This volume summarizes the author’s work on social information seeking (SIS), and at the same time serves as an introduction to the topic. Sometimes also referred to as social search or social information retrieval, this is a relatively new area of study concerned with the seeking and acquiring of information from social spaces on the Internet. It involves studying situations, motivations, and methods involved in seeking and sharing of information in participatory online social sites, such as Yahoo! Answers, WikiAnswers, and Twitter, as well as building systems for supporting such activities. The first part of the book introduces various foundational concepts, including information seeking, social media, and social networking. As such it provides the necessary basis to then discuss how those aspects could intertwine in different ways to create methods, tools, and opportunities for supporting and leveraging SIS. Next, Part II discusses the social dimension and primarily examines the online question-answering activity. Part III then emphasizes the collaborative aspect of information seeking, and examines what happens when social and collaborative dimensions are considered together. Lastly, Part IV provides a synthesis by consolidating methods, systems, and evaluation techniques related to social and collaborative information seeking. The book is completed by a list of challenges and opportunities for both theoretical and practical SIS work. The book is intended mainly for researchers and graduate students looking for an introduction to this new field, as well as developers and system designers interested in building interactive information retrieval systems or social/community-driven interfaces.

The wealth of information accessible on the Internet has grown exponentially since its advent. This mass of content must be systemically sifted to glean pertinent data, and the utilization of the collective intelligence of other users, or social information retrieval, is an innovative, emerging technique. Social Information Retrieval Systems: Emerging Technologies & Applications for Searching the Web Effectively provides relevant content in the areas of information retrieval systems, services, and research; covering topics such as social tagging, collaborative querying, social network analysis, subjective relevance judgments, and collaborative filtering. Answering the increasing demand for authoritative resources on Internet technologies, this Premier Reference Source will make an indispensable addition to any library collection.

Social information access is defined as a stream of research that explores methods for organizing the past interactions of users in a community in order to provide future users with better access to information. Social information access covers a wide range of different technologies and strategies that operate on a different scale, which can range from a small closed corpus site to the whole Web. The 16 chapters included in this book provide a broad overview of modern research on social information access. In order to provide a balanced coverage, these chapters are organized by the main types of information access (i.e., social search, social navigation, and recommendation) and main sources of social information.

Information retrieval (IR) is a complex human activity supported by sophisticated systems. Information science has contributed much to the design and evaluation of previous generations of IR system development and to our general understanding of how such systems should be designed and yet, due to the increasing success and diversity of IR systems, many recent textbooks concentrate on IR systems themselves and ignore the human side of searching for information. This book is the first text to provide an information science perspective on IR. Unique in its scope, the book covers the whole spectrum of information retrieval, including: history and background information behaviour and seeking task-based information searching and retrieval approaches to investigating information interaction and behaviour information representation access models evaluation interfaces for IR interactive techniques web retrieval, ranking and personalization recommendation, collaboration and social search multimedia: interfaces and access. Readership: Senior undergraduates and masters' level students of all information and library studies courses and practising LIS professionals who need to better appreciate how IR systems are designed, implemented and evaluated.

Social Information Research, co-edited by Gunilla Widen and Kim Holmberg communicates current research looking into different aspects of social information as part of information behaviour research. There is a special emphasis on the new innovations supporting contemporary information behavior and the social media context within which it can sit.

"This book provides a source for definitions, antecedents, and consequences of social informatics and the cultural aspect of technology. It addresses cultural/societal issues in social informatics technology and society, the Digital Divide, government and technology law, information security and privacy, cyber ethics, technology ethics, and the future of social informatics and technology"--Provided by publisher.

"This book deals with the improvement of user modeling in the context of Collaborative and Social Information Access and Retrieval (CSIRA) techniques"--Provided by publisher.

Uncivil acts and messages too often color our experience with others. Communication in a Civil Society offers an alternative way to teach and learn about communication. Every chapter focuses on communication based on respect, restraint, and ethical choices.

Bridging the gap between social and industrial/organizational psychology, Interpersonal Insight offers a practical, engaging introduction to the social cognition processes that lead to "insights" into ourselves and other people, shaping our perceptions and behavior across a variety of interpersonal situations--from one-on-one interactions to group negotiations. Combining important research results and over 12 years' experience in human resources and training, Manuel London describes how processes common to interpersonal situations in organizations can be harnessed to help link, integrate, and create more effective human resource programs. In so doing, he details how social information processing affects a person's self-image, behavior, and quality of interpersonal relationships. London proposes a four-step model of insight formation in which a person 1) receives information about oneself and others (called "reflected feedback"); 2) integrates and reconciles the information with other information ("categorization"); 3) interprets the information ("attribution"); and 4) incorporates the outcome into perceptions of oneself and others ("cognitive re-evaluation of self-concept"). "Insight" occurs when an attribution turns into a re-evaluation of oneself or others. London goes on to offer practical suggestions on how human resource programs can be designed to enhance self- or personal insights and suggests ways to elicit and track employees' reactions to major organizational and career changes while facilitating team development. Packed with case studies and references to the literature, Interpersonal Insight is an important book not only for researchers and professionals in industrial/organizational psychology, but for managers interested in enhancing employee satisfaction and production.