Wednesday, May 4, 2011
11:00 am – 12:00 noon, Room 405 IS Building

Jim Jansen
Associate Professor, College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University

Evaluating Demographic Targeting in Online Advertising Using Sponsored Search Analytics

Revolutionizing the advertising industry, sponsored search is the economic engine of the Web, providing the revenue stream for the major search engines and fueling much of the “free” access to information and tools that have become essential in the daily lives of millions. As such, sponsored search has shaped the web as we know it. Generating multi-billions of dollars in operating profit for the search engines and others, a complex technical platform underlies this economic and marketing system. Beginning with an examination of the economic impact and conceptual components of sponsored search, we cover empirical research results using data from a four year, &8.5 million dollar sponsored search advertising effort that generated more than $56 million in sales. We investigate the results from the perspectives of common marketing models, demographic targeting, and human information processing. In addition to specific results, findings show that sponsored search provides a data rich source for empirical marketing and advertising research. As such, sponsored search can be a fruitful research area for those in the information science and web analytics research areas.

Jansen is an Associate Professor with the College of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University.  He is a graduate of West Point and has a PhD in computer science from Texas A&M University, along with master degrees from Texas A&M (computer science) and Troy State (international relations). Jim is editor of the Internet Research Journal (Emerald), a member of the editorial boards of eight international journals, and serves on the research committee for the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). He has received several awards and honors, including an ACM Research Award and six application development awards, along with other writing, publishing, research, and leadership honors. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Pew Research Center with the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010
3:30 – 4:30 pm, Room 501 IS Building

Mawaki Chango
PhD Candidate, Syracuse University Information School    

How We Became Artifacts: Medieval Seals, Modern Passports and the Making of Digital Identity

Abstract: To date, cyberspace assumes the characteristics of a global territory without a consistent and reliable identification system of its own. On the one hand, the Internet software industry has been engaged in devising technical standards and protocols to address what they see as a crucial problem for Internet business and users alike. On the other hand, the White House recently undertook a "Cyberspace Policy Review" that has led to developing a strategy towards enabling secured and trustworthy identity credentials in cyberspace. Furthermore, government and the technical community have also been collaborating in order to define levels and expectations of assurance regarding digital identity credentials to be issued by private entities for online transactions that require identification. This process is currently underway with the hope that government adoption and sanction might provide the momentum much needed for a large-scale rollout of digital identity services. This talk will present the status of an ongoing research project aimed at clarifying the social antecedents or conditions required for effectively establishing a reliable and authoritative identity system in cyberspace. The research takes the form of a socio-historical inquiry into similar challenges in the past, and the ways that they were addressed through identity systems such as medieval seals and modern passports. Technologists and their design activities may gain from confronting possible assumptions regarding social factors on which their technical design depends on. More broadly, it is expected that this research will provide insights into governance, policy and societal implications of the emerging identity systems.

Bio: Changojoined the PhD program at the iSchool at Syracuse in 2005. He has earned two Master's degrees: Political Science from Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Paris-1 (1996) and Philosophy (Lille, 1995), both in France. He served for several years in various countries in Europe and in Africa as consultant with international development agencies such as UNESCO, the International Development Research Centre, and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

Friday, April 16, 2010
2:00 - 3:00 pm 501 IS Building

Robert E. Kraut, Carnegie Mellon University

Evidenced-based Design of Online Communities

Online communities are the fastest-growing portion of the Internet and provide members with information, social support, and entertainment. While a minority, such as Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook and the Apache Server project are highly successful, many others fail. To be successful, online communities must overcome challenges common in almost all groups, organizations and voluntary associations ­ solving problems of start-up, recruitment, socialization, commitment, contribution, coordination and regulation of behavior.

The social sciences can tell us a lot about how to create thriving online communities. Social science theories can inform choices about how to get a community started, integrate newcomers, encourage commitment, regulate behavior when there are conflicts, motivate contributions, and coordinate those contributions to maximize benefits for the community.

