Knowledge@Wharton: Influencing the Influencers: Using Social Media to Find Top Customers. “Social media offers an almost endless stream of data for businesses to collect on their customers. But what good is data without a smart way to apply it? The latest research from Gad Allon, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, offers a lifeline for firms drowning in the deep waters of social networks. Allon and his team devised an analytics model that can help businesses identify high-value customers. The paper, ‘Managing Service Systems in the Presence of Social Networks,’ was co-authored with Washington University professor Dennis J. Zhang.”
Research & Opinion
New York Times: Facebook, Free Expression and the Power of a Leak
New York Times: Facebook, Free Expression and the Power of a Leak. “The First Amendment protects our right to use social networks like Facebook and Twitter, the Supreme Court declared last week. That decision, which overturned a North Carolina law barring sex offenders from social networks, called social media ‘the modern public square’ and ‘one of the most important places’ for the exchange of views. The holding is a reminder of the enormous role such networks play in our speech, our access to information and, consequently, our democracy. But while the government cannot block people from social media, these private platforms can.”
Wired: Social Networks May One Day Diagnose Disease—But At A Cost
Wired: Social Networks May One Day Diagnose Disease—But At A Cost. “It’s now entirely conceivable that Facebook or Google—two of the biggest data platforms and predictive engines of our behavior—could tell someone they might have cancer before they even suspect it. Someone complaining about night sweats and weight loss on social media might not know these can be signs of lymphoma, or that their morning joint stiffness and propensity to sunburn could herald lupus. But it’s entirely feasible that bots trolling social network posts could pick up on these clues.”
Tech Xplore: Twitter-monitoring system detects riots far quicker than police reports
Tech Xplore: Twitter-monitoring system detects riots far quicker than police reports. “Social media can be an invaluable source of information for police when managing major disruptive events, new research from Cardiff University has shown.
An analysis of data taken from the London riots in 2011 showed that computer systems could automatically scan through Twitter and detect serious incidents, such as shops being broken in to and cars being set alight, before they were reported to the Metropolitan Police Service.”
Digital Trends: Adobe And Stanford Just Taught AI To Edit Videos — With Impressive Results
Digital Trends: Adobe And Stanford Just Taught AI To Edit Videos — With Impressive Results. “Just one minute of video typically takes several hours of editing — but Stanford and Adobe researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) program that partially automates the editing process, while still giving the user creative control over the final result.”
UC Merced: Researchers Eye Social Media’s Influence on Relationships, Stress
University of California Merced: Researchers Eye Social Media’s Influence on Relationships, Stress. “Nearly 70 percent of Americans use some form of social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey. There is little doubt it affects our daily lives — but how? UC Merced Ph.D. graduate Holly Rus recently defended her dissertation on social media and well-being. She and her advisor, Professor Jitske Tiemensma, have published a review of 26 scholarly articles on social media and romantic relationships in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. The research they reviewed was insightful, but not yet conclusive.”
New Scientist: Google’s multitasking neural net can juggle eight things at once
New Scientist: Google’s multitasking neural net can juggle eight things at once. “Deep-learning systems tend to be one-trick wonders: they’re great at the task they’ve been trained to do, but pretty awful at everything else. Now a new neural network from Google suggests that AI can be taught to multitask after all.”
