Flow140: Tracing the Flow of Conversations

Ramine Tinati rt506@ecs.soton.ac.uk Web and Internet Science University of Southampton

Research Overview
Social' Networks' such' as' Twi2er' oer' a' pla5orm' for'
individuals' to' create' and' share' messages,' establish'
friendships' between' each' other,' and' even' become' part'
of'specic'communiAes.''
'
Twi2er'has'enabled'a'range'of'important'social'acAvity'to'
succeed,' including' idenAfying' public' health' issues' and'
more' recently,' as' a' pla5orm' for' social' and' poliAcal'
change.' However,' in' spite' of' this,' the' volumes' of'
messages' that' are' transmi2ed' per' day' make' idenAfying'
valuable' content' from' the' back' cha2er' and' ulAmately,'
inuenAal'individuals'from'spam,'dicult.''
'
Flow140' enables' exploraAon' into' the' dynamics' of'
conversaAons' between' users' within' a' Twi2er' network'
in' realLAme' or' using' historic' data.' Problems' with'
analyzing' and' visualizing' such' large' amounts' of'
informaAon' are' overcome' a' ltering' soluAon' based' on'
characterisAcs' that' individuals' exhibit' within' the'
network,'and'the'ow'of'a'conversaAon.'
The Classification of Twitter Users
Flow140'was'based'upon'the'desire'to'be'able'to'visualize'
a' growing' network' of' communicaAons' within' the' Twi2er'
service.''
'
IniAal'Project'Aims:'
Can'we'capture'how'valuable!informaAon'ows'in'a'
conversaAon?'
Can'we'iden*fy'specic'characterisAcs'of'individuals?'
Can'we'visualise.it?'
!
Tracing'the'ow'of'informaAon'based'on'specic'criteria:'
Where!does'the'valuable'informaAon'originate'from?'
The!Idea!Starter.
How'does'the'informaAon'ow!in'a'conversaAon?!
The!Amplier.
How'can'valuable'informaAon'cross!streams?'
The!Curator.
'
Demonstration: Filtered vs. Unfiltered Retweet Conversation Stream
Fig 1. Unfiltered Retweet Network
(a) Retweet Network as of Nov 3
rd
2011
(b) Retweet Network as of Nov 6
rd
2011
(c) Retweet Network as of Nov 9
rd
2011
(c) 21:00 Nov 8
rd
2011
(d) 09:00 Nov 9
rd
2011
(e) 21:00 Nov 9
rd
2011
(a) 21:00 Nov 3
rd
2011
Fig 2. Filtered Retweet Network
Figure' 1' represents' the' retweet' network' for' #nov9' as'
a'at'network,'in'its'original,'unltered'state.''Figures'
1' aLc' are' visualizaAons' of' the' network' of' individuals'
(the'nodes)'and'the'retweets'(the'edges)'showing'the'
dynamic' growth' of' the' network.' This' unltered' state'
provides' very' li2le' observaAonal' informaAon' or'
analyAcal'detail.''
'
Even' during' the' early' stage' of' the' conversaAons'
(Fig1.a)' the' idenAfying' the' ow' of' informaAon' is'
dicult' and' the' rapid' growth' of' the' communicaAons'
makes' it' dicult' to' idenAfy' specic' individuals' and'
their' roles.' For' example' the' network' clusters' that'
were' idenAable' before' the' protest' on' the' 3
rd
'
November'become'impossible'to'disAnguish'by'the'9
th
'
November.''
Figure' 2' shows' how' our' tools' ltering' algorithm'
reduces' the' compl exi ty' of' the' network' by'
concentraAng' on' the' communicaAons' between'
individuals' exhibiAng' certain' network' characterisAcs'
of' interest' (e.g.' retweeAng)' to' handle' these' data' at'
scale''
'
Figures' 2' aLd' represent' the' growth' of' the' ' same'
network' as' Figure' 1,' but' this' Ame' ' with' the' lter'
applied,' providing' a' clearer' view' of' the' structure' and'
growth' of' the' network.' First' observaAons' of' the'
network' idenAfy' a' number' of' users' whose' presence'
was' constant' throughout' the' growth' of' the'
conversaAons.' These' users,' represented' by' the' red'
nodes,' are' individual' that' iniAated' the' conversaAons'
that' led' to' the' ow' of' informaAon;' the' node' size' is'
determined' by' the' number' of' Ames' they' were'
iniAators.''
Genres range from simple receipts to law codes, from love poems to mathematics, hymns to jokes and everything in between. Cuneiform
has thousands of polyvalent signs correct readings are highly context-dependent, further complicated by the lack of punctuation and the
similar appearance of heterosemantic signs, such as for to go, for place and ( a grammatical element).
LINKING
THE INSCRIPTIONS
OF ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA
TERHI NURMI KKO
tmtn1 g1 0@soton. ac. uk / @tmtn
ARCHAEOLOGI CAL COMPUTI NG RESEARCH GROUP DI GI TAL HUMANI TI ES RESEARCH GROUP WEB SCI ENCE DOCTORAL TRAI NI NG CENTRE
ACADEMI C SUPERVI SORS: DR GRAEME EARL (ACRG), DR NI CK GI BBI NS (WAI S) AND DR JACOB DAHL (OXFORD)
I mage c our t e s y of Me l bour ne Mus e um e x hi bi t i on The Wonde r s of anc i e nt Me s opot ami a May 4
t h
Oc t obe r 7
t h
201 2
The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross-council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC.
CUNEIFORM AND THE HETEROGENEOUS TEXT
CORPORA OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The vast textual corpora of ancient Mesopotamia is written almost exclusively
in cuneiform, an ancient syllabic script that was widely used across the ancient
Near East. Evidence from as far back as fourth millennium BC makes cuneiform
one of the earliest forms of written expression in the world. It remained in use
for several millennia, and served as the lingua franca of the region. Whilst mutually complementary, there is little in terms of interlinking, and the only the most tentative of initial steps have been taken
thus far in terms of utilising Linked Open Data (LOD). In 2012, the Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (Oracc) joined Pelagios,
which makes geographical locations the first type of Assyriological data to be published as LOD. The ultimate aim of this on-going
project is to implement a system which links outwards to the Pleiades gazetteer and internally to all of the Oracc sub-projects. Whilst
hundreds of archaeological sites are known, some, such as the capital of the Akkadian empire, Akkad, has yet to be located on the
ground, although well-attested in great numbers of ancient written documents.
ONTOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION
OF A SUMERIAN NARRATIVE
Instances of reuse and repetition of narrative passages in various compositions (such as
proverbs quoted in epic literature) and repeated over time (the Sargon Birth Legend,
repeated as the Biblical story of Moses in Exodus) are a well-known feature of the
Mesopotamian literary tradition. Identifying such cross-references is extremely time-
consuming and currently requires extensive specialised knowledge of a number of
different dialects, languages and literary traditions. Recognisably similar compositions are
known from the Akkadian (Old Babylonian) and Assyrian traditions but with notable
changes in the perspective or moral of the story. The best known is the Poem of the
Righteous Sufferer, which bears noted similarity to the Biblical story of Job.
Assyriology will benefit from linking knowledge in existing
resources within the domain, as well branching out to
datasets beyond the niche to other disciplines. The LOD
community on the other hand will benefit from the
discoveries attained from the representation of
heterogeneous and incomplete narratives which do not
describe events from an omniscient perspective.
DIGITAL RESOURCES, ELECTRONIC DICTIONARIES
AND CITIZEN SCIENCE FOR TRANSCRIPTION
Although traditionally a somewhat niche
community of research, projects are
increasingly reaching out to the public.
UrCrowdsource was launched as part of the
Ur Digitization Project, and is a citizen
science project to transcribe the excavation
records from Sir Leonard Woolleys
excavations at Ur in Iraq (1922 1934). All
the materials from these excavations are
divided between the Iraq National Museum,
University of Pennsylvania and the British
Museum, but efforts are being made to
bring them together digitally.
Philological research in Assyriology has been characterized with limited access to resources and the lengthy processes
of data-collection. The last decade has seen the development of a number of online resources, ranging from object
records to dictionaries (electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary), several sign lists, Unicode representations and
publications of composite texts (Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature) .
Representation of the structure of the passage via a narrative
ontology such as OntoMedia may aid in the identification of
existing parallels within the entirety of the Mesopotamian
literary corpora, as well as other written traditions, such as
those of ancient Anatolia, Levant and Egypt. The CIDOC CRM
will enable mapping of Assyriological material to other cultural
heritage projects, meaning that archaeological, museological
and not just philological data in accessible, enriched and open.
The case study example is a Sumerian fictional or humorous
narrative called the Three Ox-Drivers of Adab. It is the story of
three friends who fall into dispute over the ownership of a calf.
Sadly, although several tablets which carry the inscription are
known, all are broken or incomplete and the punch-line of this
fable still eludes us.
The question arises: Could citizen science be used for cuneiform materials as well?
1-3
There were three friends, citizens of Adab, who fell into a dispute with
each other, and sought justice. They deliberated the matter with many
words, and went before the king.

4-13
"Our king! We are ox-drivers. The ox belongs to one man, the cow
belongs to one man, and the waggon belongs to one man. We became
thirsty and had no water. We said to the owner of the ox, "If you were to
fetch some water, then we could drink!". And he said, "What if my ox is
devoured by a lion? I will not leave my ox!". We said to the owner of the
cow, "If you were to fetch some water, then we could drink!". And he said,
"What if my cow went off into the desert? I will not leave my cow!". We
said to the owner of the waggon, "If you were to fetch some water, then
we could drink!". And he said, "What if the load were removed from my
waggon? I will not leave my waggon!". "Come on, let's all go! Come on,
and let's return together!"

14-15
"First the ox, although tied with a leash (?), mounted the cow, and
then she dropped her young, and the calf started to chew up (?) the
waggon's load. Who does this calf belong to? Who can take the calf?

16-17
The king did not give them an answer, but went to visit a cloistered
lady. The king sought advice from the cloistered lady:

18-28
"Three young men came before me and said: 'Our king, we are ox-
drivers. The ox belongs to one man, the cow belongs to one man, and the
waggon belongs to one man. We became thirsty and had no water. We
said to the owner of the ox, "If you were to draw some water, then we
could drink!". And he said, "What if my ox is devoured by a lion? I will not
leave my ox!". We said to the owner of the cow, "If you were to draw
some water, then we could drink!". And he said, "What if my cow went off
into the desert? I will not leave my cow!". We said to the owner of the
waggon, "If you were to draw some water, then we could drink!". And he
said, "What if the load were removed from my waggon? I will not leave
my waggon!" he said. "Come on, let's all go! Come on, and let's return
together!" '

29-30
" 'First the ox, although tied with a leash (?), mounted the cow, and
then she dropped her young, and the calf started to chew up (?) the
waggon's load. Who does this calf belong to? Who can take the calf?"
E
n
t
i
t
y

