, and methodology. Specific tips are provided for evaluating websites and images. The document cautions that misinformation and disinformation exist and should be avoided. Overall, the document aims to teach readers how to thoughtfully assess information sources using measurable standards.
This document discusses the importance of evaluating online resources and provides guidance on how to do so effectively. It begins by explaining that anyone can publish online, so it is important to determine a resource's authenticity and credibility. It then provides tips for evaluating an online resource, such as checking the author, publication, date, accuracy, purpose, and references. The document also discusses skills needed for effective evaluation, like speed reading and understanding citation styles. Finally, it covers issues like plagiarism, copyright, and ensuring accessibility of content.
Essay 2 Explicating Literary Text.htmlEssay 2, Explicating a Lit.docxrusselldayna
Essay 2 Explicating Literary Text.htmlEssay 2, Explicating a Literary Text
For this essay, you will write one 3-4 page paper on "Cathedral," "The Man to Send Rain Clouds," or "The Things They Carried."
Instructions:
Before you begin this essay, please read pages 26-52 in your textbook. You will apply the concepts from the reading in your own essay.
The purpose of this essay is to explicate or analyze a reading that you choose from the assigned readings: "Cathedral," "The Man to Send Rain Clouds," or "The Things They Carried." You will learn about explication and analyzing in the assigned readings. In your textbook, each chapter on fiction contains sample essays you should review and model. Any questions that you have should be posted in the "Got Questions? We've Got Answers!" discussion board as soon as they come up.
Although you may use some material for your weekly assignments to help you explicate and analyze the literature, this essay should not include outside source material. The content should be derived from your own analysis, based on class discussions and your own observations.Format:
Your paper should includeAn introduction that ends with a thesis statement that makes an argument about the chosen work
You should build to your thesis, so your thesis/argument/point is the last thing the reader sees in your introductionWays to build to your thesis include:Using a quote that relates to the topic/argument of your paper (Example: "One should not judge a book by its cover")Using a quote from the text that you don't intend to use later in your paperTelling a story that relates to the topic/argument of your paperOffering a brief summary of the story before moving to the argumentTo help you think about the argument, ask yourself these questions:What message is the author trying to convey?What is the lesson the author wants his/her reader to learn?Thesis Example: In "Facing It," Yusef Komunyakaa shows that the experiences in war change a person and stay with them long after the war is over; however, by confronting the past, one can begin to heal.Body paragraphs (more than three - we are beyond writing five paragraph essays ☺)
Each body paragraph should begin with an argument that helps you prove your thesis. To be an argument, the topic sentence has to give you something to prove; it cannot be a plot fact.Topic Sentence that does not make an argument: The speaker in "Facing It" is at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.This is not an argument because the footnote in the book tells us this, but also it is a fact evident from a cursory reading of the poem.Topic Sentence that does make an argument: In "Facing It," Komunyakaa uses the reflective nature of the wall to reveal the speaker's emotional battle.This is an argument because it requires you to interpret speaker. You have to prove/show how you see that the mirror-like qualities of the wall uncover the speaker's emotional struggle.Evidence from the text to support your pointAs a general r.
This document is a 2012 report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation analyzing domestic violence, stalking, and rape incidents reported to law enforcement agencies in Kansas. It finds that the average domestic violence victim is a white female aged 20-24, while the average offender is a white male aged 20-29 who is often the victim's spouse or partner. The report contains data on domestic violence and sexual assault trends, characteristics of victims and offenders, protective order filings, and statistics reported by law enforcement agencies to help address and prevent these crimes in Kansas. It was funded by a federal grant through the Governor's Office to study and combat violence against women.
This document summarizes findings from a study of employment programs for persons with developmental disabilities. It identifies several promising approaches used by State Councils, including public awareness programs, supported employment, and high school to work transition programs. However, it also finds limited outcome data available to properly evaluate these programs. The document recommends that the Administration for Children and Families should work with State Councils to share promising practices between states and establish core data requirements to better evaluate job initiatives for persons with developmental disabilities.
