How do we behave online?

Marc Smith, Microsoft Research, observes that online communities organize themselves into people who ask questions and people who give answers.

Listen to computer scientists from around the world talk about how their projects are changing the way we communicate, learn, get around -- and live our lives.

Microsoft Research sociologist Marc Smith uses data mining and visualizations to get a picture of the way people act online:

"The goal of community research at Microsoft is to have a view of social cyberspace, the way we now have a view of the heavens above us or the planet itself."

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Produced by Barbara Finkelstein: bfinkel@us.ibm.com

Last updated August 22, 2007

Related links  


Hear or read other presentations in Podium, an IBM Research podcast.

Marc Smith's Microsoft Research page

Visualizing the signatures of social roles in online discussion groups (Journal of Social Structure)

Picturing Usenet: Mapping computer-mediated collective action (Journal of Computer Mediated Communication)

How do we behave offline? (Marc Smith presentation)