T
i
m
e
l
i
n
e

E
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
o
n

E
v
e
n
t

I
n
t
r
o
d
u
c
t
i
o
n

T
r
a
n
s
f
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n

B
e
i
n
g
-
T
r
a
i
t

M
a
l
e

F
e
m
a
l
e

A
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
-
i
t
e
m

I
t
e
m

Web for Sustainabili ty: Finding the Local in Global Warming wi th Open Data
@JackTownsend_ j.townsend@soton.ac.uk
Proliferating open data resources are providing new opportunities to
build interactive applications for public engagement with the facts
and the trade-offs of sustainability.
Globe-Town.org is a web app where users can discover how on-
going globalisation is distributing the risks, responsibilities &
opportunities of climate change between distant countries. #
Judges'included'Chris/ana'Figueres,'
Execu/ve'Secretary'of'the'United'
Na/ons'Framework'Conven/on'on'
Climate'Change'and'Rachel'Kyte,'World'
Bank'Vice'President'of'Sustainable'
Development.''
A major element of
sustainability is responding
to climate change, which
presents a complex social
and environmental
challenge on a global
scale. Diverse actions by
people around the world are
required to mitigate and
adapt to it. However, for
individual action to be
effective, people need to be
1) well informed about the
challenge and
2) motivated to act. '
The problem
This is the rst version of Globe-Town.
Plans for developing the project include focus-group based redesign,
deployment in the context of education, rigorous user testing, and
enabling users to go beyond learning to taking action, so they are able
to go beyond exploring global links to creating new ones, such as
crowd-funding renewables projects.#
The future
Globe-Town.org is a web
application designed to both
inform and motivate by
providing a multi-faceted
picture of climate change in
each country within the
broader context of
sustainable development,
whilst also showing how
networks of relationships
between countries (such as
trade, aid, travel & migration)
connect the user with distant
places in an era of increasing
globalisation, sharing risks,
responsibilities and
opportunities to mitigate and
to adapt. '
The application
Globe-Town originates from themes in the authors
Web Science research into the application of the Web to
responding to climate change and other environmental
challenges, sometimes called cleanweb (cleantech + web).#
ICT4S, Web Science & Cleanweb
At the nals ceremony of the World
Bank's "Apps for Climate"
competition in June in Washington
DC, Globe-Town was awarded third
place.#
World Bank prize winner
ICT for Sustainability
IC
4
Complex networks of interrelationships
between countries are represented as a simple
row of houses in a street using the familiar
metaphor of being neighbours. Links may
transmit the risks of climate change around the
globe (e.g., the impact of the 2011 Thai oods
on the Japanese economy (Bloomberg, 2011)).
They can also transmit the responsibilities for
causing it (e.g., the embodied energy in exports
from China), and provide opportunities to act to
mitigate and to adapt effectively (e.g., investing
in renewable energy projects abroad).!
V'Dimitrova,'J'Zapico,'J'Townsend'et'al.'(2012)'Open'Knowledge'
Fes/val'Sustainability'Stream'Recap,'
hTp://openeconomics.net/2012/10/06/okfes/valXsustainabilityX
streamXrecap/'
World'Bank'Climate'Change'Knowledge'Portal,'
hTp://sdwebx.worldbank.org/climateportal/index.cfm'
G'Lako'(2010),'Why'it'maTers'how'we'frame'the'environment,'
Environmental'Communica/on,'Taylor'&'Francis.'
ONeill,'S.,'&'Boyko,'M.'(2009).'The'Role'of'New'Media'In'
Engaging'the'Public'With'Climate'Change,'Lakeland.'
Rosling,'H.'(2007).'Visual'technology'unveils'the'beauty'of'
sta/s/cs'and'swaps'policy'from'dissemina/on'to'access.'
Sta/s/cal'Journal'of'the'IAOS'
ER'Tude,'PR'GravesXMorris'(1983),'The'visual'display'of'
quan/ta/ve'informa/on'
The application
References
... I was really let
down at
University ... The
University just
takes the policy of
the less fuss the
better"
... So I got given
all this stuff ...
and all I needed
was paper and
some felt tips ...
Southampton
Education School
&
Electronics and
Computer Science
... I felt the
assessor forced
the technology
on me ...
The background, layout and font used in this poster were chosen specically for people with dyslexia http://dyslexicfonts.com
www.katieontheweb.com katie@katieontheweb.com
I always got
treated as if I
was of low
intelligence ...
They would
talk down to
me ...
The MSc research project explored the experiences of students with
dyslexia in a University, and their use of mobile technology to support
learning and teaching.
Data--------- Six Semi-structured interviews
Analysis----- Hermeneutic Interpretive Phenomenology (HIP)
Findings-------The ndings revealed a number of issues:
1)equipment given was often not t for purpose 2)challenges using the
equipment in a classroom setting; 3) feelings of intimidation as well as
isolation 4) generally that they had not been treated as an individual.
The study concluded that the advent of mobile technology offered
opportunities for a more tailored support.
Context
In the context of the greater awareness of the need for
accessibility in higher education, and an increasing penetration of
mobile technology into the lives of students, the aims of this
research are:
To gain a greater understanding of the experience of students
with dyslexia who are using mobile technologies to support their
learning and teaching;
To use peer support and other interventions to increase the
effective use of mobile technologies;
To examine those research methodologies which are best suited
to a researcher with dyslexia.
Research Aims
Hermeneutic Interpretive Phenomenology (HIP) was chosen:
To identify phenomena in the ways in which these students
perceive them. (this will translate into gathering deep information
and perceptions).
To represent experiences from the perspective of these students.
Phenomenology is concerned with the study of experience from the
perspective of the individual so methods will include:
Phenomenological Interviews
Self reporting Journals
Observation
Student experience intervention
Methods
Contribution
This work contributes to the interdisciplinary nature of web
science by:
Bringing education into the web science framework
Utilising social networks for the support of this particular
group of students
Taking these social networks into a wider (national) context
at the end of the research.
inuencing both hardware and software development
subsequently.
In what ways do students with dyslexia make use of mobile technology to support their
learning in Higher Education?
iPhD Web Science Research Student: Katherine Spires Supervisors: Dr Sarah Parsons; Dr Mike Wald
Web Science
An#Inves(ga(on#into#Correla(ons#between#
Financial#Sen(ment#and#Prices#in#Financial#
Markets#
Market'Eciency'
Financial#Markets# #are#generally#assumed#to#eciently#process#
new# informa(on# # that# is,# any# nancially# relevant# informa(on#
is# reected# immediately# in# the# price# of# assets.# Typically#
nancially# relevant# informa(on# is# taken# to# mean# sta(s(cal#
informa(on# about# company# performance,# or# the# wider#
economy.# Traders# are# believed# to# ra(onally# interpret# this#
informa(on#and#adjust#their#strategies#accordingly.#
Markets'and'Online'Informa6on'
Increasingly# economists# and# nancial# researchers# have# found#
assump(ons# about# ra(onality# or# ecient# pricing# fail# to# explain#
empirically# observed# price# movements.# Research# has# begun# to#
turn# to# aJemp(ng# to# price# soK# informa(on,# such# as# sen(ment#
contained#in#text#documents,#into#the#price#of#assets.##
Words'are'Poorly'Behaved'Time'Series'Objects'
Although# we# have# a# wealth# to# text# data# to# draw# upon,#
language# is# dicult# to# treat# mathema(cally.# # Sta(s(cal#
procedures# for# correla(ng# (me# series# together# rely# on# several#
assump(ons# about# the# behaviour# of# each# (me# series,# all# of#
which#tend#to#be#violated#by#the#nature#of#language.#
Time'is'a'Poorly'Behaved'Time'Series'Object'
Time# means# dierent# things# in# the# context# of# dierent# systems,#
stock#markets#have#closing#(mes#and#weekly#structures#that#may#
dier#from#online#systems#we#wish#to#draw#text#data#from.##Even#
if#we#could#perform#good#sta(s(cs#with#language,#how#would#we#
view#(me#in#the#context#of#informa(on#and#prices?#
#
Paul#Gaskell#
Dr#Frank#McGroarty#
Dr#Thanassis#Tiropanis#
Of all the weapons in the Federal Reserve
arsenal, words were the most unpredictable in
their consequences.
!
J,#K#Galbraith#(1954),#Quoted#from#his#famous#book#on#the#
wall#street#crash#Z#The!Great!Crash,!1929!
Markets can remain
irrational longer than
you or I can remain
solvent.
!
J,#M#Keynes#(aJributed)!
How it is we have so
much information, but
know so little?
!
Noam#Chomsky!
"The only reason for
time is so that
everything doesn't
happen at once.
!
Albert#Einstein!
Alterna6ve'Sta6s6cal'Models'of'Language'
We#begin#by#looking#at#alterna(ve#ways#of#dealing#with#language#
sta(s(cally.# Looking# at# the# rela(onships# between# dierent# sets#
of# words# these# rela(onships# can# be# viewed# as# setZsubset#
rela(onships# as# shown# in# the# gure# 1,# or# as# network#
rela(onships#between#words#as#shown#in#gure#2.#
Fig#1# Fig#2#
Alterna6ve'Sta6s6cal'Models'of'Time'
We# also# consider# how# best# to# t# the# two# series# together,# taking#
into#account#the#poten(al#eects#of#weekly#structure#(g#4)#and#
also# poten(al# dierences# in# correla(ons# using# dierent# (me#
scales.#(g#3)# Fig#3#
Fig#4#
So'can'you'Predict'the'Market'with'Online'Informa6on?'
Well#yes,#sort#of#Our#results#to#date#show#there#are#reasonably#
strong#contemporaneous#correla(ons#between#online#sen(ment#
and#the#price#of#the#S&P#500.##
In# terms# of# predic(on# we# have# ini(al# evidence# that# traders#
appear# to# perceive# preZweekend# news# as# more# risky# than# news#
during# the# week.# As# a# result# preZweekend# nega(ve# sen(ment# is#
magnied,#causing#a#post#weekend#bounce#as#prices#recover.#
Correla(ons# are# reasonably# modest# though,# we# can# predict#
about#20Z27%#of#the#variance#in#prices#at#present.#
# ?#
Problem
We manage a spectrum of identities across the cyber domain. Digital identity is
valuable and increasingly important, as are online methods of identification. For
example, trusted identities linked to electronic credentials underpin e-
commerce. Government also needs to be able to identity citizens and deliver
online services efficiently without fraud.

Along with new opportunities, risks of online identity misuse are increasing. Yet,
while the identification of persons responsible for the commission of criminal
behaviour remains the nexus of justice systems throughout the modern world,
the Web poses a number of challenges to cyber identification.




Web Science




Alison Knight, Steve Saxby, Mark Weal


University of Southampton
amk1g10@soton.ac.uk



Proposal
First, legal rules will be considered around procedural safeguards in the
acquisition, preservation and analysis of digital identification evidence to
protect its integrity. In doing so, prosecutors can ensure that otherwise
admissible electronic evidence is not compromised legally because the
evidentiary foundation was not properly laid during trial.

Second, research will be carried out into the treatment of digital identification
evidence in court worldwide. This will include how it conforms to legal rules. A
review of case law will be conducted into how cyber metrics and new digital
biometrics have been evaluated in terms of reliability and authenticity for
identification purposes.

Questions
How do appropriate identification procedures in the offline world apply to
the online world?

When are cyber metrics strong enough under a criminal legal standard to
prove identification?

What due process rights and responsibilities to ensure a fair trial and
safety of conviction are required to safeguard against possibilities of
wrongful conviction or accusation based on digital identifiers?

Aims
Legal frameworks are being developed in response to the problem of online
identity misuse. One challenge relates to how digital identity can be assured in a
trustworthy manner.

Reliable means of identification are fundamental. Mistaken identities have
implications for personal privacy, information safety and criminal accountability.

Outputs

The research will compare the legal treatment of different measures of identity
across offline and online spaces to ascertain both the confidence with which
cyber metrics are treated generally by the courts and how reliability may vary
according to context. The research will assist in increasing trust in digital
identity assurance to help underpin more sophisticated identity decisions.

It will also determine whether new safeguards and protocols are required to
provide additional protection to citizens against vulnerabilities in online
identification processes, such as forensic profiling, thereby minimising risk and
liability.

LEGAL ASPECTS OF DIGITAL IDENTITY
Online Behaviour of States
Jaymie Caplen, Prof.Gerry Stoker, Dr. Tim Chown
Web Science DTC, University of Southampton
Data Visualisation
OWL/RDF Ontologies for DV on the Web
Introduction
Finding examples of data visualisation images on the Web is a simple task, but
no RDF metadata vocabulary currently exists to describe the structure of a
v|sua||sat|on. Th|s work |dent|es an |mportant area of research of us|ng L|nked
Data vocabularies to describe data visualisations on the Web, enabling the image
content of data visualisations to be properly linked to datasets and other RDF
resources for the rst t|me.
Ontology Design
The nd|ngs of th|s work revea| faceted aspects of data v|sua||sat|on |mages,
including visual elements (colour, shape etc), geometry (point, line, area), datasets,
domain concepts for specialist data (i.e. in temporal, spatial and population data),
and the structure of data visualisation images. In response to these structural and
functional elements three modular ontologies are devised, GGON the Grammar
of Graphics Ontology, DVCON for Data Visualisation Concepts, and DVO the
Data Visualisation Ontology which holds the core classes and combines the other
three ontologies (in its complete form).
DV and the Web
By nature of their format, images, applications and videos cannot be searched
as completely as data documents and require additional metadata to provide
additional information, which can be referenced and served to users. It is essential
to |dent|fy resources |n order to share, mod|fy and reason about them (Berners-Lee
et al., 2006 p.8).
Data Visualisation Taxonomies
A review of papers on visualisation taxonomies provided information on the
structure and function of these images. These taxonomies include visualisation
tasks (Shne|derman, 1996|, the c|ass|cat|on of |mage types (Lohse, B|o|s| and
Walker, 1994), structure (Card and Mackinlay, 1997), categorical data (Bendix,
Kosara and Hauser, 2005), visual clutter reduction (Dix, 2007), mapping data to
images (Ziemkiewicz and Kosara, 2009), and visual features (Nazemi et al., 2011).
Graphic Elements
The transformation of data to visual form can be described as encoding, which
is data made visual by a mark. This mark is itself considered a retinal variable
applied to a geometric form of point, line, or area (Bertin, 1983). The retinal
variables described by Bertin can be seen in Figure 1 which were later extended by
Mackinlay (1986) and Card and Mackinlay (1997).
The Data Visualisation RDF/OWL Ontology
The DV ontology aims to provide a formal language for describing an existing
graphical rendering of a geometric construction which visualises a dataset.
Competency Questions
What |mages are |nferred members of the T|me Cube c|ass?
How can data about popu|at|on |ocat|on over t|me be v|sua||sed?
What dataset |s the Wor|d Hunger Index |mage v|sua||s|ng?
Wh|ch data v|sua||sat|ons feature t|me as a concept?
Data Visualisation Ontology by Example
Current Work
Current PhD research project aims to investigate the potential application of
microeconomic theory and machine learning techniques to visualisation Open
Data, in which a user is guided in selecting an appropriate visualisation based both
on the|r preferences and on the ut|||ty of spec|c v|sua||sat|ons |n the context of
d|herent user tasks and doma|ns. Deve|opment work requ|res eva|uat|ng the |og|c
of human - and personal - visual perception and the potential for integratation
with existing web technologies such as the Javascript visualization library D3.js.
If the |og|c of percept|on |s denab|e, a system based on the structura| aspects of
the DV Ontology could not only infer an appropriate visualisation but also make
emc|ency-based dec|s|ons about how each |nvar|ant and component can best
be d|sp|ayed, a|| wh||e the user |s |nteract|ng w|th the system. These ehorts move
towards a holistic view of visualization (see Ziemkiewicz and Kosara, 2010), which
must seek to address questions and relationships between structure and function
of these images.
Paul Booth | pmb1g11@soton.ac.uk
References
Berners-Lee, T. et al., 2006. A Framework for Web Science. Foundations and Trends in Web Science, 1(1), pp.1130.
Bendix, F., Kosara, R. & Hauser, H., 2005. Parallel sets: Visual analysis of categorical data, INFOVIS 2005. IEEE
Symposium on Information Visualization, pp.133140.
Bertin, J., 1983. Semiology of graphics: diagrams, networks, maps. University of Wisconsin Press.
Card, S.K. & Mackinlay, J., 1997. The structure of the information visualization design space, Proceedings of the IEEE
Symposium on Information Visualization, pp.9299.

