Understanding Situated Social Interactions: A Case Study of Public Places in the City

Ubiquitous and mobile computer technologies are increasingly being appropriated to facilitate people’s social life outside the work domain. Designing such social and collaborative technologies requires an understanding of peoples’ physical and social context, and the interplay between these and their situated interactions. In response, this paper addresses the challenge of informing design of mobile services for fostering social connections by using the concept of place for studying and understanding peoples’ social activities in a public built environment. We present a case study of social experience of a physical place providing an understanding of peoples’ situated social interactions in public places of the city derived through a grounded analysis of small groups of friends socialising out on the town. Informed by this, we describe the design and evaluation of a mobile prototype system facilitating sociality in the city by (1) allowing people to share places, (2) indexing to places, and (3) augmenting places.     

面向现实的移动SNS系统

蓝牙技术、GPS定位技术,重力加速器技术的不断发展为移动社交网络服务的产生和发展提供了新的契机。以面向现实为应用需求,探讨了MSNS（Mobile Social Network Services）的应用开发技术,设计了系统的体系结构,基于Android操作系统研究了其中关键功能的设计与实现。面向现实移动SNS系统拉近了人与人之间的距离,使SNS从＂虚拟＂走向＂现实＂。     

移动SNS 技术专论

移动社会网络服务(SNS)已经成为热点研究领域,然而却很少有研究工作揭示移动SNS的本质,因此导致了目前没有一个通用的、能代表移动SNS基本特性的平台。为解决上述问题,首先详细分析了移动SNS的基本特性、移动SNS平台的需求,接着提出了支撑移动SNS平台运行的网络架构,最后提出了移动SNS平台的总体架构。     

Social-mobile applications

Mobile communications devices and applications are primarily designed to increase efficiency and productivity for professionals on the go. However, users invariably appropriate such technology to meet their social needs as well. For many people, particularly younger users, BlackBerry devices, Hiptops, and other handhelds primarily have a social function. A few small companies are beginning to exploit the growing demand for social-mobile applications, also known as mobile social-software services. One of the most popular MoSoSos applications is dodgeball, a New York-based social-mobile network. Dodgeball users also can broadcast messages, or "shout," to those in their network.     

面向移动社交网络的位置隐私保护方法

移动社交网络为人们的生活带来了极大的便利,但用户在享受这些服务带来便利的同时,个人位置隐私受到了严重威胁。首先对用户位置隐私保护需求进行了形式化描述,继而针对用户的敏感兴趣点泄露问题,提出了一种情景感知的隐私保护方法。该方法将位置信息、社交关系、个人信息引入到知识构建算法中以计算兴趣点间的相关性,并利用该相关性及时空情景实时判断发布当前位置是否会泄露用户隐私,进而实现了隐私保护与服务可用性间的平衡。最后通过仿真实验验证了该方法的有效性。     

Social networking on smartphones: When mobile phones become addictive

As the penetration of mobile phones in societies increases, there is a large growth in the use of mobile phones especially among the youth. This trend is followed by the fast growth in use of online social networking services (SNS). Extensive use of technology can lead to addiction. This study finds that the use of SNS mobile applications is a significant predictor of mobile addiction. The result also shows that the use of SNS mobile applications is affected by both SNS network size and SNS intensity of the user. This study has implications for academia as well as governmental and non-for-profit organizations regarding the effect of mobile phones on individual’s and public health.     

Who wants to be “friend-rich”? Social compensatory friending on Facebook and the moderating role of public self-consciousness

The present research aims to provide insight into social compensatory friending on social network sites by investigating the effects of self-esteem and self-consciousness on number of friends in the context of Facebook use. It was hypothesized that Facebook users low in self-esteem, when compared with high-self-esteem individuals, would engage in friending more actively and thereby accumulate a large number of friends as a way to compensate for the deficiency in self-esteem. We also hypothesized that the relationship between self-esteem and number of Facebook friends would vary depending on the levels of public self-consciousness. Data were collected from a college student sample in the United States (N = 234) based on an online cross-sectional survey. The results supported the hypothesis on social compensatory friending, demonstrating a negative association between self-esteem and number of Facebook friends. Furthermore, the data yielded support for the hypothesized moderating role of public self-consciousness in social compensatory friending: the negative association between self-esteem and number of Facebook friends was significant only for Facebook users who are high in public self-consciousness but not for those who are low in public self-consciousness. Implications for understanding social network site users’ friending behavior in light of social compensation motives are discussed.     

Exploring seniors’ continuance intention to use mobile social network sites in China: a cognitive-affective-conative model

Universal Access in the Information Society - With the rapid increase of senior users in mobile social network sites (MSNS), how to attract and maintain seniors’ continuous usage is more and...     

