MODUL University Vienna - New Media Research Blog

Social media as a barometer of environmental policy – Analyzing coverage on the COP 17 Climate Change Conference

Stewart — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:15:00 +0000

To coincide with the UN World Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa (COP 17), MODUL University Vienna, together with a team of Austrian researchers, presented the newest release of the Media Watch on Climate Change (www.ecoresearch.net/climate), a comprehensive system for the analysis of social media and online reports from many different sources (Anglo-American news media, scientific publications, social media including Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, environmental organizations, corporations, etc.).

COP stands for the “Conference of the Parties” yearly assembly, which consists of the 195 countries that signed the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. The current COP 17 event emphasizes the importance of global communication and collaboration for addressing environmental problems. Acquiring, managing and applying knowledge are crucial steps in ensuring that change is conceived and implemented on both regional and society-wide scales.

The new release of the Media Watch on Climate Change aims to support these processes by increasing transparency, creating shared meaning and supporting sustainable processes. The impact of the Kyoto Protocol is a chief component of the COP discussions, and a media watch search turns up an extensive array of articles from across the globe. By querying terms such as “COP 17” and “Durban”, users can obtain an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of matching quotes, semantic associations, and the geographic distribution of search results. Color-coded by sentiment (green = positive; red = negative), the current distribution reflects a skeptical Anglo-American media landscape with diverging views on whether urgently needed progress will be achieved, as well as intense discussions about previous treaties such as Kyoto.

The interactive technologies of the climate portal (see www.weblyzard.com) underline the importance of new forms of environmental communication and cooperation. The visual exploration tool allows users to monitor in real time in which countries and on which online platforms relevant content is published, whether the sentiment is positive or negative, and what main topics related to climate change are being discussed. More than five years into the project, the Media Watch on Climate Change is an important contribution to creating more transparency and understanding the positions of various stakeholders.

Related Research Projects

• Climate Change Collaboratory (www.modul.ac.at/nmt/triple-c)

• Dynamic Integration and Visualization of Information from Multiple Evidence Sources (www.weblyzard.com/divine)

Sentiment Detection in Scotland: MU at ACM Conference

Gindl — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:08:42 +0000

The ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management is an internationally renowned conference to present the latest developments and innovations in information retrieval, knowledge management, and databases. Since its foundation 20 years ago, it has been a key annual meeting of the minds for leading scientists in this field.

Stefan Gindl, researcher and lecturer at the Department of New Media Technology, had the chance to join the over 700 participants this year in Glasgow, Scotland. He presented cutting-edge research in the area of sentiment detection, which has the challenging goal of making computers interpret human opinions by analyzing their writings. This research has been incorporated as an integral component into award-winning public showcases such as the"Media Watch on Climate Change".

Sentiment detection methods require a list of opinionated terms, a "sentiment lexicon". In order to collect a solid database for analysis, MU's new media team harnessed the power of social media and developed a game-with-a-purpose to create a sentiment lexicon from scratch. This Facebook application called the "Sentiment Quiz", presents various terms to human players and asks them for their opinion whether the term expresses positive or negative sentiment. The quiz keeps the players engaged by rating terms such as "wail" and "smile" for positive and negative connotations, which improves the coverage and accuracy of the lexicon.

To the backdrop of craggy Scottish hills, the stimulating atmosphere of the conference allowed for an exchange of ideas among scientists of many different nations. The social events offered by the organizers supported the deepening of fresh acquaintances in a recreational surrounding after a long day of scientific inspiration. Back home at MU, Stefan has returned with fresh ideas to further improve the new media department’s efforts on sentiment detection.

Social Media and JavaScript Experts: Join the Department of New Media Technology

Scharl — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Position Announcement
Researchers and Software Developers: New Media and Interactive Web Technologies

The Department of New Media Technology of MODUL University Vienna (MU Vienna) and the Research Institute for Computational Methods of Vienna University of Economics & Business (VUEB) are seeking outstanding researchers and software developers with a focus on interactive Web technologies and collaborative Web 2.0 platforms. We offer part-time (e.g. for currently enrolled students), full-time and PhD candidate positions. Information on related research projects is available at online at www.weblyzard.com/divine, www.ecoresearch.net/climate, and www.modul.ac.at/nmt/triple-c.