Lohse, G.L., Biolsi, K. & Walker, N., 1994. A c|ass|hcat|on of v|s0a| |eo|esentat|ons, Communications of the ACM 37(12),
pp.36-49.
Mackinlay, J., 1986. Automating the design of graphical presentations of relational information. ACM Transactions on
Graphics, 5(2), pp.110141.
Nazemi, K., Breyer, M. & Kuijper, A., 2011. User-oriented graph visualization taxonomy: a data-oriented examination of
visual features. Human Centered Design, pp.576585.
Shneiderman, B., 1996. The eyes have it: A task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations. Visual Languages,
1996. Proceedings., IEEE Symposium on, pp.336343.
Ziemkiewicz, C. & Kosara, R., 2009. Embedding information visualization within visual representation. Advances in
Information and Intelligent Systems, pp.307326.
Ziemkiewicz, C. & Kosara, R., 2010. Beyond Bertin: Seeing the Forest despite the Trees T. M. Rhyne, ed. Computer
Graphics and Applications, IEEE, 30(5), pp.610.
Web Science
Figure 2: Time-Cube, visually reinterpreted for display purposes this type of visualisation provided a suitable challenge for
the DV Ontologies to adequately describe.
Figure 3: Diagram of structure and links relating to Figure 2 (a Time Cubej. This conveys the simplicity and efectiveness
of the DV Ontology for providing meta-data for visualisations, which can be used for images of any dimensional
complexity at varying levels of granularity.
Figure 1: Diagram showing a selection Bertins original visual variables*, later adapted by Jock Mackinlay. A ranking of of
emciency of visual variables following a series of studies by Mackinlay in 1986.
POSI TI ON
COLOUR
AREA
VALUE
SHAPE
ANGLE
LENGTH
M
O
S
T

A
C
C
U
R
A
T
E
L
E
A
S
T

A
C
C
U
R
A
T
E
POSI TI ON
LENGTH
LENGTH ANGLE
ANGLE AREA
AREA
VALUE
VALUE COLOUR
COLOUR
SHAPE
SHAPE
POSI TI ON
V I S U A L V A R I A B L E S
J. Bertins selection of original visual variables are marked
ImageFileURI timeCube
xAxis yAxis zAxis
personInSpace
AndTime
dvcon:spatial
latitude longitude
dvcon:temporal
timeOfDay
lineA
Red
dvo:hasComponent dvo:hasComponent dvo:hasComponent
dvo:hasExternal
dvo:correlatesTo
dvo:hasConcept dvo:hasConcept
dvo:hasInvariant
dvo:hasImage
ggon:hasGeometry
ggon:hasMarkWithVariable
prefix:property

Key
On Measuring the Impact of Hyperlinks on Reading
Gemma Fitzsimmons, Mark Weal, & Denis Drieghe
University of Southampton
Contact email: G.Fitzsimmons@soton.ac.uk
Introduction
Method
Experiment Two
High Frequent/Hyperlinked
High Frequent/Unlinked
Low Frequent/Hyperlinked
Low Frequent/Unlinked

Experiment One
Black
Blue
Green
Red
Grey
Results
Conclusion
Does a coloured word
impair reading behaviour?

30 participants
30 stimuli (6 stimuli per condition)


Does a hyperlinked word
impair reading behaviour?

32 participants
80 experimental sentences inserted
into 20 edited Wikipedia pages (4 in
each, 1 per condition)


We spend a vast amount of time on the Web and much of that time is spent reading. One of the
main differences between reading Web and non-Web based text is the presence of hyperlinks
There is an on-going debate about hyperlinks and whether they have a negative influence on
reading behaviour
Displaying hyperlinks in blue has become part of the online culture and most people would
recognise a blue word on a Web page as a hyperlink [5]
Carr [1] suggested that hyperlinks within the text are a distraction and therefore hinder
comprehension of the text
Other research has suggested that it does not disrupt reading, but actually assists in the
retention of the hyperlinked word [6]
Very little research has investigated how the presence of hyperlinks influences reading
behaviour on the Web. This area is important to investigate because it has an impact on how
hyperlinks are generated on Web pages
Recording eye movements is an objective way of collecting data, providing an unobtrusive, real-
time behavioural index of visual and cognitive processing [4, 7, 8]
SR-Research EyeLink 1000 eye tracker was used (records 1 sample per millisecond)
We based our methodology on that used by reading researchers, who use a number of eye
movement measures to investigate reading behaviour
Early measures which reflect any initial processing difficulties :
Skipping probability - probability that the target word was skipped on first-pass reading
First fixation duration - duration of the first fixation on a word
Single fixation duration - where the reader made exactly one first-pass fixation on the
target word.
Gaze duration - sum of all first-pass fixations on the target word before moving to
another word
Late measures which reflect difficulties in integrating a word:
Go-past times - the accumulated time from when a reader first fixated on the target
word until their first fixation to the right of the target word
Total reading time - sum of all fixation durations on the target word regardless of
whether this reading happed during first pass or later
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
Black Blue Green Red Grey
S
k
ip
p
in
g
p
r
o
b
a
b
ilit
y
p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

Colour of target word
190
200
210
220
230
240
250
260
Black Blue Green Red Grey
F
ir
s
t
f
ix
a
t
io
n
d
u
r
a
t
io
n
(
m
s
)

Colour of target word
Experiment One Experiment Two
Participants were less likely to skip a target word if it was any colour except
black which suggests that the saliency of the colour draws attention to it (see
Figure 7)
The grey target word had significantly longer fixations across all eye movement
measures due to its reduced contrast making it more difficult to process and
read [2] (see Figure 8)
The other coloured words were not fixated for longer than the black words,
suggesting that colouring words does not either hinder or help the reading
of those words
Participants showed no difference in skipping probability
There was a significant effect of word frequency across all eye movement measures, with the low frequency
word being fixated for longer due to the increased difficulty [3]
In the early eye movement measure (first fixation duration, single fixation duration and gaze duration) there
was no difference in the fixation times whether the word was hyperlinked or not
However, in the later measures (go-past times and total reading time) there was a significant interaction
between whether the target word was hyperlinked or not, qualified by an interaction with frequency (see
Figure 6)
The low frequency hyperlinked words had significantly longer fixations than the other conditions suggesting
that those words caused regressive eye movements due to difficulty processing. This means that participants
are reaching the low frequency hyperlinked words and rereading the preceding content to re-evaluate it
Conclusions
Experiment One showed that a coloured word is skipped less often than a black word and that
reduced contrast colours make reading more difficult [2]
Experiment Two showed different effects of colour to Experiment One indicating that coloured
words are processed differently to hyperlinked words
Experiment Two also showed a difference between whether the target word was hyperlinked or
not, qualified by an interaction with frequency. Low frequency hyperlinked words had
significantly longer fixation times in the late measures of reading. Participants had difficulty with
these words and would reread the preceding content to re-evaluate it
Hyperlinks indicate that the word is important. When the hyperlinked word is a low frequency
word the reader may wonder why that word is hyperlinked and want to re-evaluate the
preceding content to make sure that they understood it, or try to decide why it is important
What does this mean?
These experiments have shown that coloured text does not hinder reading, but also that
hyperlinks can cause us to reread previous content if the word is a low frequency/difficult word
in order to re-evaluate the content
In terms of Web design and layouts, the present results highlight the importance of carefully
considering which words are hyperlinked in Web pages. The key lesson here is that Web
designers should only hyperlink important words in pages, taking extra caution with words
that are uncommon or that may be difficult to process
Web Science
REFERENCES
1. Carr, N. G. The Shallows. W. W. Norton, New York, NY, 2010.
2. Drieghe, D. Foveal processing and word skipping during reading, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15 (2008), 856-860.
3. Inhoff, W. A., & Rayner, K. Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency. Perception psychophysics, 40, 6 (1986) 431439.
4. Liversedge, S., & Findlay, J. Saccadic eye movements and cognition. Trends in cognitive sciences, 4, 1 (2000), 614.






5. Nielsen, J. When bad design elements become the standard. Nielsen Norman Group (1999), http://www.nngroup.com/articles/when-bad-design-elements-become-the-
standard/
6. Nikolova, O. R. Effects of Visible and Invisible Hyperlinks on Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension for High- and Average-Foreign. Apprentissage des langues et
systmes dinformation et de communication, 07 (2004), 2953.
7. Rayner, K. Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological bulletin, 124, 3 (1998), 372422.
8. Rayner, K. Eye movements and attention in reading, scene perception, and visual search. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 62, 8 (2009), 1457506.
Figure 1. Example stimuli from Experiment One
Figure 2. SR-Research EyeLink 1000 eye tracker
Figure 3. Example stimuli from Experiment Two
Figure 4. Scan path from a trial in Experiment One
Figure 5. Scan path from a trial in Experiment Two
Figure 6. Word Frequency x Hyperlinked/Unlinked interaction for Go-past times and
Total Reading Time
Figure 7. Experiment One skipping probability percentage Figure 8. Experiment One first fixation durations (in ms)
Future Research
By basing our future research on the vast amount of research already conducted on eye
movements and reading we can build an understanding of how we read hyperlinked text
In future research we aim to explore reading behaviour alongside the navigation and decision
making elements that hyperlinked text entails
This research focuses on development of
economic bubbles around T sectors in
the past, and whether similar situations
are prevalent in the Web 2.0lsocial
media industry today.
Existing research analyses investor
attitudes surrounding the dot-com
bubble in 2001, and unpicks the patterns
of behaviour that made it possible. t
explores in detail the attitudes that led to
widespread availability of venture capital
for Web start-ups, with little or no due
diligence.
This research aims to identify whether
contemporary Web 2.0lsocial media
companies have ever exhibited similar
characteristics to those in 2001, through
extension of the models in existing
research and subsequent simulation
based upon these models.
\odelling Specul+tive Beh+viour
\odelling Beh+viour
Thi s model i s based upon exi sti ng
research into the 2001 dot-com bubble,
with adaptations made for subsequent
findings and other findings about investor
behaviours. n particular:
valliere and Peterson, who indentified a
cognitive model of investors in bubble-
conditions, following interviews with 57
dot-com venture capitalists |1,2].
S a hl ma n a nd S t ev e ns o n, who
introduced the idea of 'capital market
myopia' - the phenomenon of individual
investors over-investing in hyped start-
ups, with catastrophic effects upon the
whole sector.
The three layers of the model represent
actors or entities that comprise the
system. These contain tangible and
i nt angi bl e f act ors t hat af f ect t he
behaviour of other items within the
system.
The "Companies" and "nvestors" layers
may be thought of as a collection of
Simul+ting It
With appropriate adaptations to the
above model, the research question may
be answered using techniques of discrete
event simulation (DES) or agent-based
si mul at i on. Each of f er s di st i nct
advantages.
The model will firstly be validated by
performing a simulation with source data
from the 2001 dot-com bubble era. The
model can t hen be adapt ed and
improved to ensure it produces correct
results (i.e. those in literature) for that
particular scenario.
The same simulation will then be run with
corresponding source data from recent
Web 2.0 and social media companies.
DES provides a means of simulating
through entities and feedback links, as
shown above, and formulaellogic that
informs how and when feedback occurs
between entities.
Agent-based simulation affords the
opportunity to model each type of actor
(investors, companies, etc) as an ob|ect
with certain behaviours, and to analyse
the interactions between them. Civen the
extensive research available on investor
and start-up behaviours, this approach
may yield a more accurate simulation.
in Veb z.o +nd Soci+l \edi+ Comp+nies
Russell Newm+n rno6ecs.soton.+c.uk Veb Science lTC
A line connected with a '+' represents a direct influence (i.e. an increase at the origin increases the destination). A '-' represents an inverse influence (i.e. an
increase at the origin decreases the destination). 'Fn' represents a more complex influence that may depend upon other factors within the system.
Veb Science
Sources: |1] valliere & Peterson (2004), nflating the Bubble: Examining dot-com nvestor Behaviour, in venture Capital vol. 6(1) pp1-22.
|2] valliere & Peterson (2005), venture Capitalist Behaviours: Frameworks for Future Research, in venture Capital vol. 7(2) pp167-183.
|3] Sahlman & Stevenson (1987), Capital Market Myopia, in |ournal of Business venturing, Winter 1985 pp 7-30.
Market Share
Market Share
Fragmentation
Perceived Sector
Risk
Speculation
Technological
Development
M
a
r
k
e
t
l
l
n
d
u
s
t
r
y
l
n
v
e
s
t
o
r
s
C
o
m
p
a
n
i
e
s
Product Demand
Product Adoption
Capital Available for
nvestment
venture Capital
nvestment
Publiclnstitutional
nvestment
valuation
Perceived Sector
Experience
nvestment volume
Product
Development
)
(
(
(
(
(
(
( (
(
(
(
(
+,
) (
+,
(
entities. That is, the system comprises
many investors and many companies.
Existing research in this field contains
extensive work upon venture capital
investment, being the foundation of
potentially-hyped start-ups. This offers
the opportuni ty to model venture
capitalist behaviour more accurately,
which has informed and adapted the
design.
Minimize the learning required to operate within [VEs], but maximize
the information yield
(Wann & Mon-Williams, 1996)
Understanding Interactions With Digital Spaces
Using A Multichannel Research Strategy
Taking previous work to a web audience.
Examining visualisations preference
based on short video clips rather than
interaction
Virtual
Building
Isolate the impact of disorientation.
Can the addition of colour cues within a virtual
environment aid in reducing disorientation?