The Disability Rights Center of Kansas (DRC) is celebrating its 35th anniversary of advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in Kansas. Over the past 10 years, the number of people served by DRC has increased dramatically, while funding has increased only modestly, leaving many unable to access needed legal services. The document highlights several examples of how DRC has helped individuals obtain benefits, education access, and economic opportunities they were denied or facing barriers to due to disabilities. DRC also successfully challenged state policies that violated federal law regarding access to power wheelchairs and other mobility devices.
Copying fees for public records vary widely between counties in Kansas, from free to $10 per record. The Kansas Open Records Act provides guidance for state offices to charge 25 cents per page but allows local authorities to set their own fees. However, setting excessively high fees could discourage public access to information and run counter to the intent of the law. As digital cameras and cell phones are now used to copy records, the law also needs clarification on how fees apply to digital copying methods. Legislators should amend the law to set reasonable copying fees and address this issue with new technologies.
This bill amends existing Kansas statutes regarding open government and public records. It makes the following changes:
1) Limits fees charged for copies of public records to no more than $0.25 per page and prohibits including staff time in fees.
2) Requires money received from fees for copies to be deposited in the state or local government's general fund.
3) Repeals the existing statutes being amended and replaces them with the new language.
Property and Belongingness: Rethinking Gender-Biased DisinheritanceKeri Strahler
This document discusses gender-biased disinheritance of daughters from family estates. It notes that several religions and customary laws stipulate unequal inheritance distributions that favor male heirs over female heirs. While laws and customs vary between societies, daughters are often disinherited or receive lesser shares of family property than sons due to cultural traditions and religious rules. The document argues that gender-biased disinheritance can infringe on daughters' dignity and sense of belonging to the family, violating principles of public policy and equality. It aims to explore the intersection of property, family, and equality from this perspective.
This document provides an introduction and overview of a report on threats facing journalists in Pakistan. It summarizes that at least 42 journalists have been killed in Pakistan in the past decade, with 23 murdered, and not a single murder has been solved or resulted in a conviction. The climate of impunity has led to increasing violence against journalists. The report investigates the killings of two journalists - Wali Khan Babar in Karachi and Mukarram Khan Aatif in tribal areas - and finds threats come from militants, criminals, political and intelligence operatives, and a weak civilian government and justice system vulnerable to political pressure. The climate of threats, intimidation, and manipulation challenges Pakistan's free press.
H.R. 1229 To promote economic security .. Keri Strahler
This document is a bill introduced in the 113th US Congress to promote the economic security and safety of victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. It contains 33 findings on the impacts of such violence, including negative health, economic, and employment effects. It proposes to reauthorize grants for victim resource centers, provide emergency leave for victims to address the violence, ensure victims' employment sustainability, allow unemployment compensation for victims, and protect insurance coverage for victims of abuse.
5th LF Energy Power Grid Model Meet-up SlidesDanBrown980551
5th Power Grid Model Meet-up
It is with great pleasure that we extend to you an invitation to the 5th Power Grid Model Meet-up, scheduled for 6th June 2024. This event will adopt a hybrid format, allowing participants to join us either through an online Mircosoft Teams session or in person at TU/e located at Den Dolech 2, Eindhoven, Netherlands. The meet-up will be hosted by Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), a research university specializing in engineering science & technology.
Power Grid Model
The global energy transition is placing new and unprecedented demands on Distribution System Operators (DSOs). Alongside upgrades to grid capacity, processes such as digitization, capacity optimization, and congestion management are becoming vital for delivering reliable services.
Power Grid Model is an open source project from Linux Foundation Energy and provides a calculation engine that is increasingly essential for DSOs. It offers a standards-based foundation enabling real-time power systems analysis, simulations of electrical power grids, and sophisticated what-if analysis. In addition, it enables in-depth studies and analysis of the electrical power grid’s behavior and performance. This comprehensive model incorporates essential factors such as power generation capacity, electrical losses, voltage levels, power flows, and system stability.
Power Grid Model is currently being applied in a wide variety of use cases, including grid planning, expansion, reliability, and congestion studies. It can also help in analyzing the impact of renewable energy integration, assessing the effects of disturbances or faults, and developing strategies for grid control and optimization.
What to expect
For the upcoming meetup we are organizing, we have an exciting lineup of activities planned:
-Insightful presentations covering two practical applications of the Power Grid Model.
