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- Fixing the Yahoo News ToggleOctober 9
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If you frequent Yahoo News, you’ve likely noticed the site has been redesigned. Overall, the design is clean, information-rich, and provides a nice update to one of my favorite news sources. Along with the redesign, Yahoo has introduced a bizarre, annoying functionality to news stories. When a news story loads, you are delivered a truncated version of the story; to see the full story you are forced to click on the “Read Full Article” button that hovers midway in the page (generally next to an ad). This has proven endlessly frustrating.
I figured this issue would be easy to fix. Inspecting the code, the javascript controls are simple enough - the toggle is controlled by a simple onclick listener. Disable the script and all should be well, right? As it turns out, this is not as easy as it seems. The script was inline - included in the page - meaning the only way to block it was to block all javascript in the page. This makes Yahoo news fairly unusable. After playing around with Adblock Plus, however, I discovered a formula that works:
news.yahoo.com#*(class=ult-section mod read-more-toggle)
This filter will prevent toggling, displaying the full page when it loads. There are some side effects, the primary one being the story content loads last. I was willing to trade this off to not have to click each time I wanted to read the rest of the story. It appears that
- Spring 2009 - Social NetworksOctober 8
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Even though it feels like the Fall semester has just started, registration for Spring 2009 is underway. I’ll be teaching Online Social Networks, with the class meeting on Monday evenings from 6-8:30. If you’re interested in taking the class, you can view the syllabi from previous semesters on my teaching page.
Social networks is a class that gets updated each semester, but the existing syllabi should give you an idea of the form and expectations. One notable change is the class will no longer require purchased texts (yay!), as all readings will be electronic. I also hope to integrate my forthcoming work Research and Analysis of Online Social Networks into the course.
- Facebook Dataset IdentifiedOctober 7
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It now appears that the Tastes, Ties and Times dataset has been identified. According to privacy scholar Michael Zimmer, the dataset of Facebook profiles is from Harvard College. In my original post on the matter, I discussed how “fingerprints” of friend networks could be used to identify the dataset. It did not require such complicated measures. Using the codebook and statements from the researchers, Dr. Zimmer was able to target and ultimately identify the source of the dataset. Importantly, now that the dataset is identified, it would be trivial to run a network comparison and produce probability estimates of the individuals in the anonymized set.
In an article to be published in Social Networks (Lewis et al., 2008), the authors provide more insight into the set. This information seems to support the Harvard hypothesis, providing demographic information on the sample that could be correlated with statistics from the registrar. This information, once semi-private, is now completely public. It is only a matter of time before a grad student or assistant prof, seeking a publication and a little press, identifies the set (and no, it won’t be me).
- Dr. Vance Ricks to visit Technologies of FriendshipOctober 3
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On Monday, October 6, We are pleased to welcome the first guest lecturer of the semester to Technologies of Friendship. Vance Ricks, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Guilford College, will deliver the talk When Philosophers Met Friendship, which “gives an overview of some contemporary philosophical discussions of friendship and examines the contributions philosophers can make to our understanding of technologically mediated relationships.”
Dr. Ricks received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford University, where he explored friendship and shared activity. We’re very excited to have him lend his perspective to the class. We’ve explored mediated relationships from a number of perspectives, and to have an expert in the field visit is truly a treat.
Because of this unique opportunity, I’d like to open the class up to visitors during Dr. Ricks’ talk and discussion. If you’d like to come by, Technologies of Friendship meets Monday, October 6 at 6PM in Manning Hall 307. Directions to Manning Hall are available on the SILS website.
- Facebook Datasets and Private ChromeSeptember 29
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Via the Berkman Center, news of a Facebook dataset now available to the general public. I haven’t written up the necessary research statement to access the data, but the publicly-available codebook provides insight into the set. According to the codebook, the data is scrubbed, with personally-identifying data removed.
The “non-identifiability” of such a dataset is up for debate. A friend network can be thought of as a fingerprint; it is likely that no two networks will be exactly similar, meaning individuals may be able to be identified in the dataset post-hoc (for friend-network verification, see Zinman & Donath, 2007). Further, the authors of the dataset plan to release student “Favorite” data in 2011, which will provide further information that may lead to identification. According to the authors, the collection of the dataset was approved by the IRB, Facebook and the individual college. The dissemination of the dataset appears to be approved by the IRB.
In other news:
danah boyd recently gave a talk, “Understanding Socio-Technical Phenomena in a Web2.0 Era” at the opening symposium for MSR New England. The video is available in a W