面向移动社交云的资源分配机制

移动社交云是结合了移动云和社交云的一种新型模式,它可以为用户提供安全可靠的资源分享平台.在传统的资源分配中,移动用户从远程数据中心获取资源的时间开销大,显著地降低了用户的体验质量,与此同时也极少考虑用户之间根据社交属性建立的信任关系,从而导致交易机制存在一定信用风险和交易用户信誉度低的问题.为此,在考虑用户的社交效益和经济效益的基础上提出了一种新型的移动社交云资源分配机制.首先,利用改进Gale-Shapley算法为买方在其朋友圈中匹配出合适的卖方,促进社交朋友间资源的共享.其次,利用多对多的买方多标密封拍卖算法,对未成功匹配的用户再次分配资源,最大化利用空闲的移动云资源.最后,实现了提出的资源分配机制,仿真结果表明,与激励与拍卖兼容的移动云资源分配机制相比,提出的资源分配机制在价格满意度、社交信誉满意度和资源交易成功率方面具有更好的性能.     

Social network site use,mobile personal talk and social capital among teenagers

Social network sites (SNSs) and mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in teenagers’ lives. Using data collected from a nationally representative survey (N = 800), this study explores the variation of social capital by SNS adoption, different SNS activities, and mobile personal talk among teenagers. The results indicate that SNS adoption and mobile personal talk can not only enhance teenagers’ close ties with friends, but also jointly promote teenagers’ civic engagement. Among SNS users, mobile personal talk also increase teens’ network capital. Different SNS activities such as commenting on friend’s Facebook pictures and joining Facebook groups have different relationships with social capital, and such relationships are moderated by mobile personal talk.     

富媒体技术在手机广播社交中的研究与应用

3G网络与智能机的普及,带来了移动媒体应用的大变革. 本文旨在通过对富媒体技术的研究与分析,论述其在基于iOS的社交平台——沈阳手机广播系统中的应用,并通过音频队列服务和线程队列服务及缓存策略对富媒体的传输、呈现机制进行优化. 目前该手机广播系统已通过测试,并在AppStore上线,经实验与实践证明,该设计方案在性能与用户体验方面能满足用户的移动社交需求.     

移动社会性网络中基于朋友关系的社区服务

移动社会性网络服务引领了网络发展的新时代,是以帮助人们建立社会性网络为目的的互联网应用服务,受到了广大用户的喜爱。但是这些网站繁多,用户登录所有的网站不太方便。针对社会性网络,运用种子扩展的算法对网络用户所有的社交关系进行归纳分析,构造出"好友圈子",为用户提供社区服务。对某大学的产品调研表明好友圈子为用户提供了便捷、聚合性的服务,为商家寻求盈利模式提供了新的关注焦点,具有较高的商业价值。     

An integrated approach to untangling mediated connectedness with online and mobile media

With the growth and convergence of mobile and social computing technology, mobile media are accorded new social meaning manifested in different aspects of our everyday life. This paper employs multiple theoretical frameworks—including the theory of the niche, the framework of media repertoires, and the communication infrastructure model—to examine individual-technology relationship as manifested through media repertoires and media connectedness. It argues that individuals tend to construct a set of media options and build connectedness with media technologies by engaging in a wide scope of activities through these media. In turn, this media repertoire and media connectedness may facilitate the performance of social and cultural practices in the public space. To investigate this conceptualization empirically, this study conducted a secondary analysis of data collected by the Pew Research Center in the United States. The results showed that multidimensional use of mobile apps was predicted by multidimensional Internet use, along with the scope of regular apps used and monetary investment by users. Additionally, multidimensional Internet use and the use of media repertoires consisting of mobile media and social media for socio-cultural activities facilitate public socio-cultural engagement. These results bring to light a new way of understanding how humans appropriate multiple types of technologies for activities in everyday life.     

Distributed user interfaces in public spaces using RFID-based panels

The combination and integration of services between mobile computing and context-aware applications responds to the use of mobile devices defining a wide range of distributed user interfaces to support social activities. In this paper, we propose a novel solution that combines social software with context awareness to improve users' interaction in public spaces. This approach is based on the concept of collaborative interactive panels where users share their opinions and ideas about environmental issues by performing natural gestures. And so, taking advantage of physical resources already available in public spaces combined with the use of well-known technologies, such as mobile devices and RFID, we extend the concept of social software from the Web to physical public scenarios, such as bus stations, squares, etc. As an example, we present a case of study that encourage citizens' participation in decisions related to the community environmental issues reducing the gap between the social software and users.     