-An update on the latest advancements in Power Grid -Model technology during the first and second quarters of 2024.
-An interactive brainstorming session to discuss and propose new feature requests.
-An opportunity to connect with fellow Power Grid Model enthusiasts and users.
Introduction of Cybersecurity with OSS at Code Europe 2024Hiroshi SHIBATA
I develop the Ruby programming language, RubyGems, and Bundler, which are package managers for Ruby. Today, I will introduce how to enhance the security of your application using open-source software (OSS) examples from Ruby and RubyGems.
The first topic is CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures). I have published CVEs many times. But what exactly is a CVE? I'll provide a basic understanding of CVEs and explain how to detect and handle vulnerabilities in OSS.
Next, let's discuss package managers. Package managers play a critical role in the OSS ecosystem. I'll explain how to manage library dependencies in your application.
I'll share insights into how the Ruby and RubyGems core team works to keep our ecosystem safe. By the end of this talk, you'll have a better understanding of how to safeguard your code.
Webinar: Designing a schema for a Data WarehouseFederico Razzoli
Are you new to data warehouses (DWH)? Do you need to check whether your data warehouse follows the best practices for a good design? In both cases, this webinar is for you.
A data warehouse is a central relational database that contains all measurements about a business or an organisation. This data comes from a variety of heterogeneous data sources, which includes databases of any type that back the applications used by the company, data files exported by some applications, or APIs provided by internal or external services.
But designing a data warehouse correctly is a hard task, which requires gathering information about the business processes that need to be analysed in the first place. These processes must be translated into so-called star schemas, which means, denormalised databases where each table represents a dimension or facts.
We will discuss these topics:
- How to gather information about a business;
- Understanding dictionaries and how to identify business entities;
- Dimensions and facts;
- Setting a table granularity;
- Types of facts;
- Types of dimensions;
- Snowflakes and how to avoid them;
- Expanding existing dimensions and facts.
How to Interpret Trends in the Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart.pdfChart Kalyan
A Mix Chart displays historical data of numbers in a graphical or tabular form. The Kalyan Rajdhani Mix Chart specifically shows the results of a sequence of numbers over different periods.
TrustArc Webinar - 2024 Global Privacy SurveyTrustArc
How does your privacy program stack up against your peers? What challenges are privacy teams tackling and prioritizing in 2024?
In the fifth annual Global Privacy Benchmarks Survey, we asked over 1,800 global privacy professionals and business executives to share their perspectives on the current state of privacy inside and outside of their organizations. This year’s report focused on emerging areas of importance for privacy and compliance professionals, including considerations and implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, building brand trust, and different approaches for achieving higher privacy competence scores.
See how organizational priorities and strategic approaches to data security and privacy are evolving around the globe.
This webinar will review:
- The top 10 privacy insights from the fifth annual Global Privacy Benchmarks Survey
- The top challenges for privacy leaders, practitioners, and organizations in 2024
- Key themes to consider in developing and maintaining your privacy program
AI 101: An Introduction to the Basics and Impact of Artificial IntelligenceIndexBug
Imagine a world where machines not only perform tasks but also learn, adapt, and make decisions. This is the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a technology that's not just enhancing our lives but revolutionizing entire industries.
Cosa hanno in comune un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ?Speck&Tech
ABSTRACT: A prima vista, un mattoncino Lego e la backdoor XZ potrebbero avere in comune il fatto di essere entrambi blocchi di costruzione, o dipendenze di progetti creativi e software. La realtà è che un mattoncino Lego e il caso della backdoor XZ hanno molto di più di tutto ciò in comune.
Partecipate alla presentazione per immergervi in una storia di interoperabilità, standard e formati aperti, per poi discutere del ruolo importante che i contributori hanno in una comunità open source sostenibile.
BIO: Sostenitrice del software libero e dei formati standard e aperti. È stata un membro attivo dei progetti Fedora e openSUSE e ha co-fondato l'Associazione LibreItalia dove è stata coinvolta in diversi eventi, migrazioni e formazione relativi a LibreOffice. In precedenza ha lavorato a migrazioni e corsi di formazione su LibreOffice per diverse amministrazioni pubbliche e privati. Da gennaio 2020 lavora in SUSE come Software Release Engineer per Uyuni e SUSE Manager e quando non segue la sua passione per i computer e per Geeko coltiva la sua curiosità per l'astronomia (da cui deriva il suo nickname deneb_alpha).