Essential Qualifications

Analytical skills and extensive programming experience (JavaScript, Java)
Dynamic Web technologies (AJAX, JavaScript, CSS)

Desired Qualifications
Expertise in one or more of the following areas:

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
Information Visualization
Social Media and Facebook Application Development
Mobile Platforms (Android, iOS)
Open Source Database Management Systems (PostgreSQL)
Linux System Administration (Debian, Ubuntu)

We offer the opportunity to participate in internationally recognized research as part of a young, dynamic and interdisciplinary team. The position remains open until filled (review of resumes to begin immediately). MU Vienna and VUEB are equal opportunity employers and encourage qualified women to apply. Please send your application including cover letter, curriculum vitae and academic transcript to Ms. Jode Hamilton at jode.hamilton@modul.ac.at (in English or German; preferably as a single PDF file not exceeding 8 MB).

MODUL University Vienna
Department of New Media Technology
www.modul.ac.at/nmt

Enterprise use of Social Media – Cisco Austria and MU Vienna jointly present survey results

Stewart — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:18:27 +0000

On September 1st, MODUL University Vienna’s Vice President Prof. Arno Scharl and Cisco Austria CEO and NMT Advisory Board member Dr. Achim Kaspar presented the results of a recently conducted survey on the usage of social media platforms in Austrian businesses. The results indicated that three-quarters of managers and senior executives are aware of the potential of social media, but are concerned that they do not fully utilize this emerging technology.

These findings are highly relevant for the research and teaching portfolio of MU’s Department of New Media Technology. The results show that Austrian businesses are open to new media tools, but still need to adopt the required tools and infrastructures. MU Vienna is developing such tools and infrastructures in two current research projects:

To cope with the resulting increase in information volume, the department is continuously extending an award-winning Web Intelligence Platform. The platform provides the foundation for the DIVINE research project, funded within the FIT-IT Semantic Systems program line. The platform helps to assess the strategic positioning of an organization, measure the effectiveness of its communication strategies, and compare the opinions of multiple stakeholders.
Prof. Scharl explains it so: "With this platform, we provide decision makers with a comprehensive system for social media analysis. Relevant entries on blogs and Web 2.0 platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are automatically recorded. The system not only provides important indicators for the strategic positioning of an organization, but also supports PR and marketing activities with topic detection capabilities and a sentiment barometer ".
The department is also engaged in investigating new forms of communication and collaboration as part of the Climate Change Collaboratory, a project that builds tools to manage expert knowledge as well as a context-sensitive environment for creating and editing documents in a collaborative manner. This interactive Web tool connects the normally separate processes of information research and the writing of documents, and identifies substantive relationships in large document repositories. Funded by the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP), the project supports networking activities between climate change experts, whose knowledge will be used to expand and improve the functionality of the system.

Sustainovation 2011 - The future is green at MU Vienna

Stewart — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 11:51:56 +0000

Under sunny spring skies, MODUL University Vienna hosted the second annual Sustainovation conference from June 3rd-5th, geared at pushing the boundaries of sustainability and innovation. The theme of ''Sustainability as a Motor for Innovation'' was a perfect fit for MU, as our philosophy embraces the need for environmental consciousness and sustainable technologies.

Truly one of the most forward-thinking conferences in this field, MU served as the perfect location for scholars, entrepreneurs, scientists, architects, designers and inventors to assemble on Kahlenberg and present ideas and projects. An excellent platform for interaction and networking, the two-day affair was organized by Mehrblick, an organization that bills itself as an ‘ideas studio and project incubator’. The open format brought together experts from varied backgrounds and encouraged them to think outside their discipline.

Consisting of 45-minute sessions structured within the three parallel frameworks of Ideas (Vision), Success (Best Practice), and Findings (Knowledge), many of the over 100 participants gave compelling presentations on their area of expertise. Within these thematic clusters, the program featured such diverse speakers as Green Party politician Christoph Chorherr discussing a university student project to build schools in Africa; researcher, advisor and project developer Rainer Rosegger explaining 'cradle-to-cradle design', in which products are designed with sustainability in mind to minimize garbage production and environmental impact; and MU’s own Vice President and Dean of New Media Technology, Arno Scharl, speaking about tracking environmental trends in social media. The research of the Department of New Media Technology focuses on content aggregation and Web Intelligence technologies - MU Vienna hosts the award-winning 'Media Watch on Climate Change' (www.ecoresearch.net/climate), for example, and the upcoming 'Climate Change Collaboratory' (www.modul.ac.at/nmt/triple-c).

Further presentations explored healthy living, sustainable urban planning and movement, and green marketing among the offerings. The participants' positive feedback underscores the appeal of such an interactive format, which encourages new bonds between people of different sectors and disciplines.

