Papers by Alexander Halavais
Bulletin of Sociological Methodology/Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 2011
SAFELINK Specification and Implementation of a Privacy-Preserving RecordLinkage Procedure: German... more SAFELINK Specification and Implementation of a Privacy-Preserving RecordLinkage Procedure: German data protection laws demand high standards for the use of microdata. Data linkage is only possible if privacy of the data is preserved. Currently, data protection agencies approve such linkages on a case by case basis. This process is time consuming and prone to data loss due to poor linkage procedures. The goal of this project is to develop procedures and programs which allow record linkage despite high demands, while at the same time preserving privacy. The project will develop a standardized data trustee protocol for social research in Germany. Additionally, algorithms and programs for privacy-preserving record linkage will be developed. SAFELINK was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 09/2005 to 10/2007. See the Center for Quantitative Methods and Survey Research, University of Konstanz and http://www.uni-konstanz.de/schnell/safelink.html
2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2014
Badges can provide a number of advantages to networked, self-directed learners, including making ... more Badges can provide a number of advantages to networked, self-directed learners, including making visible social networks of support and direction. If badges do allow for this, we would expect to see badge acquisition to be predicted by the presence of a particular badge among a learner's social connections. In examining the badges and "tags" used on the question-and-answer site Stack Overflow. We find that the more general badges are closely related to tenure on the site, while the numerous "tag" badges provide for more socially-determined differentiation.
Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 2015
Badge systems, a common mechanism for gamification on social media platforms, provide a way for u... more Badge systems, a common mechanism for gamification on social media platforms, provide a way for users to present their knowledge or experience to others. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of why social media users publicize their achievements in the form of online badges. Five motivational factors for badge display in public networked environments are distinguished-self-efficacy, social incentives, networked support, passing time, and inattentive sharing-and it is suggested that different badge types are associated with different motivations. System developers are advised to consider these components in their designs, applying the elements most appropriate to the communities they serve. Comparing user motivations associated with badges shared across boundaries provides a better understanding of how online badges relate to the larger social media ecosystem.
Halavais, A., & Lackaff, D. (2008). An analysis of topical coverage of Wikipedia. Journal of Comp... more Halavais, A., & Lackaff, D. (2008). An analysis of topical coverage of Wikipedia. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 429-440.
Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia's editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field-specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top-down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia's topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject-area of the article.
Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 2008
Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one c... more Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia’s editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field-specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top-down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia’s topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject-area of the article.
Information, Communication & Society, 2009
Journal of Media and Religion, 2008
Blogs represent an especially interesting site of online religious communication. Analysis of the... more Blogs represent an especially interesting site of online religious communication. Analysis of the content of two hundred blogs with mentions of topics related to Christianity, as well as interviews of a subset of these bloggers, suggests that blogs provide an integrative experience for the faithful, not a "third place," but a melding of the personal and the communal, the sacred and the profane. Religious bloggers are also operating outside the realm of the conventional nuclear church as they connect and link to mainstream news sites, other non-religious blogs, and online collaborative knowledge networks like Wikipedia. By chronicling how they experience faith in their everyday lives, these bloggers aim to communicate not only to their communities and to a wider public, but also to themselves. This view of blogging as a contemplative religious experience differs from the popular characterization of blogging as a trivial activity.
This short paper constitutes the first phase of a long-term project focused on probing American u... more This short paper constitutes the first phase of a long-term project focused on probing American urban culture by examining the hyperlinks and text of personal weblogs. It discusses methods of extracting geographic location information from weblogs and ways of indexing weblogs to city units. After a brief introduction to the broader research plan, the paper proposes a process to automatically extract geographic information from different weblogs. From both theoretical and practical perspectives, we will explain and justify the rationale of using 3-digit zip codes as units for comparing urban cultures. A distribution of American bloggers registered with Livejournal and Diaryland, two popular blog hosting services, will be presented to demonstrate the geocoding of the blogosphere, and to compare the distribution of these two hosts in terms of concentrations of populations and demographic profiles. Finally, we will discuss how to further improve the indexing methods.
New Media & Society, 2000
The internet is often seen as a significant contributor to the globalization of culture and the e... more The internet is often seen as a significant contributor to the globalization of culture and the economy. It is also seen as an inherently international medium, unimpeded by national borders and removed from the jurisdiction of the nation-state. This paper argues that although geographic borders may be removed from cyberspace, the social structures found in the 'real' world are inscribed in online networks. By surveying 4000 web sites, it is determined that the organization of the world wide web conforms to some degree to traditional national borders. Web sites are, in most cases more likely to link to another site hosted in the same country than to cross national borders. When they do cross national borders, they are more likely to lead to pages hosted in the United States than to pages anywhere else in the world.
HICSS, 2004
Badges can provide a number of advantages to networked, self-directed learners, including making ... more Badges can provide a number of advantages to networked, self-directed learners, including making visible social networks of support and direction. If badges do allow for this, we would expect to see badge acquisition to be predicted by the presence of a particular badge among a learner's social connections. In examining the badges and "tags" used on the question-and-answer site Stack Overflow. We find that the more general badges are closely related to tenure on the site, while the numerous "tag" badges provide for more socially-determined differentiation.
The participatory cultures handbook, 2013
Blogging is not dead, but it has receded from the limelight. In the past few years the excitement... more Blogging is not dead, but it has receded from the limelight. In the past few years the excitement and novelty of blogging has largely given way to new technologies and new ways of interacting. For some, this might suggest blogging is merely a blip on the historical radar, one technology in a chain, a peculiar historical moment. But blogging is more than that. It represents a turning point in the way people think about computer networking.
New Media and Society, 2000
The internet is often seen as a significant contributor to the globalization of culture and the e... more The internet is often seen as a significant contributor to the globalization of culture and the economy. It is also seen as an inherently international medium, unimpeded by national borders and removed from the jurisdiction of the nation-state. This paper argues that although geographic borders may be removed from cyberspace, the social structures found in the 'real' world are inscribed in online networks. By surveying 4000 web sites, it is determined that the organization of the world wide web conforms to some degree to traditional national borders. Web sites are, in most cases more likely to link to another site hosted in the same country than to cross national borders. When they do cross national borders, they are more likely to lead to pages hosted in the United States than to pages anywhere else in the world.
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Papers by Alexander Halavais
Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia's editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field-specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top-down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia's topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject-area of the article.
Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia's editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field-specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top-down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia's topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject-area of the article.