The Socialization of the WWW

. Thursday, April 23, 2009
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This year, WWW2009 is being held in Madrid, a great event and a great place to celebrate the 20th Aniversary of the WWW. The WWW Conference is a great place to study the current opportunities and problems on the Web setup, and that’s why I use to read the abstracts of the accepted papers each years. And there is a visible evolution towards the Social Web in the last 3 years.

In WWW 2007 at Banff (Canada), there was no Social track, only a session called “Mining in Social Networks” under Data Mining track, were 3 papers were presented, but addressing Social Networks as a general paradigm of communication among people. WWW 2008 at Beining (China) had a Social Networks track, containing 3 sessions: “Analysis of Social Networks and Online Interaction Spaces”, “Discovery and Evolution of Communities” and “Applications and Infrastructures for Web 2.0”, and some other papers addressing Social Media as “Finding the Right Facts in the Crowd: Factoid Question Answering over Social Media”.

WWW 2009 clearly shows that the Web is Social. There exist a “Social Networks and Web 2.0” track addressing Social Media and Collaborative Web, with 4 sessions (Recommender Systems, Interactions in Social Communities, Difusion and Search in Social Networks and Photos and Web 2.0) and 12 papers, but there are also, at least, 5 papers in other tracks that address other relevant topics like privacy from a Social Media point of view:
More than 12% of the papers accepted in WWW2009 are related to Social Media, and that’s a very good symptom of the Socialization of the Web.

Aware of Ranking Scam

. Wednesday, April 22, 2009
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In the comments of a previous post, Jijung Tang links a very interesting information about online anonymous ranking sites. He points out some considerations about cs.conference-ranking.net and cs-conference-ranking.org. A must read post.

When I wrote the post about Conference Rankings, I didn't take care about who was behind cs-conference-ranking.org. I was said it was a good reference, and much of the conferences seem to be in a logical order. But Jijung is right, it's weird to find IAENG conferences among the most relevant conferences, and to hide the information about the creators of the ranking is not a good signal.

Social Media, Data Mining & Machine Learning

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I've been more than two months without updating the blog. A lot of work with my new company, trying to find funding for starting-up, and developing tons and tons of code lines. Now I'll try to update the blog once per week of once each two weeks, at least, but as my research interests have shifted a little bit to Social Media applications, I've decided to change the name of the blog from "Business Intelligence, Data Mining & Machine Learning" o "Social Media, Data Mining & Machine Learning". Probably the name of the blog is not so important, but working now on Social Media I feel more comfortable with that keywork in the title.

SSMS 2009 - Summer School on Multimedia Semantics

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** SSMS 2009 - SUMMER SCHOOL ON MULTIMEDIA SEMANTICS ** -- University of Koblenz, Germany --

Managing and Modeling of Multimedia and User Generated Content in Web 3.0

http://www.smart-society.net/ssms09 23-28 August 2009, Koblenz, Germany Application deadline: 15 May 2009 (Friday)

INTRODUCTION

We are pleased to announce 4th edition of Summer School on Multimedia Semantics. This summer school series successfully started in 2006, each year offering top level education at great European locations (Kallithea, Greece; Glasgow, UK; Crete, Greece) for students from all over the world. Summer School on Multimedia Semantics is intended for PhD and Master students, who want to learn more on use of semantics in various media. We offer lectures by leading researchers in the field. Organized student poster sessions will create unique networking opportunities. They are excellent place to present your work, get comments and feedback from senior researchers, or exchange ideas with other participants.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Social Media Modeling
  • Audio Processing and Semantics
  • Video Analysis and Semantic Retrieval
  • Multimedia Personalization

LECTURERS:

  • Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg (IDMT Fraunhofer, Germany)
  • Prof. Dr. Andreas Nuernberger (University of Magdeburg, Germany)
  • Prof. Dr. Lynda Hardman (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, Netherlands)
  • Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)
  • Prof. Dr. Andreas Hotho (University of Kassel, Germany)
  • Dr. Marcel Worring (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
  • Prof. Dr. Fabio Ciravegna (University of Sheffield, England)
  • Dr. Yiannis Kompatsiaris (ITI, Greece)
  • Prof. Dr. Noel O`Connor (Dublin City University, Ireland)
  • Dr. Ansgar Scherp (University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany)

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

We welcome applicants from anywhere in the world. Summer school is mainly addressed for graduate students (Masters and PhD). Each participant is required to bring a poster presenting her/his work. Organized poster sessions will allow to exchange ideas and get feedback on your research. Applications must be send directly to Ruth Götten ( confsec@uni-koblenz.de ) - PDF, ?MsWord or plain text are preferred.

Application must include: - your name, - organization, - name of your supervisor(s), - abstract of your work (limit: 1 page)

More details available at: http://www.smart-society.net/ssms09/index.php?page=registration

CONTACT: confsec@uni-koblenz.de

VENUE:

Koblenz (which means: merging of the rivers) is situated in the picturesque valley of the Rhine and Moselle. Middle Rhine Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage site ( http://www.welterbe-mittelrheintal.de ) City is by four mountain ranges with many vineyards in the valley, its narrow alleyways and happy atmosphere, Koblenz is welcoming town for guests from all over the world. The town has old traditions, reaching over 2000 years to the times of the Roman empire. More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koblenz

ACCOMMODATION AND SOCIAL EVENTS:

The Summer School classes will be held at the Campus of the University Koblenz-Landau ( http://www.uni-koblenz.de ). Suggested accommodation is provided by "Contel" Hotel ( http://www.contel-koblenz.de ) in Koblenz, which is conveniently located within walking distance from the Koblenz campus. Various other options for housing in different price ranges are also available - check SSMS'09 website for more details. Study hard and enjoy summer! Each
day of intensive study is followed by a different social event. Participants and lecturers will find many opportunities to talk, socialize and have more direct contact outside of the classroom. On Wednesday we plan a longer, half-day trip outside of Koblenz.

CALENDAR:

  • Application deadline: 15 May 2009 Acceptance notification: 1 June 2009
  • Registration deadline: 15 June 2009 Summer School: 23 - 28 August

COST:

The tuition fee for each student is 350 EUR. It covers lectures, meals, excursion and other organized social events. Accommodation is NOT included in the tuition. If you have questions, please contact Ruth Götten at confsec@uni-koblenz.de

STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS

We offer a limited number of student scholarships that cover the tuition fee for the summer school. To apply for a scholarship, please attach a letter to your application (limit 1 page) explaining what you expect to learn during the summer school in Koblenz, motivate why you apply for this scholarship and clarify why you cannot use other funds.

ADVISORY BOARD:

  • Dr. Yiannis Kompatsiaris, ITI, Greece
  • Prof. Dr. Ebroul Izquierdo, Queen Mary University London, England
  • Prof. Dr. Lynda Hardman, CWI, The Netherlands
  • Prof. Dr. Fabio Ciravegna, University of Sheffield, England
  • Prof. Dr. Alan Smeaton, Dublin City University, Ireland

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE:

  • Prof. Dr. Steffen Staab
  • Dr. Ansgar Scherp
  • Dr. Marcin Grzegorzek
  • Dr. Maciej Janik
  • Ruth Götten, Dipl.-Päd.