Given the great success of the first two Sustainovation conferences, we are looking forward to hosting the event again in June 2012!

Additional Information: www.mehrblick.at Photo Credit: www.pohtography.com Department of New Media Technology: www.modul.ac.at/nmt

A Call to Take Coordinated Action and Improve Climate Change Communication

Scharl — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:25:46 +0000

Thomas E. Bowman, founder of the Climate Solutions Project and keynote speaker at a public symposium held at MODUL University Vienna in June 2010 (see the project page of the Climate Change Collaboratory), has co-authored a call to action published in today's edition of "Science".

Together with a number of internationally recognized climate experts [1], he calls for a nonpartisan effort to counter observable efforts to undermine public confidence in science. The full text of the document is available at www.climateengage.org, where it is also possible to endorse this initiative to establish climate change policy as a "trusted broker of unbiased information ... about climate change risks and solutions".

[1] Co-authors: Thomas E. Bowman, Edward Maibach, Michael E. Mann, Richard C. J. Somerville, Barry J. Seltser, Baruch Fischhoff, Stephen M. Gardiner, Robert J. Gould, Anthony Leiserowitz, Gary Yohe.

International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval

Gindl — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:34:46 +0000

KDIR is one of three conferences held simultaneously under the umbrella of the IC3K, located in Valencia, Spain. This joint conference strongly supports the communication of scientists of different research areas. The opening keynote was held by Rudi Studer, summarizing current approaches in the Semantic Web area. The speaker of the closing keynote was Oscar Pastor, who shared insights into the state-of-the-art of computer-aided genetic research.

The New Media Technology Department presented latest work on sentiment detection - more specifically, an approach to automatically extend sentiment lexicons without the need for human annotators. Sentiment lexicons as the basis of each sentiment detection system play a very important role. Yet, since manual annotation is time-consuming and requires (expensive) human annotators, an automated approach is desirable. The work presented at KDIR tackles this problem. It utilizes and compares information retrieval techniques to identify possible new sentiment terms in free-text documents of unknown sentiment: (i) Latent Semantic Analysis, (ii) Pointwise Mutual Information-Information Retrieval, and (iii) Co-Occurrence Analysis.

European Conference on Machine Learning and Principle and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD)

Gindl — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:39:20 +0000

The ECML PKDD is a technical conference on cutting-edge innovations in the areas of machine learning and knowledge discovery. It was held in Barcelona, Spain, at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. The keynote by Prof. Hod Lipson offered insights on current trends in robotics and machine learning. Lipson's team aims to create a machine learning algorithm capable of deriving principles governing the natural sciences based on the automated analysis of raw data.

Stefan Gindl, researcher at the Department of New Media Technology, gave a talk on the department's current work on sentiment detection. The presented paper compares "Different Aggregation Strategies for Generically Contextualized Sentiment Lexicons". The underlying technology refines classic sentiment lexicons by integrating context knowledge to flexibly adapt the contained sentiment values. This contribution to the special track of the DyNaK workshop (Dynamic Networks and Knowledge Discovery) presented parameter settings to optimize this process.

European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-2010)

Gindl — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 07:45:58 +0000

The European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), one of the most influential conferences in the area of Artificial Intelligence, attracts researchers from many areas such as Robotics, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. The biannual conference is a forum for the discussion and presentation of a wide range of applications from ontology engineering to dancing robots and even work on the famous game "Go". Thanks to its multi-disciplinarity, ECAI is a unique opportunity for networking and exchange of knowledge for participating researchers.

Stefan Gindl, researcher at the Department of New Media Technology, attended this year's conference and presented a paper on "Cross-Domain Contextualization of Sentiment Lexicons" by means of machine learning. Sentiment analysis is a challenging research area with a long history going back to the 1950's. With the emerging of the Web, the field gained in relevance and attracted the interest of many researchers. The work presented at the ECAI proposes a method utilizing a Naive Bayes algorithm for addressing a persistent problem of sentiment analysis, which is the correct identification of a term's usage context.

