Brazil

Researchers lay foundation to measure social media

The emergence of online social networks creates possibilities for new services that tap into a valuable pool of user-generated information such as citizen journalism. Realizing these benefits, however, demands more knowledge about the impact of such technologies on the “information economy” ecosystem, as well as on content governance on the Internet. In this context, the researchers examined user behaviour in online peer production systems and sought to design new ways to quantify peer produced information such as social tagging.

The project depends on software and hardware to analyze public records of user activity from YouTube and other systems. Researchers laid the foundation for this work by designing and implementing the core of the software infrastructure. In addition, they set up mechanisms to make remote collaboration more efficient, including tools to help control software quality.

Even more significantly, the project boosted on-site collaboration among the partners. NetSysLab hosted two Brazilian students for six months as part of the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program, for example. The partners developed three new joint projects, and secured funding for a UBC student to visit LSD/UFCG in 2012.