Ocean lotus Threat actors project by John Sitima 2024 (1).pptxSitimaJohn
Ocean Lotus cyber threat actors represent a sophisticated, persistent, and politically motivated group that poses a significant risk to organizations and individuals in the Southeast Asian region. Their continuous evolution and adaptability underscore the need for robust cybersecurity measures and international cooperation to identify and mitigate the threats posed by such advanced persistent threat groups.
Taking AI to the Next Level in Manufacturing.pdfssuserfac0301
Read Taking AI to the Next Level in Manufacturing to gain insights on AI adoption in the manufacturing industry, such as:
1. How quickly AI is being implemented in manufacturing.
2. Which barriers stand in the way of AI adoption.
3. How data quality and governance form the backbone of AI.
4. Organizational processes and structures that may inhibit effective AI adoption.
6. Ideas and approaches to help build your organization's AI strategy.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 6DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 6. In this session, we will cover Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI webinar offers an in-depth exploration of leveraging cutting-edge technologies for test automation within the UiPath platform. Attendees will delve into the integration of generative AI, a test automation solution, with Open AI advanced natural language processing capabilities.
Throughout the session, participants will discover how this synergy empowers testers to automate repetitive tasks, enhance testing accuracy, and expedite the software testing life cycle. Topics covered include the seamless integration process, practical use cases, and the benefits of harnessing AI-driven automation for UiPath testing initiatives. By attending this webinar, testers, and automation professionals can gain valuable insights into harnessing the power of AI to optimize their test automation workflows within the UiPath ecosystem, ultimately driving efficiency and quality in software development processes.
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into integrating generative AI.
2. Understanding how this integration enhances test automation within the UiPath platform
3. Practical demonstrations
4. Exploration of real-world use cases illustrating the benefits of AI-driven test automation for UiPath
Topics covered:
What is generative AI
Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath integration with generative AI
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Driving Business Innovation: Latest Generative AI Advancements & Success StorySafe Software
Are you ready to revolutionize how you handle data? Join us for a webinar where we’ll bring you up to speed with the latest advancements in Generative AI technology and discover how leveraging FME with tools from giants like Google Gemini, Amazon, and Microsoft OpenAI can supercharge your workflow efficiency.
During the hour, we’ll take you through:
Guest Speaker Segment with Hannah Barrington: Dive into the world of dynamic real estate marketing with Hannah, the Marketing Manager at Workspace Group. Hear firsthand how their team generates engaging descriptions for thousands of office units by integrating diverse data sources—from PDF floorplans to web pages—using FME transformers, like OpenAIVisionConnector and AnthropicVisionConnector. This use case will show you how GenAI can streamline content creation for marketing across the board.
Ollama Use Case: Learn how Scenario Specialist Dmitri Bagh has utilized Ollama within FME to input data, create custom models, and enhance security protocols. This segment will include demos to illustrate the full capabilities of FME in AI-driven processes.
Custom AI Models: Discover how to leverage FME to build personalized AI models using your data. Whether it’s populating a model with local data for added security or integrating public AI tools, find out how FME facilitates a versatile and secure approach to AI.
We’ll wrap up with a live Q&A session where you can engage with our experts on your specific use cases, and learn more about optimizing your data workflows with AI.
This webinar is ideal for professionals seeking to harness the power of AI within their data management systems while ensuring high levels of customization and security. Whether you're a novice or an expert, gain actionable insights and strategies to elevate your data processes. Join us to see how FME and AI can revolutionize how you work with data!
How to Get CNIC Information System with Paksim Ga.pptxdanishmna97
Pakdata Cf is a groundbreaking system designed to streamline and facilitate access to CNIC information. This innovative platform leverages advanced technology to provide users with efficient and secure access to their CNIC details.
