How can you tweet in Chinese?
by Karen Woods
Management School PhD student Ring Xu fascinated university staff and students interested in developments in the digital economy with her presentation on whatâs happening now in social media in China. More than 513 million people use the internet in her country. But that impressive figure is dwarfed by Chinaâs total population of 1.4 billion and means around a third of Chinese people are currently online. Most are under the age of 30.
What are they doing? Ring presents compelling evidence that many of them, just like young people around the world, are obsessed with social media. The statistics are compelling. A quarter of all social media users in the world are Chinese. And material in the Chinese language now makes up 24 percent of the Internet.
Ring has four reasons for this explosion in Chinese social media. Many families are forced to live apart, as many young people may work or study away from home, good broadband links are affordable, Chinaâs one child policy means many young people turn to friends rather than siblings and there is suspicion of mainstream government-controlled media.
As Ring explains, there are no Facebook, Twitter and You Tube in China, but their Chinese equivalents are better in some ways, not second best. Sina Weibo, the phenomenally popular Chinese website most similar to Twitter has a facility for users to re-post adding comments and pictures to the original message. And, of course, 140 characters in the Chinese language convey far more meaning than 140 letters.
She says many young people enjoy receiving and passing on discount vouchers and codes so they can snap up top fashion items at bargain prices. âI haven’t bought anything at full price online after I followed those Weibo accounts which broadcast discount codes every day,â she declares.
Link
Creative Digifest #SxSC
May 20, 2012
by Lisa Harris
This was an all-day informal event on 18 May 2012 at the University of Southampton Students Union building for anyone involved in the regionâs creative industries.
Digital Literacies Workshops and Conference
May 20, 2012
by Lisa Harris
There are still a few spaces available for staff and students on the following events. These are informal sessions run on behalf of the Centre for Innovation in Technologies and Education (CITE) by Fiona Harvey, Lisa Harris and the Student Digital Champions.
1.    Online Identity Workshop: 22nd May at 3pm in 85/2207.
This is a chance for you to review how you appear online and take an active role in making deliberate changes. What you say and how you appear online needs to be consistent and professional in order to reflect you in the best possible light. Â The workshop will highlight good and bad examples to help you enhance your profile and promote yourself effectively. You can register for this event here.
2.    Online Safety and Security Workshop: 30th May at 2pm in 85/2209.
Find out all about staying safe online – do you read Terms and Conditions, all the way through…really?  Do you know who can access your private data on social networks and how you can stop them? You can register for this event here.
3.    Developing and Managing your Professional Profile Workshop: 7th June at 2pm in 85/2207.
How well do you manage your online networks? Is your LinkedIn profile complete and working well for you? Would you like to increase your social capital and project a professional online profile to a future employer? You can register for this event here.
4.    Digital Literacy Conference
Due to popular demand additional tickets have now been released for the Digital Literacy Conference in Garden Court, Highfield Campus all day on 14th June. There will be un-keynote sessions led by Steve Wheeler, Cristina Costa, Sue Beckingham and Doug Belshaw, as well as contributions from a number of Southampton University staff and students who are engaged in various Digital Literacy activities.
We hope to see you at one or more of these events!
Alison Simmance- new DE USRG Coordinator
by Alison Simmance
Alison Simmance, Nosy Hara Marine Park, Madagascar.
I am delighted to be the new Digital Economy USRG Coordinator here at the University of Southampton and to be involved in communicating the Digital Economyâs diverse and excellent research: the novel approach to influence human behaviour through mobile phone and social networking technology; bringing life to events; revolutionizing aspects of the humanities for our students and laying the digital foundation to tackle todayâs complex problems such as the supply and demand of energy are excellent examples. But there’s more! Today, I have been seeing the diverse nature of research in the Digital Economy at the Creative Digifest #SxSC.
By way of background, I obtained my MSc here in NOCS many years ago in Marine Science, Policy and Law and I have worked for the UK Governmentâs marine science unit (Defra ) for over 3 years. Having obtained valuable experience in developing policy led marine environmental research, I was eager to develop a greater understanding of the global challenges facing resource management in developing countries. In response, last year I took a career break to work out in Madagascar on socio-economic research in marine resource management. Here, I lived with some of societyâs poorest communities and the most diverse and remote islands globally. The global âSouthâ and âDigitalâ divide was very evident!
Now, looking back, I struggle to believe the many amazing things I saw and experienced during my time in Madagascar: a Madagascar paradise-flycatcher ensconced in her nest deep in the mangroves; a trade between fisherman and collector of ornate spiny lobster, a creature of unimaginable beauty; the diverse seascapes and landscapes throughout Madagascar; the passive and warm nature of the Malagasy people; and the challenging primitive lifestyle with little access to clean drinking water, radios, telephones and the internet!. Through these experiences as well as time spent working with children in the slums of Nakuru, Kenya, I have come to understand the impact that the global economic crisis, fuel crisis, agricultural crisis and digital divide can have in influencing human progress!