Do Users Understand what they see?
Can we Reduce difficulty of visualisations?
Can we Improve the users experience?

Usability
Testing
Empirical
Comparisons
Digital
Tutorials
Online
Questionnaire
Small Sample (N=11)
Qualitative
Limited Demographic
Investigation into whether (non-expert)
participants could use a crime mapping
website (http://www.police.uk/) to
complete set tasks, using a
Think Aloud technique
Expand Previous study. Examine
accuracy and latency. Comparing visualisation
techniques, including cluster and density based
mapping. Also considered users preferences for
mapping alternatives.
Large Scale (N=60)
Quantitative
Limited Demographic
Large Scale (N= 300)
Mixed Methods
Varied Demographic
Larger Scale (N=170)
Quantitative
Limited Demographic
Identified difficulty in understanding data
Participants frequently reported feelings of
being lost and disorientation
Found no overall difference in accuracy
However found that users were frequently
unable to identify 0 counts of an event
Found that there was a difference in
latency, with clusters requiring
greater time investment
Found that females were more likely to
experience disorientation
Colour cues dramatically reduced disorientation
Found an effect of experience. Participants
were more accurate when making
decisions from places previously
visited

Found respondents were more accurate
using heat map than cluster
BUT preferred the numerical
representation of cluster maps
Many participants report sense of
disorientation and feeling lost

Upcoming Research Project
Can we inform people how to use
visualisations?

Examine which type of instructions can help users

Do Users want instructions?
How many (%) users watch tutorials?
Do users have a preference for certain tutorial types?
Are different tutorials more effective at educating users
than others?

Web based, quantitative study, aiming for a
varied demographic of participants.
The same data
can look very
different
Simple
additional cues
can
dramatically
reduce
disorientation
There has been a dramatic increase in both the
availability and variety of spatial data.
We need to take steps to ensure that this
information is accessible and usable by the
public
Craig Allison
ca306@soton.ac.uk
Supervisors:
Dr Edward Redhead (School of Psychology)
Richard Treves (School of Geography)
Acknowledgement:
The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross council initiative
led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC

Implications of such a system
High degree of anonymity
No personally identifiable information is included within the Bitcoin protocol, or within the blockchain. From the protocol itself, it is impossible to
identify owners of origin or destination accounts.
Users can generate an unlimited amount of addresses to protect their own privacy, making it near impossible for anyone to relate transactions.
No central point
In other payment methods, e.g. PayPal, there is a central company responsible and able to control, reverse transactions, withhold funds, close accounts
and appear in court. When dealing with illicit payments online, the governing authority of the payment system or currency would be the first people to
contact, in the context of the companies local jurisdiction.
There is no central company responsible for Bitcoin or able to exert any control over transactions or Bitcoin users.
There is no central point of technical failure, leading to extremely high reliability and scalability.
In cases where the company is registered in a non-cooperative jurisdiction, action can be taken against other things such as confiscation of servers, or
blacklisting/removal of DNS records to effectively take websites or services offline.
Bitcoin is a distributed service with approximately 100,000 users across the world, all of which would need to be taken down to totally stop Bitcoin
This creates an extremely cheap, reliable, location independent payment system, useful for any kind of online payment.
In the case of Megavideo, some servers were based in the US and despite Megavideo company not being based in the US, legal action could still be
pursued against the creator of a service.
Bitcoin was created under a pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto who soon disappeared.
legitimate benefits. The back story and features of Bitcoin have lead to the development of a unique
Despite Bitcoin being around since 2009 and currently trading a minimum $10million a day, there is
How it works
Mathematically predetermined production rate
Bitcoins are mined as part of processing and validating of Bitcoin transactions. When a block of transactions is added to the blockchain, the miner
that did it is given a number of Bitcoins as a reward.
The difficulty of mining is adjusted based on how many people are mining, so that a block is added on average of every 10 minutes. The number of
coins awarded (currently 25) halves every 210,000 blocks (approximately every 4 years) so coin production follows a reverse exponential curve.
This makes printing of money (or quantitative easing) impossible.

<TallTim> dom_: I've traded futures and options on indexes and currencies.
<TallTim> dom_: I don't trust the major markets anymore, not since Benny-and-the-inkjets went into permanent Quantitative Easing mode.
<TallTim> dom_:BTC is better for me.

Number of adverts (of 209) for illicit goods/services on TOR accepting different payment methods
Bitcoin QR Codes
Its possible to send and receive Bitcoins using the QR code standard. Software to allow computers to act as POS systems
where the customer is presented with a QR code at checkout and scans it with their phone to automatically pay for goods
has been developed.
Bitcoin Prepaid Debit Card
Bitinstant announced they would be releasing a prepaid debit card. Bitcurex already have a similar card. It is a debit card
where users can transfer Bitcoins to an address and they will be automatically converted to the requested currency and
loaded onto the card which can be used like any other debit card.

Casascius Coins
These are physical minted coins that have a peelable hologram. Underneath the hologram is the private key for an account
containing the amount of Bitcoins shown on the coin. People can exchange these coins in the real world, or redeem them
for electronic bitcoins by importing the private key into their own wallet.
Cost of a Bitcoin in USD over time
Bitcoin in the real world
Criminological considerations
Use in sales of illicit goods/services on TOR
A total of 1985 posts were scraped from 8 different forums. The largest forum scraped was a hacking themed forum, with over 7000 registered
members and many boards. Of the 1985 scraped threads, only 209 (10.5%) contained the required information to be analysed. The earliest post
was 27/06/2011 and the latest was 2012/08/02.
Reduce criminal transactions made with Bitcoin?
A survey was placed on the Bitcointalk forums. The survey was accessible for 6 days and over that period, the thread received 1246 views, and 39
responses in the forum, 11 of which were from the researcher responding to questions. Of the 1246 thread views, 159 people went on to attempt
the survey. Of the 159 attempts, there were 71 completions.
There were at least 3 notable questions in the survey:
Question 6: Crime Reduction? Question 7: Support Crime Reduction?
Response Count Response % Grouped
Response %
Response Count Response % Grouped
Response %
Definitely 1 1.41%
11.27%
2 2.82%
12.68%
Probably 7 9.86% 7 9.86%
I don't know 10 14.08% 14.08% 16 22.54% 22.54%
Probably Not 24 33.80%
74.65%
16 22.54%
64.79%
Definitely not 29 40.85% 30 42.25%
Total Responses 71 71
Question 6: Do you think more should be done to reduce criminal transactions with Bitcoin?
Question 7: Would you support measures to reduce criminal transactions with Bitcoin?
75% of people do not believe more should be done to reduce criminal transactions; however, only 65% will not support measures to reduce
criminal transactions. This could because participants believe that for wider adoption of Bitcoin, it must be at least perceived that the
community supports reducing criminal measures.
Strong Ideologies
Despite Bitcoin being identified as being used for the generation of $1.9million of revenue for illicit goods and services for 1 site over 1 month
(Christin, 2012) 75% of respondents did not believe anything needed to be done about the issue of criminal transactions with Bitcoin.
Labelling Theory
Sociologist Edwin Lemert (1951) coined the term secondary deviance. Secondary deviance is a role created to deal with condemnation by society of a
particular behaviour.
Howard Becker (1963) went on to publish Outsiders, describing how marijuana smokers form their identity based on the labels assigned to them by society
Jock Young (1971) produced Drugtakers which observed how labelling someone as a drug taker was likely to, among other possibilities, lead to the
person taking more drugs. This is an example of deviancy amplification.
Labelling theory and Bitcoin
Media coverage initially focused largely on illicit use of Bitcoin, particularly SilkRoad, described as the Amazon marketplace of drugs which allowed users
to buy and sell a range of items such as guns, drugs, hacking services, bulletproof hosting, anonymous credit cards but also musical instruments, sporting
goods, gardening equipment, jewellery and art paid for with Bitcoins on the anonymizing network, TOR
By labelling Bitcoin as a criminal network, or a tool used by criminals, according to labelling theory, there is an increased chance that
those using Bitcoin are more likely to engage in criminal activities.
It is important to accept Bitcoin as more than just a criminal payment system. As a payment system, it is reliable, faster and cheaper than nearly all
alternatives. Labelling Bitcoin as criminal risks making the issue of criminal transactions with Bitcoin even more prevalent.
Self Policing Community
High perceived anonymity leads to high
scams using the Bitcoin currency
Lack of regulation leaves victims of crime
with Bitcoin helpless
Technical nature of Bitcoin means
community are commonly better armed than
the police to deal with wrongdoers

Doxing
Posting personal information about people
on the Internet, often including real name,
known aliases, address, phone number, SSN,
credit card number, etc. Urban Dictionary
Pros
+ Described as the only way of getting action
without 3
rd
party authorities
+ Removes the anonymity that scammers try
to exploit or hide behind
Cons
- Ignores the right to a fair trial
- Encourages vigilantism
- Unknown potential physical harm for
victim, bounty hunter and/or perpetrator
References
Becker, H. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: The Free Press.
Christin, N. (2012). Travelling the Silk Road: A measurement analysis of a large anonymous online marketplace.
Lemert, E. (1951). Social pathology: Systematic approaches to the study of sociopathic behaviour. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Peck, M. E. (2012). The Cryptoanarchists Answer to Cash. IEEE Spectrum, 49(6), 49 54. Retrieved from
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/bitcoin-the-cryptoanarchists-answer-to-cash/0
Young, J. (1971). The drugtakers: The social meaning of drug use. London: Paladin
Bitcoin
An open-source pseudoanonymous peer-2-peer crypto-currency
The use of virtual payment systems in cybercrime
Dominic Hobson djh2g11@soton.ac.uk
Dr Craig Webber (Criminology), Professor Vladimiro Sassone (Computing Science)

Ideologies and Crime
Opensource,decentralized,authority free and novel nature of Bitcoin attracts a mix of ideals ranging from libertarian anarchist to Wall Street investors
Bitcoin Genesis Block: The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
Perceived anonymity and low chance of being identified lead to higher chances of Bitcoin being used for crimes and in illicit transactions.
No central point responsible makes it challenging for victims of crime to recoup losses without community help
IEEE Spectrum: Bitcoin: The Cryptoanarchists Answer to Cash. Peck, M. E. (2012)
Background
Methods
The Web can make medicines accessible. People can view websites outside of
the UK and may access to unregulated sites. The Web enables advertising
including spam emails, and direct marketing when people are browsing other sites
which may encourage purchasing of medicines online. The nature of online
purchasing is impersonal and may be anonymous which can may encourage
disregard for the law/regulation. Those who purchase medicines online may ignore
possible health risks, and may not be as aware that they are breaking the rules as
they would be in the real-world.

This research sets out to explore the online purchase of prescription only /
unlicensed medicines. While such purchases may not be criminal and are distinct
from offline illegal drug purchasing and use they can contravene regulations and
social norms. The Web appears to remove or bypass some of the sanctions and
stigma associated with illegal drug purchasing and appears to offer a safe way to
engage in deviant behaviour. Online purchasing of unlicensed medicines may
therefore be an example of respectable deviancy.

Risks
Though there may be no risk of criminal prosecution, the purchase of unlicensed
medicines via the Web breaches domestic regulation. The risks associated with
such purchases may be health, legal and financial. Medicines purchased on the
Web may be counterfeit or incorrectly formulated. They may be unsafe to use
without medical supervision or fail to meet safety standards. Websites may be
unregulated and expose the consumer to illegal medicines, credit card fraud or
identity theft. Indeed, the uniqueness of this research is that those engaging in
deviant activity are clearly and unambiguously both deviant and victims.




to procure them. What is legitimately available is constantly shifting and the Web
does not always reflect this, allowing sales to be conducted outside authorised
forms of supply.
The Role of the Web
Aims of the Research
This research seeks to explore the following questions:

How and why do people buy medicines using the Web?
What affordances does the Web offer to purchase unlicensed medicines?
Does the purchasing of unlicensed medicines constitute a deviant behaviour?
Is it possible to establish new methodological approaches for online research?