Friday, March 19, 2010
2:30 pm 501 IS Building

Titus Schleyer, Center for Dental Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh

Digital Vita: Facebook for Scientists

Abstract: Identifying collaborators is an increasingly difficult challenge for scientists in an age of growing collaboration in biomedical research. The goal of this project was to design and implement a system for identifying potential collaborators within the six schools at the Health Sciences Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Using a multi-method approach, we developed Digital Vita (DV), a scientific social networking system based on faculty CVs. DV allows researchers to manage their complete CVs, output CV information in a variety of formats, build their social network manually as well as automatically, and maintain and route multiple versions of NIH biosketches. DV is integrated into a scientist’s workflow, reduces work through automatic data acquisition and network effects, and provides secondary benefits. It may be well positioned to serve as a complement to more traditional approaches for identifying collaborators.

Bio: Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD, is an internationally known researcher in the field of dental informatics. He is currently Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Dental Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 1997, Dr. Schleyer has been a recipient of a training grant for dental informatics from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Dr. Schleyer conducts research in dental computer applications funded by the National Institutes of Health and publishes regularly on dental informatics topics in major journals. In 2009, Dr. Schleyer was elected to the American College of Medical Informatics.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Kai-Florian Richter, Visiting Researcher

Cognitively Ergonomic Assistance in Navigation

Abstract: In this talk, I will illustrate the overall motivation and approach underlying my work so far. My major interest is how principles of human perception and understanding of space can be implemented in assistance systems. A specific focus is on the environment as information carrier; the application area mostly looked at is navigation in outdoor environments. Implementing cognitive principles leads to cognitively ergonomic assistance that is supposed to be easier to understand and use. In the main part of the talk, I will detail one aspect of this approach, namely schematization in map construction. Schematization produces task-specific visualizations of spatial information that highlight those bits that are relevant for the task at hand while ignoring others. It draws from both cartographic generalization and theories of mental prototypes. I will present examples of different kinds of schematic maps used for orientation and navigation.

Bio: Kai-Florian Richter has a PhD in Informatics (computer science) from Bremen University, Germany. Prior to coming to the School of Information Sciences at Pitt, he has been working in the Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition in Bremen for the past 6 years. In summer 2007, he was a visiting researcher at the Geomatics department, University of Melbourne, Australia. Kai- Florian's work is set in the intersection between Artificial Intelligence, Spatial Cognition, and Geo-Information Science. His main interests are in the intelligent communication of spatial information and in the implementation of cognitive principles in navigation assistance.

Friday, September 18, 2009
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Room 501 IS Building

James Howison, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

Layered Collaboration: What can free and open source software development tell us about the future of informationalized work?

Abstract: Loosely associated individuals, linked by information and communication technologies, are undertaking economically significant activity without the institutions of traditional organization or markets. Through an arc of participant observation, archival replication and formalization, this research develops a theory of layered collaboration and the emergence of complex work. It presents evidence that the production of community-based Free and Open Source Software is far more alone than together; it is far more often individual work done "in company", than it is teamwork per se.  When tasks appear too large for an individual they are more likely to be deferred until they are easier, rather than be undertaken through teamwork.  These results are explained through a sociotechnical theory that links motivation, organization and particular affordances of technology.  The theory enables a systematic approach to understanding the extent and limits of FLOSS development as a model for the future of work.

Bio: James Howison is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on the organization of distributed collaboration and he is a co-PI on a three-year NSF funded project, awarded in 2009, to examine the socio-technical ecosystem of scientific software developers.

James holds a Ph.D. from the Information School at Syracuse University, awarded in May 2009. His dissertation, which won a Graduate School dissertation prize, brought together the study of motivation and organization among community-based Free and Open Source software projects. His publications include articles in IEEE Computer, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications, Software Process Improvement and Practice as well as Knowledge, Technology and Policy. He has presented at the International Conferences for Information Systems (ICIS) and Software  Engineering (ICSE) and the Academy of Management. He was selected as a participant at the ICIS doctoral consortium in 2007 and the NSF-funded workshop on the Science of Socio-technical Systems in 2008. He has been invited to speak at O'Reilly's eTech, OSCON and FOOcamp conferences.

Born in Scotland, James grew up in Australia, earning his undergraduate Economics degree from the University of Sydney.  He pursued masters study in Software Engineering at the University of New South Wales before transferring to the Syracuse Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology in 2002. Prior to returning to graduate school James worked in information systems implementation with KPMG management consultants and as a consultant with Control Risks Group, an international crisis management consultancy. During his PhD he worked with Charles River Venture Capital providing research on opportunities in the open source software space.