January 23, 2008 - "PhotoSpread: Excelling Beyond the Spreadsheet"
Hector Garcia-Molina
Abstract
PhotoSpread is a spreadsheet system for organizing and analyzing photo collections. It extends the current spreadsheet paradigm in two ways: PhotoSpread accommodates sets of objects (e.g., photos) annotated with tags (attribute-value pairs). Formulas can manipulate object sets and refer to tags.
Photos can be reorganized (tags and location changed) by drag-and-drop operations on the spreadsheet. The PhotoSpread design was driven by the needs of field biologists who have large collections of annotated photos.
In the talk , Garcia-Molina will describe the PhotoSpread functionality and the design choices made. He will also describe some of the other data management tools developed with field biologists.
March 12, 2008 - "Getting the Good Stuff In, Keeping the Bad Stuff Out - Incentives and User-contributed Content"
Jeffrey Mackie-Mason
Abstract
User-contributed content as an input to the production of information services or goods is not new, but it is growing rapidly in significance. Open-source software, Wikipedia, and Flickr are but a few examples: there are a surprising variety of information products and services now relying on user-contributed content. I propose an economic characterization of user-contributed content, and identify contributor behavior issues critical for success.
For an information service provider, these issues predict underprovision of content, inefficient mixes of quality and variety, and undesirable levels of content pollution. How might we design information services or systems to ameliorate these problems? Given the centrality of autonomous, motivated human behavior in user-contributed content problems, I argue this is a problem for incentive-centered design: how to configure economic, social and psychological incentives to induce contribution, discourage pollution, and motivate sufficient effort to generate quality?
To illustrate, for a content pollution problem loosely based on a popular Web site's experience, I offer a stylized mechanism that relies on user-contributed (meta)content to screen out polluting contributions.
May 21, 2008 - "Internet and Society - What Academic Research Actually Knows About It"
Manuel Castells
Abstract
Internet is the revolutionary communication technology of our time. It is in fact an almost 40 year old technology that has gone through transformations and stages. And yet, the understanding of its effects is blurred by ideology, futurology, and media sensationalism. In contrast with widespread misperception, scholarly research has gathered considerable evidence on the relationship between Internet and society around the world. This lecture will summarize what we actually know about the uses and effects of the Internet in the areas of sociability, business, culture, media, spatial organization, social change and politics. The summary of findings will be interpreted in the framework of current trends in cultural and social change. The lecture will not venture into predictions or policy prescriptions as this is not the domain of scientific research. However, questions and comments of all natures are welcome.
July 30, 2008 - "Technology for Developing Regions: Real Needs, Real Impact"
Eric Brewer
Abstract
Moore's Law and the wave of technologies it enabled have led to tremendous improvements in productivity and the quality of life in the First World. Yet, technology has had almost no effect on the four billion people that make less than two dollars per day. The decreasing costs of computing and wireless networking make this the right time to spread the benefits of technology: the biggest missing piece is a lack of focus on the problems that matter. My goal is to convince EE & CS researchers that technology for developing regions is an important and viable research topic.
Key research results so far include contributions to rural connectivity, IT-quality power, education, and health care. Our telemedicine project in southern India was enabled by core WiFi research (to enable high bandwidth over long distances), an iterative design process that includes social science and field work, and a three-year partnership with the Aravind Eye Hospital System. Started as a pilot in 2006, this project now covers 13 villages, 3600 patients/month, and is financially sustainable. To date, over 3000 patients have gone from being functionally blind to having effective vision and the ability to generate income.
October 9, 2008 - "Laboratory Methods in Economics as a Tool in the Design of New Market Processes"
Charles Plott
Abstract
The lecture will focus on information aggregation mechanisms, what they do, how they work and how they can be improved. Early mechanisms focused on market types of organization. Recent work is based on parimutuel type organizations, modified to improve the information aggregation properties as opposed to the entertainment and gambling features. The seminar will focus on the basic behavioral principles as found in laboratory experiments, and how they influenced the designs. A recent field application will be summarized.
December 10, 2008 - "It's Time to Talk: Managing Interruptions in Multi-Agent Environments"
Barbara Grosz
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