Previous Findings
Impact / deployment
Acknowledgement: The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK
cross council initiative led by EPSRC and contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and
MRC
Medicines and drugs are subject to national and state/federal regulation. The
misuse, illegal consumption and purchase of drugs and medicines is not a new
phenomenon, but it is one which the Web may enable or magnify, opening up as it
does access to online information and purchasing.

In the UK medicines are defined in three ways:
As prescription-only medicines which can be obtained from qualified prescribers
(e.g. doctors, dentists, nurse or pharmacist).
pharmacy-only medicines (known colloquially as over the counter medicines)
and general sales list medicines which can be obtained without a prescription.
The provision, purchase and supply of prescription only medicines are typically
regulated by national or state law. This can vary between countries; each with
their own licensing body (e.g. UK The Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the US The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA). Current UK medicines legislation is comprised of the Medicines Act 1968
and approximately 200 statutory instruments. Much of this legislation has not kept
up with developments online and the Web is notoriously difficult to police
Buying Medicine from the Web
Lisa Sugiura, Catherine Pope, Craig Webber ls3e10@soton.ac.uk
Web Science DTC, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Sociology, Social Policy & Applied Social Sciences
University of Southampton
As this research is concerned with individuals utilising
the Web online methods will be employed,
The study will comprise of three stages:

1. Virtual Ethnography: observation of web forums
2. Online Survey designed and implemented with the assistance of the MHRA
3. Semi-Structured Interviews

Although Web research has grown over the past decade, new methodologies are
still emerging and being established. Typically traditional observational methods
have been adopted to apply to the study of the virtual environment. Such research
is essentially exploratory and descriptive in nature. Since so little is known about
the issue of purchasing prescription only/ unlicensed medicines online, and even
less about the reasons behind the decision to make that purchase, the research
seeks to identify important aspects of these potentially deviant areas of the Web, by
drawing on theories of deviancy established within criminology and sociology.
Our initial research has explored the use of public forums as a means to collect
data. This study explored the purchase of unlicensed slimming drugs from the
Web and investigated whether individuals who participate in this purchasing are
engaging in deviancy (action which lies outside the expected rules of conduct -
slimmers are not meant to obtain medicines without prescription) and operating
outside of regulation (this behaviour transcends a national regulatory and
licensing framework). An ethnographic study using non-participant observation in
virtual web communities was conducted, drawing on social theories used within
criminology to inform the analysis of web purchasing of slimming medicines Three
forums that are publicly viewable were purposively selected. Documentary
information about the sites was catalogued and slimming related threads were
collected using computer software -Wget , and manual copying and pasting. After
selecting only relevant data mentioning the chosen medicine specifically, the final
data set was comprised of 163 posts. These posts were examined, coded and
analysed thematically. Some forum members were surprisingly open about their
illegitimate behaviour in their posts, implying that they were seeking to subvert
regulation by recognising that the medicine was unavailable in the UK. The data
suggest that some members of the slimming community are engaging in
deviancy by obtaining medicines without prescription. This behaviour transcends
a national regulatory and licensing framework.

Fig.1. Representation of medicine purchasing
This research is pioneering because there is currently no qualitative understanding
of why individuals choose to purchase prescription only medicine from the Web.
This will be the first study to apply sociological and criminological theories to Web
phenomena of this type.
Working closely with the UK regulatory agency, the MHRA, this project seeks to
inform patient safety, policy decisions, regulation, and in particular to contribute to
future public advise and advertising campaigns from this agency.
This work is undertaken in collaboration across different University Faculties and
groups such as Electronics and Computer Science, Health Sciences, Social
Sciences and Social Policy, and Law. This research will describe and understand
the purchase of prescription only medicine from the Web and help to develop
methods for analysing this phenomena.




Institute of Criminal
Justice Research
Supervisors: Dr. Gary Wills (gbw@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
Prof. Ashok Ranchhod (Winchester School of Art)
(a.ranchhod@soton.ac.uk)
Introduction
As computer games have become more popular, there has been considerable interest in developing serious games, which are games with a purpose
beyond entertainment. In particular, many have attempted to make educational serious games to teach various concepts.
However, it is not easy to design such games. To be successful, they must keep the players attention, teach their material in a more lasting way than
traditional teaching methods, and of course be fun.
This project is investigating how to make effective educational games. To accomplish this, learning theories and game design theories are analysed, as
well as serious game attempts previously made
Learning Theories
Across the more popular traditional learning theories, there are several
recurring features that are needed for effective teaching. These include:

Keeping the learners attention
Relevance to what the learners want to do, and what they already know
Encourage learners to apply the newly-taught skill
Offer feedback to improve their understanding
Allow learners to reflect on what they have learned
Game-based learning theories, like Barabs and de Freitas, use similar
principles, but focus more on discovering and applying skills, and providing
a world that tangibly demonstrates their effects.
Game Immersion
Much like books and films, games can immerse people for extensive
periods, and leave a desire to keep playing once their play session ends.
As a result, players become committed to the games world, and their
understanding of the world is deepened.
A player becomes immersed in a game when they experience:
Flow
Flow is a state of active, exclusive
concentration on a particular activity
where the person is enjoying themselves.
To keep players in this state, the games
rules must be consistent, and its
activities must be meaningful.
The games challenge must also be
balanced being difficult enough to
motivate, but not so difficult as to
frustrate.
Additional Factors
Uncertainty Provides motivation to continue playing, and replay the
game, ensures some effort is required
Harmony of Gameplay elements Ensuring no gameplay element
feels out of place with other elements or the subject matter
Barabs Transformational Play
Model
Experience
Testing
Forming
Abstract
Concepts
Reflection
Exploration
De Freitas Exploratory Learning
Model
James Baker
(jb29g08@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
MMORPG Design

Many educational theories have explored MMORPGs. These
games feature a massive open world, shared by many players
from across the world.

Gameplay and narrative are split into small quests, which
the player can choose and complete according to their skill
level. Many of these also require collaboration with other
players to accomplish.


Character Design

One prominent feature of MMORPGs is to customise their in-
game character (or avatar). Players can alter their avatars
appearance, skill set, equipment and attributes, which in turn
affect how they can progress in game, and their usefulness to
teams in collaborative quests.

These introduce frequent decision-making and emotional
investment in their avatar, and by extension to the game
content.
Scientific Thinking

One significant educational benefit of MMORPGS is
that they encourage scientific thinking. Over 86% of
World of Warcraft forum discussions include
theories/models on game mechanics and each
are open to discussion or experimentation. If the
specific causes behind this teaching of scientific
thinking are understood, they would be an
invaluable contribution to teaching world skills in
serious games.
Emergent Narratives

Perhaps the biggest appeal of MMORPGs
are their emergent narratives: the story
unfolds based on the players choices in
game. Likewise, the players must explore
the game world to gain a true
understanding of it, and become more
engaged as a result.
Immune Attack: A serious game -
Integrates exploration, clear goals
and accurate science to immerse
players
Quest Atlantis:

A fairly popular educational
MMORPG, with worlds designed
around particular academic topics
(e.g. the village from the novel
Frankenstein)
Phil Waddell
1,2
, Clare Saunders
1
, Dave Millard
2

1
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton,
2
Web Science Doctoral Training Centre, University of Southampton


Exploring the use of the Web in Global
Justice Networks.
Since the mid 1990s, political activists have been engaging with
the Internet and World Wide Web in new and innovative ways in
order to challenge the traditional power structures of states.

Traditional research into social movements and activism has often
taken the macro perspective, seeking to explore how large scale
changes in socio-technical constructs affect the creation and
maintenance of social movements. Such enquiries can overlook
the processes of political awakening that occurs in the mind of the
individual, the micro-foundations of political activism which build
social movements from the ground up. The Web has the ability to
maintain a social movement through cultural reinforcement and
storytelling, through individual experience and ideological
development during both periods of visualisation and latency.
Understanding this process and its importance to social
movements is fuels our understanding of the effects such a
pervasive technology is bringing to society and the increasingly
globalised world we inhabit.

This research adopts a methodology rooted in ethnography and
complemented with qualitative interview data, with the intention
of discovering particular narratives of Web use by activists and
organisations that exist within Global Justice Activism. Unearthing
the narrative will explain why particular technologies are chosen
for use in such a community and complement large quantitative
data projects exploring similar questions.
How does the World Wide Web impact the
micro-processes of political activism? A
study of activists associated with Global
Justice Networks.

Conceptualising Global Justice Networks (GJNs)

Traditionally known as a social movement, it seems that global justice
activism is rather a more complex structure, one made up of networks of
local and transnational actors with a variety of agendas and unique
collective identities. Routledge and Cumbers (2009) describe GJNs to be
a series of overlapping, interacting, competing, and differently-placed
and resourced networks made up of a variety of political actors, from
environmental campaign groups to radical anarchists, trade unions to gay
rights proponents who come together periodically as coalitions of
contention against the neoliberal agenda and visualise a connected global
citizenry attempting to influence national policy in both their home
countries and overseas through advocating the causes of others. How
these activists use the Web is of great importance to the creation and
maintenance of such networks.

From the Zapatistas to Occupy; Global Justice activism has had a
longstanding relationship with the Web.
References:
Routledge, P., & Cumbers, A. (2009). Global Justice Networks: Geographies of
Transnational Solidarity. Manchester University Press.
Participant Observation Fieldwork:

Left: A citizen journalist filming a Disabled Activist street protest:
October 2012. Accompanied with tweet:

#dpac activists block road at #marblearch
http://twitpic.com/XXXXX #livestream at
http://www.bambuser.com/channel/XXXXX

Such experiences glean particular technologies used by activists, the
stories deemed important to the individual concerned, the Web based
narrative of the event that is constructed by the activist and how that
narrative exists within Global Justice Networks. Importantly, certain
technologies are identified as being valuable to activists, allowing for
academic discussion to take place as to their role in developing and
maintaining social movements. Such discussions may lead to further
questions regarding the political ideology of Web technologies and the
potential impacts of certain Web services that are released by developers.


Project Status: Year 2; Data Collection (Observation and Interviews)
Web Science
Conceptualising The Web
How to Explore Web Activity?




[Mobilisation]
Idea
Social Technical
Design
Micro
Issues
Macro
[Problematisation]
[Interessement]
[Enrolment]
[Stabilisation]
Quantitative Data
Data tracking
techniques
Social Network
Analysis
Interaction of
actors Weblogs
and Web content
Qualitative Data
Literature /Publication
Metrics
Actor identification
support through social
media
Interaction metrics
meetings, workshops
Content analysis of
interested actors
Worldwide Open Government Data Initiatives
Methodology to Explore The Development of New Kinds of Web Activity
Tracing the Activities of Open Government Data Initiatives
What is The Web?
(1) The Web is made up of multiple heterogeneous
networks that consist of both humans and technologies
associated together via common interests and outputs.
These networks represent different Web activities, which
are collectively labeled as The Web

(2) The heterogeneous networks are all undergoing a
process of translation, involving the continuous alignment
of the actors already involved, and requiring the support
and enrolment of new actors for its growth. The networks
are dynamic and constantly changing shape as a result of
the associations between actors. The stability
(sustainability) of the Web activity is dependent on the
actors commitment towards the network goals.

(3) A Web activity is the product of a number of translating
phases, which involves the alignment of different
heterogeneous networks through the association of
shared actors and interests. Within each of the phases,
there exist numerous heterogeneous networks, which
individually are translating, and must persist in a
stabilized state in order for the subsequent phases to
function.
To examine how the Web is growing, Web activities need
to be explored. To do this, a methodology is required
that analyze the Web at the micro and macro level. The
framework needs to draw upon a mixed of data sources
to enable a rich and in-depth analysis.

Using A Mixed Methods to Examine Activity
The research in this thesis will be using a mixed
methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative
data to provide evidence towards understand the
activities that occur on the Web. Underpinning this is the
use of social theory to examine the socio-technical
practices that have enabled the Web to develop.

Tim Berners-Lees Process of the Web provides
structure to the processes involved during the
development of new Web activity. The social theory used
in this methodology complements this and provides a
way to categorize and examine this activity at different
stages
Exploring Web Activity
What can be Examined?
To understand how the Web is developing, activities
which are cutting edge in terms of social and
technological research and development need to be
examined.

At the forefront of Web and society engagement are the
Open Government Data initiatives, a worldwide agenda
aimed at increasing transparency between the citizen
and government by publishing data in free and open
formats, whos activities are part of a complex network
of stakeholders including Governments, Academics,
Businesses, Citizens.

This thesis is exploring the UK Open Government Data
community using the mixed methods approach outlined
above to provide an analytical understanding of the
online and offline activities and the socio-technical
network that enabled it to form and develop
(1) Illustrating the heterogeneous networks of Web activity (a) which
collectively can be labelled as The Web. (b) represent the Heterogeneous
Networks associated with the OGD Web activities, consisting of the actor-
networks associated together via shared actors, actants, and goals.

(Translation of a Heterogeneous
Network of Web activity)



Problematisa
tion

Interessement
Enrolment
Mobilization
T
r
a
n
s
l
a
t
i
o
n

P
r
o
c
e
s
s



Time

(2) Illustrating the second perspective of the conceptualization of the Web,
using the concepts of Heterogeneous networks and Translation


Problematisation
Interessement
Enrolment
Mobilisation
Phase 1
Phase 2
(Common actants,
Interests and Goals)
(3) Illustrating the translation of multiple heterogeneous networks which share
common actors and/or actants.