In terms of the Digital Economy, I think the message is clear- advanced connectivity will deliver major economic benefits everywhere. As stated by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun TourĂ© âBroadband is no longer a luxuryâŠit is a core infrastructure of the modern economy. Those who have it will prosper, those who donât will fall further behind.â
In my next blog I will speak about my excitement to work here in the Universityâs Multidisciplinary research team. I will provide my perspective on how I see the Digital Economy USRG and my other USRGs (Sustainability Science, Complexity in Real World Contexts, Ageing and Lifelong Health, Work Futures Research Centre) contributing to global dilemmas (international development, diversifying economies, creating wealth and pulling people out of poverty) and the impact of the research carried out in the Digital Economy here in the University of Southampton.
I look forward to meeting you all soon,
Alison.
#SxSC: Chronotape
by Sotonde
Peter Bennett will talk about Chronotape which is a tangible timeline for family history research, developed as part of the PATINA project within the Bristol Interaction & Graphics group. The chronotape explores the concept of using a tangible interface to control time, effectively turning the abstract concept of time into something that can be held and controlled.
Links
#SxSC outline schedule
by Graeme Earl
This is an outline schedule of talks and demonstrations for #SxSC. Anyone attending is invited to talk and demo their work.
10.30am
Composer Benjamin Mawson investigates ways to use space as an expressive layer in studio-produced music. Developer Enrique Tomas has built a tool using GPS to interpret a listenerâs position and movement in order to create a unique way of hearing music. Musical compositions can now be spread across a landscape, mapped to a territory. Music is created which can now exist in a dialogue â at times symbiotic at others contradictory â with its physical surroundings.
11am
Alain Renaud will be talking about distributed music. Alainâs research explores high-speed networks as a medium for developing real time interactive performances in a multiplicity of spaces. Alainâs background in is music production and sound engineering. He is a senior lecturer in Music and Audio Technology at Bournemouth University. His research focuses on the development of networked music performance systems with an emphasis on the creation of strategies to interact over a network musically and the notion of shared networked acoustic spaces http://alainrenaud.net
11.30am
Our keynote speaker will be Alan Patrick who is the co-founder of Broadsight:
Broadsight focuses on market intelligence, strategy and systems development across the multi-media ecosystem. Broadsight has consulted to many of the major digital-media players in Europe and has helped start or turn around a number of startups. They have also developed innovative technology for a number of clients. Alan also writes the well regarded Broadstuff blog on technology development (www.broadstuff.com).
The topic of Alanâs talk is âTechnology Hype and Bubbles â Why do they Exist?â
He will deal with Creative Destruction, the role of bubbles in these cycles, and the role of hype in creating bubbles â and what you need to look for to understand where you are in the cycle. Alan will examine how this is applied to (complicates) technology prediction, going through various prediction models and laws. He has also developed the âBroadstuff Bubble-o-Meterâ tracking the current Social Media  bubbleâs evolution, which has been picked up by other technology blogs and the Guardian.
12.30pm
Ajay Chakravarthy and Paul Walland will demonstrate a new way of viewing digitised 3D objects from cultural heritage collections. They will talk about some of the cool applications they see for this kind of virtual model representation. Ajay is a researcher at ITI, expert in knowledge modelling using Semantic Web. He has a PhD from Sheffield in knowledge acquisition, has worked on various media projects at ITI among other things. Paul is a manager at IT Innovation responsible for media-based collaborative projects and social networking.
1:00pm
Adam Procter will be talking about the growing way we interact with social networks via “streams” and the emerging conversation economy. http://www.adamprocter.org/
1.30pm
Peter Bennett will talk about Chronotape which is a tangible timeline for family history research, developed as part of the PATINA project within the Bristol Interaction & Graphics group. The chronotape explores the concept of using a tangible interface to control time, effectively turning the abstract concept of time into something that can be held and controlled.
2pm
John Ribbins from Roll7 will be talking about “Serious Games and Fun”. He will also be demoing some new Roll7 games http://roll7.blogspot.co.uk/
2.15pm
The Re-reading the British Memorial project is investigating the potential for using a variety of technologies for the recording, interpreting and sharing of data about church memorials in the UK. Find out about them at: http://ourti.orgGareth and Nicole Beale will be talking about the project and demonstrating Highlight based Reflectance Transformation Imaging capture using Digital SLR cameras and RTI with an iPhone Camera.
2.30pm
James Miles will outline the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging â a simple and cheap surface imaging tool â on existing three dimensional datasets in a virtual environment. He will show some worked examples, and evaluate the potential of the methodology within cultural heritage. He will focus on comparing the different datasets and will highlight the surface detail that could be overlooked through conventional means of visualisation.