Digital Marketing Trends in 2024 | Guide for Staying AheadWask
https://www.wask.co/ebooks/digital-marketing-trends-in-2024
Feeling lost in the digital marketing whirlwind of 2024? Technology is changing, consumer habits are evolving, and staying ahead of the curve feels like a never-ending pursuit. This e-book is your compass. Dive into actionable insights to handle the complexities of modern marketing. From hyper-personalization to the power of user-generated content, learn how to build long-term relationships with your audience and unlock the secrets to success in the ever-shifting digital landscape.
Building Production Ready Search Pipelines with Spark and MilvusZilliz
Spark is the widely used ETL tool for processing, indexing and ingesting data to serving stack for search. Milvus is the production-ready open-source vector database. In this talk we will show how to use Spark to process unstructured data to extract vector representations, and push the vectors to Milvus vector database for search serving.
For the full video of this presentation, please visit: https://www.edge-ai-vision.com/2024/06/building-and-scaling-ai-applications-with-the-nx-ai-manager-a-presentation-from-network-optix/
Robin van Emden, Senior Director of Data Science at Network Optix, presents the “Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” tutorial at the May 2024 Embedded Vision Summit.
In this presentation, van Emden covers the basics of scaling edge AI solutions using the Nx tool kit. He emphasizes the process of developing AI models and deploying them globally. He also showcases the conversion of AI models and the creation of effective edge AI pipelines, with a focus on pre-processing, model conversion, selecting the appropriate inference engine for the target hardware and post-processing.
van Emden shows how Nx can simplify the developer’s life and facilitate a rapid transition from concept to production-ready applications.He provides valuable insights into developing scalable and efficient edge AI solutions, with a strong focus on practical implementation.
“Building and Scaling AI Applications with the Nx AI Manager,” a Presentation...
Ss06 03-038
1. Assessing Credibility of Weblogs
Victoria L. Rubin and Elizabeth D. Liddy*
School of Information Studies
*Center for Natural Language Processing
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY13244-1190, USA
{vlrubin, liddy}@syr.edu
Abstract
Credibility is a perceived quality and is evaluated with at
least two major components: trustworthiness and expertise.
Weblogs (or blogs) are a potentially fruitful genre for
exploration of credibility assessment due to public
disclosure of information that might reveal trustworthiness
and expertise by webloggers (or bloggers) and availability
of audience evaluations. The objectives of the planned
exploratory study are to compile a list of factors that users
take into account in credibility assessment of blog sites,
order them in terms of users’ perceived importance, and
determine which factors can be recognized and evaluated
with Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. With
partial automation in mind, we propose an analytical
framework for blog credibility assessment based on four
profile factors: 1) the blogger’s expertise and the amount of
offline identity disclosure, 2) the blogger’s trustworthiness
(or the overtly stated value system including beliefs, goals,
and values), 3) information quality, and 4) appeals of a
personal nature. We describe a multi-stage study that
combines a qualitative study of credibility judgments of
blog-readers with NLP-based analysis of blogs. The study
will elicit and test credibility assessment factors (Phase I),
perform NLP-based blog profiling (Phase II), and content-
analyze blog-readers’ comments for partial profile matching
(Phase III).
Introduction
In order to implement an automation of weblog credibility
assessment, we need to know how users assess credibility
of blogs. To learn this, we need to first clarify several key
concepts. For instance, what is credibility, and how is it
generally assessed? How does blog credibility assessment
compare to credibility assessment of other types of
websites? Can findings from credibility assessment studies
of other types of websites be used as a starting point for
blog credibility assessments? And which specific
credibility assessment factors can be accessible for
automation with NLP algorithms?
Credibility
Credible information is believable information (Stanford et
al., 2002). Credibility is viewed as a perceived quality that
is evaluated simultaneously with at least two major
components: trustworthiness and expertise. The
trustworthiness component refers to goodness or morality
of the source and can be described with terms such as well-
intentioned, truthful, or unbiased. The expertise component
refers to perceived knowledge of the source and can be
described with terms such as knowledgeable, reputable,
and competent (Tseng and Fogg, 1999).
People assess the reliability of information in terms of the
information source, mode of knowing, and match against
prior expectations (Chafe, 1986). The information source
in the blogging context is two-fold: the blogger’s self-
reported image (or profile) and the information posted in
the entries (e.g., news digests, opinions, or reactions to
other postings). While judgments of credibility are
inevitably complex, readers generally evaluate whether the
source is honest and competent and whether the provided
information is complete, accurate, unbiased and
appropriate (Van House, 2004).