Problematisation
Interessement
Enrolment
Mobilisation


The Web
Web
Shopping
Social
Network-
ing
Web
Banking
Web
Entertain
ment
Search
Engines


Open
Govern-
ment
Data

Researcher
s
Public
Sector
Civil
Society

Developers

Citizens



Organiza-
tions
Open Government Data
(b)
(a)
Problem:)The)Data)Deluge)
We#create#much#more#data#than#we#can#hope#to#process#
The#data#is#an#unregulated#stream#of#self6published#things#
For#research#we#need#a#web#of#data#vs.#a#web#of#documents#
There#is#li=le#help#for#researchers#to#see#how#data#is#connected#
Repea?ng#experiments#and#re6using#data#can#be#dicult#/#tedious#
There#are#few#opportuni?es#to#share#techniques#/#tools#
We#are#therefore#constantly#re6inven?ng#the#wheel#
#
One)Web)Observatory?)
Many#observatories#are#springing#up#globally#to#gather#data#on#
par?cular#topics##they#oFen#use#dierent#systems#and#formats#
We#cannot#download#the#web#and#treat#it#like#a#single#database#
Hence#the#interopera)on#of#these#systems#and#their#data#is#vital#
Discovering#the#loca?on/format#of#data#we#are#interested#in#is#key#
Models#to#share#research,#data,#tools#and#commentary#are#needed#
Ways#of#combining/licensing#private#and#open#data#are#needed##
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Image#fromfreaking news.com#
Search)is)not)the)answer)
Google#and#others#blast#the#researcher#with#millions#of#results##
most#of#which#are#irrelevant##human#brain#does#the#hard#work#
Keywords#do#li=le#to#iden?fy#the#research#topic#accurately#
Searches#focus#on#the#web#of#documents#and#not#the#web#of#data#
Searches#tend#not#look#across#history#or#related/correlated#subjects#
Search#engines#try#to#op?mise#the#user#experience#by#favouring#
previously#selected#results#and#can#tend#to#hide#new#results#!!#
Many)Telescopes))
Each#telescope#(datascope)#gathers#data#about#one/more#topics#
Extra#useful#info#about#the#data#(metadata)#is#created#
Thoughts#about#the#data#may#be#added#and#extra#items#linked#to#it#
Catalogues#of#what#is#on#oer#is#published#for#others#to#read#
The#metadata#allows#us#to#determine#formats,#licenses,#date#ranges#etc.#so#
we#can#nd#relevant#research#data#sets#quickly3
We#can#now#combine#dierent#data#sets#over#?me,#search#for#correla?ons#
and#even#model#future#outcomes.#
Analy?cs#and#tools#help#visualise#the#meaning#of#the#data#
#
)
Our)research)data)needs)..)
#
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Project)W.O.L.F.))
Challenges/Outcomes)
The#Web#Observatories#Linkage#Framework#will#dene:#
Taxonomies#of#Observatories#(func?ons/features)#
Interoperability#requirements#
Legal/Opera?onal#models#for#sharing#/#re6use#
Trust/Provenance#models#that#will#underpin#quality#
Use#cases#for#Observatories#to#be#friendly#/#share#
#
#
##############################################VS.#
#
#
#
Source : h=p://www.care2.com##
)
COFOPERATION)IS)KEY:))A)WOLF)IS)SMARTER)AND)MORE)SUCESSFUL)IN)A)PACK)
A)Pack)of)Web)Observatories)
Ian#C.#Brown#
WAIS3Group,3School3of3Electronics3&3Computer3Science3
linked
- d
evelopm
ent.org
API Q
uote
Links to download data files $
Access to aid activity records $
Access to transaction records $$
Full-text search $$$
Real-time updates $$$$
Open data: infrastructures and ecosystems
Tim Davies (University of Southampton)
www.opendataimpacts.net
Feedback? Questions? Tweet @timdavies / Email tim.davies@soton.ac.uk
The 'standard model' of open data
envisages pre-existing datasets
that are being given open licenses
and then placed online through
data portals.
But in practice, open data often
involves the construction of new
datasets, the development of
common standards, and creation of
tools to facilitate access to the
data.
This constitutes the creation of an
infrastructure: most uses of the
data come to rely on these
components. When infrastructure
breaks down, the whole system
breaks down.
On top of this infrastructure, different groups of actors may build
platforms or tools that use the available open data. These can come to
constitute distinct eco-systems of inter-related components, adding
value to open datasets, and specialising to serve particular goals.
When ecosystems break down, users
relying on them area affected. Non-
technical users are particularly reliant
on intermediary ecosystems.
Ecosystems may compete with each
other for resources and support.
Open data for inclusive governance: exploring the social life of data
Raw data now!
But raw data is rarer, and less
useful, that you might think
Construction involves choices
and trade-offs
Choices prioritise certain uses
Overarching context
Technical | Economic | Social | Political | Legal | Organisational
Governance setting
Open Data
Supply Intermediary
Use
Use
Use
Failed
use
= ow of data
Using a comparative case study approach exploring open data in use in
various contexts this study will trace the socio-technical ow of datasets into
particular governance settings (e.g. budget allocation; environmental
monitoring; urban planning policy). It seeks to understand:
- How far does open data support more inclusive models of
governance: where those affected by a decision inuence it?
- Are different infrastructures and ecosystems needed for commercial
and civic uses of open data? Or do they have a symbiotic relationship?
- What sustainability strategies are available for governance-enabling
open data ecosystems?
PhD study: 2013 - 2015. Planning stages.
www.opendataresearch.org
Sustainable ecosystems
remain rare so far...
Data on
development
aid projects
UK DFID
Data
World
Bank
Data
Swedish
aid data
Common standard (XML)
Data portal (with API)
Custom output
Data conversion
Mapping vocabularies
S
e
n
d

t
o
:

d
a
t
a
.
g
o
v
.
u
k
A worked example based on the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
Data portal
Data store
Data Data Data
XML Standard
API
build
apps
here
XML Standard
Data portal
normalise into
relational DB convert to RDF
link to research dataasets
csv
conversion
tool
Drawing on participant observation, discussions with data users, and analysis of open source components
store in XML
database
generate
organisational
aid portals
send
data
extracts
to
used by research analyst
used by
active
citizens
feedback
to...
broken
conversion
linked-
development.org
store in
drives mobile apps used by
aid beneficiaries
404
app
not found
visualise
used by policy makers
A multi-dimensional framework of the ICT Innovation system:
An agent based approach for policy making


Benefits of a Systemic Approach:
The ICT industry is a complex phenomenon with multiple variables
and relationships between them, and numerous feedbacks within it.
Problems must be analysed as a whole rather than individual parts.
Systems thinking allows policy makers to make better informed
decisions when integrating new policies into the environment.


Christopher Hughes Dr Lorraine Warren Dr Jason Noble
Relationship 2: Network operators and content and application providers
i.e. Net neutrality debate

ICT Innovation System
Historical context of Innovation Systems
Relationships between different Innovation Systems:
Relationship 1: Networked element providers and network operators
i.e. Suppliers doing R&D and operators provide investment and user feedback

Relationship 3: Content application providers and consumers and creators
i.e. Provides services for consumers and consumers can engage in content creation

Relationship 4: Network element providers and consumer and creators
i.e. New designs and feedback regarding it

Relationship 6: Network operators and consumers and creators
i.e. Provide things such as wireless LAN and digital broadcast and get feedback on
services

Relationship 5: Network element providers and content and applications providers
i.e. Provides an innovation platform.
Abstract Model: Case study 1

An abstract model between Regulators,
Consumers, Creators and firms.

This model can be specifically adapted to
different relationships within the ICT
Innovation System


Media Publishing: Case study 2 Net Neutrality: Case study 3
Project Aim
The purpose of this thesis is to identify research gaps within the Systems of
Innovation literature over the past 33 years. This was to identify gaps and
formulate research questions. It was then synthesised into a
comprehensible framework of the ICT Innovation System. Agent-based
modelling was chosen as it is an underutilised methodological approach.
Three case studies were subsequently mooted from the relationships of the
framework in order to help policy makers make decisions using this systemic
perspective.


A Social Network Approach to Cybercrime Disruption
Michael Yip, Nigel Shadbolt and Craig Webber
Web Science Doctoral Training Centre
University of Southampton
Problem: Underground Economy Carding Forum
Carding forums are online forums operating as online stolen data
markets. They facilitate cybercrime in two ways:
Cybercriminals are networking extensively online and a competitive
underground economy has emerged, allowing them to trade goods and
services for profit gain. This in turn provides them with the incentive to
innovate and it is this relentless innovation which has turned
cybercrime into the persistent problem we are seeing today.
Aim
Methodology
Theories from Criminology and Social
Psychology are used to reason and model
cybercriminal behaviour.
Methodologies and latest theories from
network science and graph theory are used
to capture social dynamics and exploratory
analysis of network properties.
Mitigate transaction costs caused
by the uncertainties surrounding
online criminal trading and
collaboration.
Provide a ready-made hybrid
structure that offers power
delegation and control allowing
administrators to enforce honest
trading and create a network
boundary from the rest of the web.
Criminal Behaviour
Social Dynamics
In order to disrupt cybercriminal networks, it is useful to capture the
social dynamics so that behavioural patterns can be better understood
and vulnerable regions can be identified:
Preferential attachment vendors with high reputation are preferred.
Random interaction networking amongst cybercriminals leads to some
interaction patterns that do not obey the rule of preferential attachment.
The integration of the two leads to a resilient social structure that is hard to disrupt.
Some insights into the mind of the cybercriminals so far:
Why they entered the crime?
Previous record.
Get rich or die trying.
Desperate.
Do they have any regrets?
Too late for regrets, keep going.
Regret not entering the trade earlier.
Regret of previous wrong doing but accept this is the only way to prosper
given the circumstances.
When do they exit from the crime?
Tired of the way of life e.g. loneliness, pressure from law enforcement.
Too much to lose e.g. made enough already and too much to risk.
Addictive way of life e.g. competition with peers.
Scam college kids?
Only scam large institutions because they can afford the loss.
Sure, morals cant pay bills.
People who can scam college kids are also those who can scam their peers
not trustworthy.
Scamming students may jeopardise their education.
To produce actionable intelligence for law enforcement to better
understand and tackle cybercrime. Also, to enable other stakeholders
to better anticipate risks to their assets. In order to achieve this, this
project seeks to develop a thorough understanding of the
cybercriminals: their attitudes, behaviour and social dynamics, both
situational and general.
Criminology
+
Social
Psychology
Network
Science
+
Graph
Theory
Questions to address include:
Why do cybercriminals engage in the crime?
How do they feel about their actions?
When do they exit from the crime? Do they stay away?
How can we capture their social dynamics?
Social Network Analysis (SNA), Network Science
How to better disrupt their social networks?
Network Centrality, Link Prediction
In collaboration with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), this
project has access to the database of several online stolen data
markets. Given both qualitative and quantitative data, an
interdisciplinary approach is taken:
Fig. 4: A thread from a carding forum.
Fig. 1: Mapping of the different actors and their likely relationships in the underground economy.
Fig. 2: An interdisciplinary methodology.
Fig. 5: The in- and out-degree distribution (left and middle respectively) and the rich-club
phenomenon showing no tendency for popular nodes to connect with one another (right).
Fig. 3: How carding forums facilitate online criminal trading.
Web Science
Academic Research Data
Reusability

PhD Research Hypothesis: Where does the responsibility
lie for assuring an academic research datum as reliable,
robust and fit for purpose for research users? Exploring
provenance in a digital age.
Laura German LLB (Hons), MSc (Dist.,) (Web Science).
Supervisory Team: Professor Mary Orr (Humanities), Professor Steve Saxby (Law), and Dr Les Carr (Computer Science)
Brief background: Third year Web Science PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Business and Law, University of Southampton.
Academic research interests include: information technology law, intellectual property law, data management/custodianship, data reusability, provenance metadata, open access,
open data, repositories, knowledge transfer, academic publishing and empirical research methodologies. In 2010, graduated with a MSc in Web Science at the University of
Southampton. In 2009, graduated with an undergraduate law degree at University of Southampton.
Data
Originators
Data
Custodians
Research
Users
ABSTRACT: Considers the use and reuse of academic research data by research users in a digital age. Research users now require
greater assurance that an academic research datum is reliable, robust and fit for purpose. The case of Hwang and others illustrates
how and why unreliable academic research data have been published by authoritative journals in a digital age.

Evaluates existing best practices for assuring an academic research datum as reliable, robust and fit for purpose. Utilises a
literature review, semi-structured interviews and three representative case studies within the sciences, social sciences and
humanities to assess current practices. Considers where the responsibility should lie for assuring the quality of an academic
research datum. Considers these factors within a provenance model. Determines how provenance might work better as a guarantor
of quality academic research data.

Tests the robustness of a model of provenance, as a new ethical, moral, legal, technical and social model for research users and
producers within science, social science and humanities. Highlights key areas and grey areas for future work by legislators, web
developers and others involved in the (re)use of academic research data. Delivers a code of best practice for Web Science researchers
at the University of Southampton.