2.45pm
The Tsinghua-Southampton exchange program was set up to serve as a platform for young researchers to exchange ideas on key issues within Web Science. The chosen project was to analyse, extract and visualise how the young perceived the world using online data. As part of the Visualisation team Christopher Hughes will be demonstrating the chosen tools that were used to represent the data, highlighting some key issues and concerns.
3:00pm
Martin Warne and Elliot Salisbury will be talking about their mobile audio D-Touch projects.
4pm
Close â Diverse musical interludes
Demonstrations will also be taking place throughout the day
- Ben Oliver will show that there is some evidence that structured training can benefit cochlear implant (CI) usersâ appraisal of music as well as their music perception abilities. There are currently very limited music training resources available for CI users to explore. This demo will introduce the âInteractive Music Awareness Programâ (IMAP) for cochlear implant users, which was developed in response to the need for a client-centered, structured, interactive, creative, open-ended, educational and challenging music (re)habilitation resource http://www.soton.ac.uk/mfg
- Peter Bennett will demonstrate http://chronotape.com/ which has been developed by him as part of http://www.patina.ac.uk/
- James Miles, Nicole Beale and Gareth Beale will demonstrate highlight based reflectance transformation imaging, using an iPhone and other methods.
- Ben Mawson and Enrique Tomas will be performing throughout the day.
- Martin Warne and Elliot Salisbury will be demonstrating their mobile audio D-Touch projects.
- Jaipal Channa is a composer who specializes in creating music for virtual, interactive environments and will be displaying his work at #SxSC. www.jaipalchanna.com
Southampton hosts RCUK Digital Economy "IT as a Utility" Network+
by Graeme Earl
Many congratulations to Professor Jeremy Frey whose ÂŁ1.5 million Network+ award has now been announced by RCUK.
âAs part of a new way of better taking forward existing research and training investments the RCUK Digital Economy (DE) Theme has set up a network in each of its four priority challenge areas: IT as a Utility, Communities and Culture, New Economic Models and Sustainable Society.
âEach âNetwork+â has received ÂŁ1.5 million funding over three years, with a broad scope that goes above and beyond the standard network remit.
âIn line with the DE Theme objectives, each Network+ will focus on harnessing digital technologies to bring about transformational impact on community life, cultural experiences, future society, and the economy. They will co-create Grand Challenges, engage with and build communities, and inform the research agenda. A series of initial networking events in January 2012 specifically focused on the instigating the Network+ activities.
âThe Network+ will:
- Hold âstandardâ networking activities, including workshops, meetings and interactive forums
- Support N+N activities to bring together people and foster best+best interactions with UK and overseas groups
- Link to other RCUK-supported initiatives such as the AHRC-led Connected Communities Programme and the AHRC KE Hubs
- Make and maintain links with the full spectrum of industry and users, including the third sector
- Identify and prioritise the research and societal challenges in the appropriate DE Challenge Area and develop future Grand Challenges in the DE area. They will generate various reports and other outputs â for example, working with Government departments may help to inform and influence policy.
- Develop placements/secondments, a big feature of each network, which will encourage ideas-generation and knowledge exchange between users and the knowledge base.
- Support up to 10 âscoping study fundsâ per network, for prioritised activities at up to ÂŁ50,000 each. This should help in the creation of higher quality research proposals.â
Network+ holders are:
Sustainable Society; Dr Cathy Mulligan, Nottingham
Communities and Culture: Dr Helen Thornham, Leeds
IT as a Utility: Professor Jeremy Frey, Southampton
New Economic Models: Professor Roger Maull, Exeter
SXSC Demo: Tsinghua-Southampton Visualisation
by Sotonde
The Tsinghua-Southampton exchange program was set up to serve as a platform for young researchers to exchange ideas on key issues within Web Science. The chosen project was to analyze, extract and visualize how the young perceived the world using online data. As part of the Visualization team Christopher Hughes will be demonstrating the chosen tools that we used to represent the data, highlighting some key issues and concerns.
SXSC Presentations: Virtual RTI
by Sotonde
James Miles will outline the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging – a simple and cheap surface imaging tool – on existing three dimensional datasets in a virtual environment. He will show some worked examples, and evaluate the potential of the methodology within cultural heritage. He will focus on comparing the different datasets and will highlight the surface detail that could be overlooked through conventional means of visualisation.
SXSC Presentation and demonstration of âMusic You Can Walk Insideâ
by Sotonde
Music composed in the digital studio has always been heard on loudspeakers. All of the theatre and unpredictability of a performance is absent.
Composer Benjamin Mawson investigates ways to use space as an expressive layer in studio-produced music.
Developer Enrique Tomas has built a tool using GPS to interpret a listenerâs position and movement in order to create a unique way of hearing music.
Musical compositions can now be spread across a landscape, mapped to a territory.
Music is created which can now exist in a dialogue – at times symbiotic at others contradictory – with its physical surroundings.