基于最近社交圈的社交时延容忍网络路由策略

无稳定拓扑使时延容忍网络(delay tolerant networks,DTN)路由协议主要通过增加冗余数据包副本提高路由性能.社交网络是DTN的一种典型应用场景,但由于其网络规模相对较大,当网络负载高时,通常的DTN路由不能有效控制数据包副本的数量,从而产生大量丢包导致性能下降.借鉴MANET网络中利用分簇结构控制网络冗余路由数据包的思想,通过分析社交网络中节点的移动模型,定义了在社交关系的约束下,聚合移动规律相近的节点构成最近社交圈的节点簇组成策略.提出了一种基于该分簇结构的分为簇外喷射、簇间转发和簇内传染3个阶段的社交时延网络路由协议.实验证明,这种基于最近社交圈分簇结构的路由能有效地控制冗余数据包副本的产生,并在高网络负载的情况下仍然能够达到较好的性能.     

基于三度影响力的社交好友推荐机制

针对社交网络中的好友推荐问题,提出了一种基于三度影响力理论的好友推荐算法。社交网络用户节点间的联系除了共同好友外,还存在其他不同长度的连通关系。该算法不再局限于仅以用户间共同好友的数量作为好友推荐的主要依据,而是在此基础上引入三度影响力理论进一步拓展关系连接,即把用户间距离三度以内的强连接用户都考虑进来,并通过为不同距离长度的连通关系分配相应的权重,实现好友关系强度的计算,来进行推荐。通过在新浪微博和Facebook社交网站上的实验结果表明,该算法比仅依据用户间共同好友数量的推荐算法在查准率和查全率上分别提高了约5%和0.8%,显著提升了社交平台好友推荐的效果,从而为社交平台改进推荐机制,以进一步增强用户体验提供了理论支撑。     

Leveraging social networks in the adoption of mobile technologies for collaboration

Mobile devices such as tablets, smart phones, and portable computers are connecting users in a myriad of contexts. Social networks can be a benefit for individuals in the knowledge acquisition process, and group dynamics disclosed by Social Network Analysis provides a good basis for studying how mobile collaboration is affected by social networks. This study focuses on two aspects of social network mechanism, namely eigenvector centrality and network reciprocity. The assumption is that social networks influence mobile technology use behaviors, and can be optimized to leverage mobile collaboration. A series of controlled field experiments involving 327 groups were conducted to evaluate the differences between two modes of mobile collaborative settings: individual non-collaborative vs. group collaborative. Results indicate that by leveraging social networks in a mobile platform, study participants were able to positively heighten their collaborative knowledge acquisition process through enhanced group interactions and enjoyment.     

Social capital expectation and usage of social media: the moderating role of social capital susceptibility

This study aims to identify the motivations of social media users who click ‘like’ to the post of their friends. We posit that this behaviour is not solely based on an instant feeling or reaction to a post, but a more complicated action that involves calculation and expectation of the future social media use. We first apply social capital theories to identify the types of expectations, and then differentiate these expectations based on the communication styles of social media where private and public relationships coexist. From these, we develop a social capital expectation matrix in the context of social media. In the research model, we discuss how these social capital expectations motivate people to use social media, including the moderating effects of social capital susceptibilities, based on expectancy theory of motivation. To validate our model, data collected from 291 social media users are analysed. This result confirms that people click likes to share their interests and display their network to others. Conversely, the relational dimensions of social capital including capital recompense and social inclusion exerted significant interaction effects only when they were considered along with capital susceptibilities.     

When ‘friends’ collide: Social heterogeneity and user vulnerability on social network sites

The present study examines how the use of social network sites (SNS) increases the potential of experiencing psychological, reputational and physical vulnerability online. From our theoretical perspective, concerns over the use of social network sites and online vulnerability stem from the ease with which users can amass large and diverse sets of online social connections and the associated maintenance costs. To date most studies of online vulnerability have relied on self-report measures, rarely combining such information with user's validated digital characteristics. Here, for a stratified sample of 177 UK-based Facebook users aged 13 to 77, digitally derived network data, coded for content and subjected to structural analysis, were integrated with self-report measures of social network heterogeneity and user vulnerability. Findings indicated a positive association between Facebook network size and online vulnerability mediated by both social diversity and structural features of the network. In particular, network clustering and the number of non-person contacts were predictive of vulnerability. Our findings support the notion that connecting to large networks of online ‘friends’ can lead to increasingly complex online socialising that is no longer controllable at a desirable level.     

考虑群组结构的在线社交网络竞争性舆情信息传播模型研究

针对在线社交网络中竞争性舆情信息同时传播的问题,在无标度网络的基础上引入群组结构,构建竞争性舆情信息传播模型,考虑舆情信息内容、用户亲密度、社会强化效应因素并进行仿真研究。仿真结果表明,引入群组结构的无标度网络充分契合了在线社交网络的复杂性质;群组数量、群组规模、用户亲密度、社会强化效应对竞争性舆情信息的传播有不同的促进作用;控制舆情信息内容的重要性与模糊度可有效调控竞争性舆情信息的传播与扩散。