Expert Workshop and Symposium on Climate Change Communication and Collaboration

Scharl — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 11:24:43 +0000

The Climate Change Collaboratory (Triple-C) is a two-year research project funded within the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP). The introductory expert workshop and public symposium entitled “Climate Change Communication and Collaboration: Translating Awareness into Collective Action” took place on June 16th, 2010 at MODUL University Vienna. Photos of the event as well as the slides of the keynote speakers (see short biographies below) are now available for download:

David D. Herring, Communications Program Director, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Climate Program Office
Download Slides | Photo*
Prof. Dr. Helga Kromp-Kolb, Head of the Institute of Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences
Download Slides | Photo*
Prof. DDr. Arno Scharl, Vice President and Head of Department, MODUL University Vienna, Department of New Media Technology
Download Slides | Photo*
Dr. David Stainforth, Senior Research Fellow, London School of Economics, Grantham Research Institute
Download Slides | Photo*
Moderator: Thomas E. Bowman, MA, President of the Bowman Design Group and Founder of the Climate Solutions Project
Download Slides | Photo*

Short Biographies

David Herring serves as Director of the Communications & Education Program within NOAA's Climate Program Office, in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he works to promote public climate science literacy. Central to this endeavor is the new NOAA Climate Services Web Portal (www.climate.gov), published in December 2009, for which he serves as Program Manager. David also conceived a new series of public dialogs called “Community Conversations on Climate”, which brings together climate scientists, policy experts and citizens into facilitated dialogs about causes and impacts of climate change. Before joining NOAA in 2008, David spent 16 years working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, as an Education and Outreach Project Manager in the Earth Sciences Division, where he also served as the Terra Mission Outreach coordinator. David led the effort to build NASA’s award-winning Earth Observatory, Visible Earth, and NEO websites. He received his Masters Degree in 1992 from East Carolina University, where he trained in science and technical writing, journalism, and science education.

Helga Kromp-Kolb is a climate researcher and heads the Institute of Meteorology and is chair of the University Senate at the University of Applied Life Sciences and Natural Resources in Vienna. Her scientific expertise is in the area of climatology and meteorology in particular environmental meteorology and environmental research. After a leading position at the Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik/ Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics and after being an Associate Professor at San José State University in Californa / USA she has been teaching and researching at the University of Applied Life Sciences and Natural Resources in Vienna, a position she has held since 1995. She is a member of the Austrian, German and American Associations for Meteorology. Her scientific expertise is in high demand in numerous advisory bodies and councils. Ms Helga Kromp-Kolb was awarded with the “Konrad Lorenz Award” in 1991 and “Austrian Scientist of the Year Award” in 2005.

Arno Scharl is the Vice President of MODUL University Vienna and Head of the Department of New Media Technology. Prior to his current appointment, he held professorships at the University of Western Australia and Graz University of Technology, was a Key Researcher at the Austrian Competence Center for Knowledge Management, and a Visiting Fellow at Curtin University of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley. Arno Scharl completed his doctoral research and habilitation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. He has edited books on Environmental Online Communication and The Geospatial Web (www.ecoresearch.net/springer; www.geospatialweb.com), founded the ECOresearch Network (www.ecoresearch.net) and served as co-chair of the 20th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection. His current research interests focus on the integration of semantic and geospatial Web technology, Web mining and media monitoring, virtual communities and environmental online communication.

David Stainforth is a Senior Research Fellow in the Grantham Research Institute. He is a physicist by training and has many years experience of climate modelling. While a researcher at Oxford University he co-founded and was chief scientist of the climateprediction.net project, the world's largest climate modelling experiment. He has been both a NERC Research Fellow and a Tyndall Research Fellow at Ox-ford University. His current research interests focus on how we can extract robust and useful information about future climate, and climate related phenomena, from modelling experiments. This includes issues of how to design climate modelling experiments and how to link climate science to real-world decision making in such a way as to be of value to industry, policy makers and wider society.

Thomas E. Bowman is one of the premier interpreters of global change, climate and energy science, and green business strategies. He is a social entrepreneur, advisor, communication strategist, and science interpreter. As President of Bowman Design Group, he led award-winning climate exhibition designs for the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences and Birch Aquarium at Scripps, and the Ocean on the Edge exhibition at the Aquarium of the Pacific. As a consultant with Bowman Global Change, he contributed to the federal Climate Literacy education guide, organized a groundbreaking meeting for assessing public attitudes to global warming, and authored its influential summary report. Bowman founded the Climate Solutions Project to develop public intervention strategies with a blue-ribbon team of experts in climate science, social science, economics, ethics and social marketing. He writes a monthly column on green business strategies and received an inaugural Small Business of the Year award from the California Air Resources Board in 2009 for generating annual cost savings while slashing his firm's greenhouse gas emission by 65% in just two years.

* Photo Credits: MODUL University Vienna/APA-OTS/Schedl (More Photos)