Web Science
A framework for analysing location data
Analysis of 30 technical systems from Ubicomp and Mobile HCI conferences based on the properties
shown on the table above.
The analysis shows the catalyst role of location data in inferring and aggregating other data, even non-
contextual data.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Total Systems Systems that
make 3rd degree
inferences
Systems with 3rd
degree inferences
without semantic
relation to
location data
30
15
5
Degree
of Data
Personal
Identifiable
Data
User
Consent
Data
Quality
Access
Rights
Data
Publisher
1
st
Degree.
Explicitly Declared
2
nd
Degree. Inferred
3
rd
Degree.
Heuristically Inferred
Directly
Indirectly
Heuristically
Non PI
Explicit
Implicit
Accurate
Complete
Timely
User
Friend of User
3
rd
Party
Everyone
User
System
3
rd
Party
56% 27%
17%
Systems where location affects
primarily the type of info published
Systems where location affects but NOT
primarily the type of info published
Systems where location does NOT affect
the type of info published
Attitudes versus Behaviours
- An online survey with 150 participants.
- Real-life scenarios were used (e.g. posting about a concert on Twitter) to investigate peoples behaviour
regarding location data (right figure);
- Likert scale questions were used to explore peoples attitudes in theory (left figure).
- No correlation between peoples attitudes and their answers to the scenarios.
- Participants were also asked to justify their answer to each scenario. The purpose was to explore the
underlying reasons for their decisions. The thematic analysis shows that privacy decisions can be seen
as part of a process of structuration, where attitudes and values (peoples free agency) are tempered by
situation and context (external structure).


Scenario-based questions for the users of each app:
Would you publish your location in this app in this scenario?
49 49 21 4 0 45 52 22 2 1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Very
Concerned
Somewhat
concerned
Not very
concerned
Not
concerned at
all
Don't know
How concerned are you about threats to your
online privacy?
How concerned are you about the fact that
your location might be used for other
purposes too?
Wikipedia
IMDb
Foursquare
Twitter
Facebook
71%
54%
33%
31%
16%
11%
7%
17%
20%
27%
18%
39%
50%
49%
57%
Yes Maybe No
Comfortable sharing my location Application Benefits (convenient) Public event / work-related
No use of sharing my location Concerns over data manipulation Private event
Aristea M. Zafeiropoulou
az4g09@ecs.soton.ac.uk
bitteminotion 1hrough
bitintermediotion
AItOA
Richard Fyson
rwf1v07@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Dr Simon CoIes
S.J.CoIes@soton.ac.uk
Dr Les Carr
Iac.ecs.soton.ac.uk
Reteorchert
ubIithert
bitcipIinet
Reteorch
counciIt
provide metrict
provide orticIet
& reputotion
provide orticIet
provide body
of knowIedge
provide funding
provide
epittemoIogy
why hot the web foiIed to hove o ditruptive impoct
on ocodemic pubIithing...
AItOA ditintermediotet journoI pubIithert to tee
how the web con offect the bigger picture...
The stability of academic publishing can be attributed to
the complex interplay between various stakeholders...
v
Open Accett...
Looks at academic dissemination as an
issue of accessibiIity...
lmpoct
Reputotion
Recognition
KnowIedge
funding
Ronkingt
...but Ieaves other
responsibIities to the journaIs.
This reinforces the roIe of the journaI in
the age of the Web.
By allocating most publishing roles to
journals, the Web merely facilitates traditional
publishing processes rather than innovating
them.
Academic pubIishing is about...
Metrict
Reteorch counciIt
bitcipIinet
ubIithert
cultivate reliable
body of knowledge
provide services to secure revenue
identify academic, economic &
societal impact
online researcher
profiles
post-publication
peer review
new impact
metrics
Reteorchert
enhance reputation
& demonstrate skills
researcher controls
accessibility
wider range of formats
more appropriate for research
tools for capturing
outputs
computing
infrastructure
demonstrate contributions
beyond journal articles
journal bias
removed
R
E
Q
U

R
E
M
E
N
T
S
S
O
L
U
T

O
N
S
researcher
network analysis
MathPen: Towards a pro-human web-based
user interface for mathematics education
Mandy Lo1, Juile-Ann Edwards2, Christian Bokhove2, Hugh Davis1

1Electronics and Computer Science, 2Southampton Education School

Objectives

Against a background where the UK
competitive advantage will depend on
raising the level of our science, tech-
nology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) skills, there was recognition that
UK business and industry would be dis-
advantaged if not provided with an ade-
quate supply of well educated and mo-
tivated STEM graduates [1].

The purpose of this study was to investi-
gate the feasibility of using handwriting
recognition technologies (such as Math-
Pen) to facilitate online collaborative
learning for STEM subjects [2], and en-
gagement with mathematics to under-
pin STEM subjects.

Fig 1: Coding for quadratic formula x=(-b
(b^2-4ac))/2a vs handwriting technology for
word processors

Tools & Methods

MathPen was conceptualised to address
the current needs. This study triangu-
lated research methods including forum
analysis, survey and expert reviews in
conjunction with a demonstration video
of MathPen. Literature and commercial
products were also examined to verify
MathPens social, educational and tech-
nical feasibility.

Fig 2: MathPen

Results

The forum analysis revealed a high lev-
el of interaction between forum mem-
bers, despite the imminent summer hol-
iday. Case studies showed that scanned
images of handwritten work are often
used when Latex is limited. A survey in-
dicated the use of Latex is highly de-
pendent on the users technical abili-
ty. 72% believe handwriting recognition
will prove to be useful and 69% are like-
ly to use this instead of Latex.

Fig 3: Input method usage

Fig 4: No. of mathemaics statements in 100
threads or a day.

Fig 5: Commonly used input methods

Fig 6: Experts resorting to scanning

The expert reviews demonstrated that
the current most commonly used tech-
nology for entering mathematical sym-
bols online is cumbersome and acknowl-
edged that MathPen can allow the us-
er to concentrate on the substance
rather than the formatting, which in
turn can streamline computer-mediat-
ed math communications.

Conclusions

Thus, the cumbersome entry method
for mathematical symbols is a signifi-
cant barrier to online communication
for mathematics. With the improved
timescale in communication of mathe-
matics, now is the time to investigate
online collaborative learning for math-
ematics education.

References

[1] Wilson, R.A.(2008) The Demand for
STEM Graduates: Technical Report on
Sources and Methods.

[2] Catalin, D. & Corneli, J., (2010)
Building Blocks for Online Mathematics
& eLearning.

Web Science
Government Open Data and Democratic
Participation

Mark Frank - University of Southampton
The Context
The UK and governments round the world have committed
to making large amounts of data about central and local
government open for the public and third party
organisations to view and reuse as a matter of routine.







Increase government accountability
Improve public services through informed consumer
choice
Stimulate economic growth through third party
applications






Methods
The Data Perspective
Inspection of data
Is it comprehensible, meaningful, reliable, up-to-date?
How can citizens/third parties use it?
The Government Perspective
Interviews
Who is publishing the data, how and why?
What are they doing to support its use and measure
success in enabling democracy?
The Citizens Perspective
Focus Groups/Surveys
How is the data being used in the democratic process?
How could it be used?
What would enable it to be used better?
Potential Case Studies
Crime, Health, Education, Public spending .
Bringing it all together .




A small example
Government survey results
published on-line.
Data inspection plus focus
group with department.
Conclusions:
Technically reusable
(CSV) file
Visible product of a
complex set of
transactions and
negotiations
Practically meaningless
without understanding
this background
A by-product not an end-
product





The Research Question
Are open data policies just another political move to increase
trust in government or could they be part of a fundamental
change in the way UK democracy works?

References:
Counter-democracy : politics in an age of distrust
Pierre Rosanvallon, CUP, 2008
Trust in numbers : the pursuit of objectivity in science and public life,
Theodore M.Porter, Princeton University Press, 1996
Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better,
Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, Beth Simone Noveck,
Brookings Institution Press, 2009







Huw C. Davies hcd1g10@soton.ac.uk
Susan Halford Nick Gibbins
Is the Internet corrupting the values of our youth?
Acknowledgement: The Digital Economy Programme is a Research Councils UK cross council initiative led by EPSRC and
contributed to by AHRC, ESRC and MRC
Recent studies argue that the Internet is corrupting our youth. However, this
conclusion is a caricature of the situation; it assumes most young people are passive
and credulous users, it relies upon didactic, unsophisticated representations of the
Web and it disguises the possibility the ability critique to information is a new digital
divide. This project aims to employ a range of sociological and computer science
methods including tracking search choices for analysis, collaborative writing on wikis,
focus groups, and interviews to assess how young people engage with information
online. Building on what we know about digital literacy, the results, it is hoped, will
help create more nuanced ways of teaching the Web.


Fractals
In the late 1600s Leibnitz studied structures that appear the same when we
view them (or an appropriate substructure) at different length scales. An
example from nature of such a structure is the fern which we would nd it
difcult to distinguish from a magnied fern leaf or an extremely magnied
fern leafs smaller leaf. Surprisingly it was not until the 1960s and arguably
the development of computers that Benoit Mandelbrot coined the word
"fractal" for these types of object and thrust fractals rmly into the public
imagination. In mathematics models of random processes and geometry
are fertile sources of fractals, Figure 1 below shows the Mandelbrot set
which is a fractal arising from pure mathematics. Two reason that fractals
became popular in the academic and wider world are:
(i) They occur naturally, for example fern leaves and snowakes are very
nearly fractals.
(ii) They are beautiful and have inspired artists such as Jackson Pollock.
Figure 1: The Mandelbrot set
Graphs
Fractal structures also appear naturally in the study of random graphs.
Loosely speaking a graph G consists of a set of nodes N and a set of edges
E together with a function that assigns the two ends of each edge to a node.
We write G = G(N, E).
As well as being interesting of themselves graphs have successfully been
used to represent a variety of real-world phenomena. For example we
can represent the Web as a graph by assigning every webpage to a node
and then linking two nodes if the associated webpages are linked. This
model is so well established it has been named the Web graph. One way
of modelling the Web, particularly the growth of the Web is by building a
graph using a random process which adds nodes and edges over time.
Representing phenomena like the Web by a graph is useful because prop-
erties of the graph such as the degree of each vertex (how many edges
subtend a node) represent real world data such as the number of links that
a webpage has. Given a graph G, we can construct a new graph by taking
any subset, M, of N and all edges in E that have both ends assigned to a
node in M. We calls such a graph a subgraph of G. A simplied social
network site consisting of a set of webpages associated to people and links
between them corresponding to social interaction can be thought of as a
subgraph of the Web graph.
A graph in which every two nodes are joined by following a unique se-
quence of edges from end to end is called a tree. Trees are easier to
calculate with and the following theorem marries graphs with trees.
Theorem 1. Every graph G = G(N
1
, E
1
) admits a spanning subgraph
T = T(N
2
, E
2
) such that T is a tree.
By a spanning tree we mean a tree T such that N
1
= N
2
.
Further, Goh et al. argue that spanning trees of the Web graph can be
thought of as an information kernel of information motorways for the more
complicated network they span [1].
Properties of Graphs
We have seen that graphs or networks are built from nodes and edges
and can be associated with a vast array of natural, social and technical
phenomena. Remarkably this array includes examples as diverse as the
Web, the cerebral arterial tree and the metabolism of E. Coli. What is even
more astonishing is that all these networks, along with countless others
exhibit the following two properties:
(i) the small-world property Given a pair of nodes in the network there
exists a path along edges and nodes which is incredibly short relative to
the size of the network as a whole.
(ii) scale free behaviour If we plot the degree of a node against the number
of nodes with that degree we get a decreasing power law.
We should note that scale free does not necessarily mean that we can
consider these networks fractal but there is a close correspondence.
Current Research
Figure 2:
In order to answer the question, "to what extent are
these networks fractal?" we have conducted a survey of
biological and technical graphs (particularly trees) with
the aim of generating multidisciplinary questions per-
taining to the structure of the Web graph and its various
subgraphs. We focused our attention on Altzheimers
disease since geometric features such as the average
degree in the cerebral arterial tree (shown in Figure 2)
plays a pivotal role in the progression of this disease.
By designing and investigating models of Altzheimers
disease we are able to draw parallels between the natu-
ral structure of the cerebral vasculature and the structure of an online social
network.
Murrays law of least work states that a natural process will evolve to
minimize its energy loss has been cited as the force that drives the fractal
structure of the cerebral vasculature [2]. This naturally begs the questions:
what is the extent to which online social networks exhibit fractal properties
and are there technological and social equivalents of Murrays law?
Future Work
Confusion about the precise denition of fractal pervades the literature
describing biological and technical networks and words such as "self-
similar" are used without due regard for their mathematical denition.
Essential further work includes making this literature more rigorous.
Figure 3: A graph with a spanning tree highlighted in blue
References
[1] K.I. Goh, B. Salvi, B. Kahng, and D. Kim. "Skeleton and Fractal
Scaling in Complex Networks". Physical Review Letter, 96, 018701,
2006.
[2] C.D. Murray. "The Physiological Principle of Minimum Work: I. The
Vascular System and the Cost of Blood Volume". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
U.S.A., 12(3):207-214, 1926.
HOW IS THE WEB LIKE A SNOWFLAKE?
D.Matthews dm1x07@soton.ac.uk
Supervisors: Dr. J. Anderson, Dr. R. Carare
NEIGHBOURHOOD
Caroline Halcrow
Ordnance survey
interactive maps
!help!services!(police,!NHS!points,!
Ci4zen!Advice!Bureaux)!
!MP!+!Councillor!surgeries!
!community!services!
!civic!networking!
Street furniture
!interac4ve!maps!
!'plinth'!local!ar4st!exhibi4ons!
!mobile!phone!'screen!sharing'!
Technology
outreach
!home!instruc4on!on
!street!furniture/tablet!use
!popIup!training!in!companies
!neighbourhood!technology
!volunteers
Home tablet
!na4onal!email!system!e.g.!
3acaciaavenue@neighbourhood.gov.uk!
!one!buMon!videoing!
!interac4ve!maps!
!internet!community!radio!
SOCIOTECHNICAL
CO-CONSTRUCTION
Grassroots design
and implementation
Embedded
technology
HTML5
Web App
A Public Health Approach to Cybersecurity
Huw Fryer (ECS) Supervisors: Tim Chown (ECS), Roksana Moore (ILAWS)
Web Science DTC
University of Southampton
Botnets
A Botnet is a network of infected machines (bots) under the
control of a remote [criminal] operator
Botnets are the tool of choice for cybercriminals
Make crimes harder to detect eg. DDoS, Fast Flux DNS
Makes it considerably harder to trace the real criminals


