Social Autistics

We spoke in class about how new Internet technologies can provide critical social connection tools for groups with very specific interests, such as support networks for families with specific medical conditions. I read an inspirational article in Wired about how individuals with autism have been using blogs and even Youtube to to network with other autistics, researchers and the public, and further pursue information campaigns and political agendas. Recent scientific publications are challenging the conventional wisdom that the majority of autistics score in the mentally retarded range on standard intelligence tests. The article makes the point that autism is increasingly viewed as involving developmental differences and not necessarily a disease that results in a defective brain. The opinions on this matter vary greatly, as do the levels of disability that result from autism. Nonetheless, autistic individuals who are able to employ social networking technologies are now reaching out in novel ways and redefining the way we view and relate to them.

Collective analysis of AOL Search Data

Prof. Chen has brought up the issue of privacy as it pertains to contributed content in social web applications. Most social web applications we have discussed involve users who willfully provide content and thus have little expectation of privacy. Other Internet applications and transactions lead users to believe their contributions are to a large degree private and/or meaningless when considered out of context. I believe it is important for users realize their data and transactions when analyzed in aggregate can be much more telling than e.g. a single blog post. As an example of a privacy breach Prof. Chen mentioned the AOL search database that was released in 2006 (inadvertently in hindsight). This data set provides a dramatic example of how much Internet companies can learn about users if they wish to, in this case by looking at an individual user's sequence of search terms.

A secondary point of interest is the power of collective analysis of and commentary on large data collections like this one. I recall a number of socially-interactive web sites sprung up to share this data set and to direct people to the most interesting examples. I've not found the exact site I recall visiting in 2006, but http://aolpsycho.com appears to be the best example now (despite being affected by some level of spam). [Be forewarned, there is definitely information of an adult nature in this dataset.] The site allows the public to tag individual searchers and to provide "psychoanalytic" commentary. Other sites are out there (e.g. http://www.aolstalker.com). These sites are not that great, but they at least demonstrate the power of collaborative data analysis, which in this case permitted many individual search users to be rapidly identified, thus raising everyone's awareness of the seriousness of the breach.

Many-eyes and social visualizations

A website that I am really excited about is Many-eyes.com, a social visualization website out of IBM's Visual Communication Lab. Users can upload datasets or create visualizations using their own or others' datasets. They can then embed the visualizations in their blogs or use the many-eyes site to discuss anything interesting they find in the data. Users can take snapshots and post them with their comments so that others can see the same view of the data that the comment is talking about.

For example, last night's State of the Union address has already been uploaded and someone created a tag cloud of the most commonly used words.


The idea for the site grew out of how people were interacting around sites such as NameVoyager, developed by Martin Wattenberg. Anecdotal evidence seemed to show that users spent more time interacting when they were in a group, either in real life or online. People created challenges to find unique names or names that were once popular and aren't any more.

So have fun playing with visualizations!