Each of the credibility assessment components is a
challenge to computational approaches in NLP given the
subtleties of how it might be expressed. However, we
hypothesize that some information about the information
source can be directly accessible with NLP tools due to a
blog’s high level of self-disclosure and the availability of
blog-readers’ comments.
NLP-based Automation
Wassmer and Eastman (2005) used credentials,
advertising, and design analysis for their experimental
system that automatically assessed website credibility. The
system produced a credibility measure on a 0 to 10 scale,
and was tested on nine medical domain websites with the
results comparable to those produced by human searchers
and analysts. The study observed that while an absolute
2. factor of credibility – the accuracy of information –
requires exhaustive fact-checking and is currently
computationally unsuitable, a combination of several
indicative heuristics can produce a satisfactory system.
Wassmer and Eastman’s study also calls for NLP
sophistication in the process of credibility assessment
automation (2005).
Analysis and identification of natural language patterns for
subtle but discernable text properties (such as likes and
dislikes, attitude, affect, subjective opinions, attribution,
and the writer’s certainty) have been a part of a recent
trend of text analysis and text understanding in NLP,
Information Retrieval, and Machine Learning (Shanahan,
Qu, and Wiebe, 2005). NLP-based user profiling has also
been previously applied to making generalizations about
users’ interests (Bloedorn and Mani, 1998) and modeling
users’ malicious e-mailing behaviors (Stolfo et al., 2003).
For the purposes of credibility assessment, it seems
feasible to automatically extract and systematize natural
language statements pertaining to a blogger’s overtly
stated beliefs, goals, biases, opinions, preferences,
ownership and purchasing habits. For instance, consider
the following excerpts that testify to the availability of
such natural language statements for simple NLP
extraction rules:
(1) I don't care much for political correctness; I do care
for accuracy and honesty (what people actually do
rather than what they believe or say). (www.kk.org)
(2) I love music boxes. I can be a bit of a perfectionist.
One of my philosophies in life is “life-long learning”. I
don't like social masks. (www.amorelicious.com)
(3) I had never got the hang of academic writing. The
personal voice on blogs appealed to me so much more.
(www.rebeccablood.net from nycblogger webring)
NLP rules can capture regularities and variations of
expressions pertaining to the first person, the blogger, for
example, “do/don’t love/like/care (much) for”, “appealed
to me (so much more)”, and “(one of) my philosophy/(-ies)
in life is”. Therefore, it is possible to compile the actual
values for the blogger’s preferences, goals, etc. into an
information structure that captures weighted credibility
assessment factors, similar to user interest profiles
(Bloedorn and Mani, 1998). Also, a heuristic method for
matching bloggers’ and blog-readers’ profiles can be
developed in an attempt to predict how credible a
particular blog-reader may find a particular blog.
Blogs
This study explores the construct of credibility as a type of
trusting relationship that is created between an individual
blogger and a blog-reader. We identify bloggers and blog-
readers as two groups actively involved in the processes of
information exchange, credibility building, and assess-
ments. The information exchange is based on shared topics
of interest and match between information needs and
information availability. However, in such an information
exchange people tend to doubt information from others
who have conflicting goals and values (Van House, 2004).
Bloggers build their audience credibility by publicly
disclosing their personal and professional lives, and by
offering their perspective on life and current events. It is
also conventional to reveal aspects of one’s offline identity
as a sign of trust and in order to attract readers (Rak,
2005).
In studying credibility, an interesting and differentiating
feature of weblogs is that they are meant to be inherently
biased as an alternative media. Blog-readers admittedly
often distrust traditional media and see blogs as a viable
alternative, particularly since they believe bloggers do not
hide their biases (Johnson and Kaye, 2004).
Another blog feature - “blogrolling”, or hyperlinking to
bloggers’ favorite sites, can be used as a credibility
assessment component. In this vote-casting system,
hyperlinks act as votes, citations, or references to relevant
pages on the Web. It serves as a “web of trust” to mimic
the way people share by word-of-mouth. The principle is
commonly employed for relevance ranking, for instance, in
Google’s PageRank search algorithm (Bowman and Willis,
2003).
In this study we will explore how these distinctive features
of blogs can be used beneficially for NLP and Machine
Learning analysis to allow for automation of blog
credibility assessment. Thus, the objectives of this study
are: 1) to compile a list of factors that users take into
account in credibility assessment of weblog sites; 2) to
order these factors in terms of their perceived importance
to users, and; 3) to suggest which factors can be accessed
and computed with NLP-techniques.
Methods
We developed a four factor preliminary analytical
framework for blog-readers’ credibility assessment of blog
sites (Table 1). The hypothesized framework was based
on elements from evidentiality theory (Chafe, 1986); large-
scale health and financial website credibility assessment
surveys (Stanford et al., 2002); Van House’s apparently
unpublished observations on weblog credibility (2004);
and the authors’ previous experiences with blogging
3. (Rubin, Stanton, and Liddy, 2004) with one active
webring: www.nycbloggers.com (with self-reported 6157
blogs as of 31 January 2006); and three additional personal
topic-oriented blog sites: www.amorelicious.com,
www.kk.org, and www.absoblogginlutely.net.
1) Blogger’s Expertise and Offline Identity Disclosure
a) Name and geographic location
b) Credentials
c) Affiliations (personal and institutional)
d) Blogrolls (i.e., hyperlinks to other sites)
e) Stated competencies
f) Mode of knowing
2) Blogger’s Trustworthiness and Value System
a) Biases
b) Beliefs
c) Opinions
d) Honesty
e) Preferences
f) Habits
g) Slogans
3) Information Quality
a) Completeness
b) Accuracy
c) Appropriateness
d) Timeliness
e) Organization (by categories or chronology)
f) Match to prior expectations
g) Match to information need
4) Appeals and Triggers of a Personal Nature
a) Aesthetic appeal (i.e., design layout, typography,
and color schemes)
b) Literary appeal (i.e., writing style and wittiness)
c) Curiosity trigger
d) Memory trigger (i.e., shared experiences)
e) Personal connection (e.g., the source is an
acquaintance or a competitor of the blog-reader)
Table 1. Blog Credibility Assessment Factors
In Phase I, we will test the applicability of these factors in
the blog context and modify the analytical framework
accordingly. We will use two possible sources for
accessing blog-readers evaluations and value systems that
may contribute to credibility assessment: their comments
to blog postings or their prompted judgments about the
specifics of what makes a particular blog site credible.
The study will invite 5-10 subjects who are frequent blog-
readers to participate. We will ask study participants to
search for and submit 3 – 5 credible blog sites for a
specific information need of their choice, e.g. a viewpoint
on a current issue. We aim to collect approximately 30
blog sites as the sample data.
Once the blog sites have been selected, we will ask the
participants to review their nominated sites, and to reflect
and comment freely on how their credibility judgments
were made using the traditional think-aloud protocol (Van
Someren, Barnard, and Sandberg, 1994). This may
generate additional factors to be incorporated in the
analytical framework. In a follow-up session, we will ask
participants to rank-order all factors by level of importance
and relevance using the Q-Sort technique (McKeown and
Thomas, 1988).
In Phase II, we will perform NLP analysis of the self-
disclosed information in the sample data of the 15-30 blog
sites collected earlier in order to create blogger profiles
based on the most highly ranked blogger-related factors.
Each factor in the profile will then be assessed in terms of
NLP’s ability for recognition with rule-based algorithms,
as well as its potential as a candidate for Machine
Learning.
In Phase III, we will content-analyze comments made to
the blogging sites with the most complete profiles to
determine a match between the profiles of a particular
blogger and blog-readers who find the blog credible.
Conclusions
This work in progress proposes to combine a rule-based
NLP exploration of blog texts with a multi-stage
qualitative exploration of blog credibility assessment
factors. The contribution is in combining a linguistic /
NLP-based analysis of actual texts on blogging sites with a
qualitative analysis of blog-readers’ judgments of
credibility, and ultimately in the potential for producing an
empirically verifiable analytical framework. Once the
factors that contribute to blog credibility are completed and
tested, we can focus specific computational efforts on
scanning large amounts of information for blogger-
profiling and automating credibility assessment.
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