Bot Remediation
Future Work
Phishing Malware DDoS Child
Porn
Spam
Real Criminal
Is Protected
Bots/Zombies
Perform
Criminal Acts
Takedowns are expensive, time-consuming and require
international co-operation
A botmaster can simply purchase more infected machines
for a small amount of money
Remediated machines are no longer committing crimes
User awareness of the problem should decrease infection
rate making the problem easier to manage
Fewer available machines should increase the cost of
cybercrime therefore making it less worthwhile


Comparative legal study into the approaches taken to protect
users and enforce cybersecurity in different jurisdictions.
Comparison of the regulation and economics of previous
technologies with that of Internet technology.
Investigation of user habits and the effect this has on
propogation
Investigation into how effectively ISPs and other stakeholders
could cope with this
Security Economics
Good security is of benefit to Internet users as a whole, but
without appropriate incentives security wont improve.
An infected machine sending spam suffers minimal effects in
comparison to Internet users as a whole
Releasing only secure software reduces profits and goes
against customer wishes for a quick release cycle
Bot remediation by ISPs costs money and inconveniences
customers
Aims
Identify legal mechanisms which allow a state where positive
behaviour is incentivised or negative behaviour is
disincentivised
Discover to what degree these are enforceable through
technological methods
Identify which parties are best targeted to ensure optimal
cybersecurity
Make cybercrime more difficult by reducing available hosts
for botnet activity
Develop principles for a new tort for cybersecurity
The Public Health Analogy
There are three levels of a successful public health policy:
education (eg. About washing hands), prevention (eg.
Vaccinations) and management (eg. quarantine)
Education
Teach developers to write secure code;
Teach users not to click on the links.
Prevention
Appropriate security software should be installed;
Systems should be kept up to date with the latest
patches.
Management
Isolate and remediate infected machines;
Quickly patch security holes to minimise the damage.
Negligent Enablement of Cybercrime
A proposal based on existing tort laws of negligence and
nuisance law
Challenge the existing language of tort to make it suitable for
use in a connected world, eg. proximity
Impose liability in order to deter careless or insecure
behaviour, as well as to compensate victims for losses
A hacked website should be strictly liable for serving any
malware, based on the amount of people who visited
ISPs are liable for losses incurred by acts of infected
computers until they have warned victims
Users are liable for losses when they have been warned

Web
Science
?
Leaving(the(Body(Behind?(Understanding(the(Web(
Impact(on(the(Construction(of(Of>line(Bodies!
Rebecca(Nash((
rn5g08@soton.ac.uk(
Supervisors:!Professor!Catherine!Pope!&!Professor!Susan!Halford!
Much!!early!literature!on!the!body!and!the!web!sees!the!web!as!a!disembodied!space,!where!individuals!can!
construct!a!quite!separate!fantasy!or!virtual!!self.!However,!as!the!web!has!evolved!into!an!interactive!and!socially!
mediated!!web!it!appears!to!impact!on!!the!ofBline!body.!!!
My!research!explores!whether!the!web!and!users!are!coDconstructing!the!ultimate!individual!body!project.!
Acknowledgement:!The!Digital!Economy!Programme!is!a!Research!Councils!UK!cross!council!initiative!led!by!EPSRC!and!
contributed!to!by!AHRC,!ESRC!and!MRC!
Research(Objectives(
Examine!how!online!health!information!
constructs!ofBline!bodies!
Explore(competing!and!contested!Web!spaces!to!
show!how!they!inBluence!the!body!
Examine!the!impact!of!the!web!on!health!
expertise,!and!health!care!regulation!
Synthesise!Bindings!to!develop!a!
(re)conceptualisation!of!the!web!to!inform!Web!
Science(
Case(Study:(Aesthetic(Surgery(
Aesthetic! Surgery! restores,! normalises,! or!
enhances!the!body!in!pursuit!of!an!aesthetic!ideal.!
Media! images! idealise! certain! body! types! ! ! e.g.!
perfect!characteristics.!!
My! research! will! use! aesthetic! surgery! as! a! case!
study! to! understand! how! individuals! use! the! Web!
for! health! information! about! procedures! and!
products,! how! they! explore! online! spaces! and!
develop! expertise! about! aesthetic! surgery.! I! will!
also! examine! the! impact! of! commoditisation! and!
the! ! spaces! to! purchase! body! work! on! the! ofBline!
body.!
Health(Information(on(the(Web(
Health! informationDseeking! using! the! Web! has!
increased!from!68%!of!informationDseeking!in!2007,!
to! 71%! in! 2011! (OII,! 2012).! Individuals! search! for!
information! for! selfDdiagnosis,! to! complement!
information!already!provided!by!their!doctor,!to!selfD
care,!to!negotiate!treatment!pathways!etc.!!
This!use!of!the!Web!has!been!linked!to!uncertainties!
over! shifting! professional! boundaries! and! ! the!
alleged! fragmentation! of! medical! expertise!
(Nettleton,!2004).!
The(Body(
Sociology(
Web(
Science(
Health((
Sciences(
Is(the(Body(a(Product(of(the(
Web?(
Commercialisation(of(Health(on(the(
Web(
In!the!20
th
!century,!theories!of!consumption!became!
increasingly! popular! to! understand! lateDmodern!
soci et i es.! Furt hermore,! consumpt i on! and!
commoditisation! have! been! seen! to! reBlect! social!
identity! and! status.! The! Web! means! that! ! health!
information! is! available! widely! alongside! various!
healthDrelated! products! at! the! click! of! a! hyperlink!
and!this!online! !commoditisation!of!health!decisions!
in!an!important!area!to!explore!
Credit: YourLife!
References:! Dutton,! W.H.! &! Blank,! G.! (2011)! Next! Generation! Users:! The! Internet! in! Britain," Oxford" Internet"
Survey"2011"Report,!Oxford:!Oxford!Internet!Institute!
Nettleton,!S.!(2004)!The!Emergence!of!EDScaped!Medicine?!Sociology,!38!(4):!661D679!
!
1
Personal Data and Transparency
Reuben Binns, PhD Web Science
Every day, web users give away information
such as likes and dislikes, purchase histories,
messages, emails, tweets, GPS coordinates,
browsing habits and search terms. Many
people now track their daily activity, health
and diet via the web.
When combined, such data constitutes a rich
digital profile of our lives. Mining and
analysing this data can reveal a lot for
marketers, researchers and individuals
themselves.
Three related research themes will be
explored through the disciplines of Computer
Science, Management and Law.
While the amount of personal data collected
has increased, the number of different
purposes to which it is being put is unknown.
'Function creep' refers to the gradual widening
of the use of a piece of data beyond the
purpose for which it was originally collected.
By gathering and analysing open government
data from EU data protection authorities, I
intend to examine the extent of function creep
over time and between jurisdictions.
Background
Function Creep
in Personal Data Collection
Holistic
Privacy Strategy
Within an organisation, legal departments take
responsibility for data protection compliance.
But a broader perspective on privacy also
involves system design and corporate social
responsibility. To what extent do the relevant
departments go beyond compliance to work
together on overall privacy strategy?
Machine and
Human-Readable
Data Use Agreements
Personal data is the new oil
of the Internet and the new
currency of the digital
world.
Meglena Kuneva, European Consumer
Commissioner, March 2009

The
Emerging
Personal Data
Landscape
Data
Protection
System
design
Corporate Social
Responsibility
Privacy
Strategy
Online privacy policies are usually written by and for
lawyers, rather than people or machines. A number of
socio-technical solutions have been proposed, including
machine-readable policies and preferences, simplified
human-readable privacy icons, and crowd-sourced policy
assessments. How can privacy practices and
preferences be effectively communicated via the web?
We don't sell
your data
We don't share your
data with third parties
We store your
data indefinitely
Privacy Icons
(examples from Mozilla / Disconnect.me CC-
BY-SA)
We give your data to
the authorities
i
Platform for
Privacy
Preferences
(W3C standard)
As the value and use of personal data
grows, new technology, systems and
norms are developing around it. These
three research projects present a broader
picture of the personal data landscape by
investigating different, but related aspects
of its emerging infrastructure.
Supervisors:
Lisa Harris, Management
David Millard, Computer Science
Roksana Moore, Law
rb5g11@soton.ac.uk, @RDBinns
Web
Science
Chris Phethean
Thanassis Tiropanis
Lisa Harris
{cjp106, tt2, L.].Harris}
@soton.ac.uk
Charitable
Marketing on
Social Media
Targets
on
Social
Media
Mobilisation
D
i
v
e
r
s
e
A
i
m
s
Fundraising
Relationship
Building
Generating
Referral Traffic
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

M
e
a
s
u
r
e
m
e
n
t
s
R
e
t
w
e
e
t
s
Click-Through
Rate
L
i
k
e
s
S
h
a
r
e
s
P
r
o
je
c
t
e
d
R
e
a
c
h
C
o
m
m
e
n
t
s
Aw
areness
Engagement
Action
Confused
Unclear
Lost
Understanding
Clarity
lmprovement
P
r
o
p
o
s
e
d

F
r
a
m
e
w
o
r
k
Soca meda are often touted as a
medum through whch organsatons
can acheve varous goas and
mprove ther overa performance
and reatonshp wth supporters. In
the current tmes of economc
hardshp that many UK chartes are
facng, the mportance of the Web -
and soca meda n partcuar - for
marketng, pubcsng ther work and
campagns, and engagng ther
supporters through a ow cost,
personased channe s undenabe.
undenabe.
An nnovatve mxed methods study was
desgned to ect answers to these outstandng
questons. Soca meda was seen prmary as a
reatonshp budng too, and was very rarey
utsed for fundrasng.
B
a
c
k
g
r
o
u
n
d
The fndngs from ths study w hep to address
the unstructured and nsuffcent measures that
are currenty beng used to assess soca meda
performance. By taorng metrcs to the specfc
ams of each charty, presentng them n a
structured framework, and consderng aspects
such as soca capta and network effects,
chartes can be put on the road to understandng
how to optmse ther soca meda efforts.
P
h
e
th
e
a
n
e
t a
l. ]4
|
|1| Brones, R.L. et a. Keepng up wth the dgta age: How the Amercan Red Cross uses soca meda to bud reatonshps. Public Relations Review 37,1 (2011), 37-43.
|2| Love|oy, K and Saxton, G.D. Informaton, Communty and Acton: How Nonproft Organzatons Use Soca Meda. journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 17,3 (2012), 337-353.
|3| Obar, |.A. et a. Advocacy 2.0: An Anayss of How Advocacy Groups n the Unted States Perceve and Use Soca Meda as Toos for Factatng Cvc Engagement and Coectve Acton.
55RN eLibrary (2011).
|4| Phethean, C. et a. Measurng The Performance of Soca Meda Marketng In The Chartabe Doman. Web 5cience 20J2, ACM (2012).
|5| Ounton, S. and Fennemore, P. Mssng a strategc marketng trck? The use of onne soca networks by UK chartes. lnternational journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary 5ector Marketing.
(2012).
|6| Waters, R.D. and |ama, |.Y. Tweet, tweet, tweet: A content anayss of nonproft organzatons' Twtter updates. Public Relations Review 37, 3 (2011), 321-324.
Previous Research Open
Study Methods lssues
Waters and |ama
|6|
Love|oy and Saxton
|2|
Obar et a.
|3|
Ounton and
Fennemore |5|
Brones et a. |1|
Content anayss
of tweets
Content anayss
of tweets
Survey (quantatve
and quatatve)
Intervews
Intervews
Understandng why soca meda
was used n a certan way, and
the organsaton's needs. Lmted to Twtter.
Need to understand dfferent usage
of each soca meda servce, and
assocated targets
Reasons why chartes use specfc
soca meda servces
Case study eaves open the queston
of how perceved use matches actua use
Previous studies have left a range of
questions unanswered about how,
and why, charities use social media: