Computer-mediated environments such as social media create new social climates that impact communication interactions in un-mediated environments. This study examined social variables during conversations on Twitter through a qualitative document analysis that coded messages into affective, interactive or cohesive categories. Perceived social presence, participant satisfaction, and relationships between social presence and satisfaction among Twitter users during streaming conversations were examined through an online questionnaire that was created using qualtrics.com and made available to respondents over a one-week period. The researcher concluded that most social variables in the Twitter conversations of this study fall into the interactive social presence category. In addition, each category of responses functions in a different way to foster social presence. Two groups of survey respondents agreed with 10 out of 21 and 13 out of 21 statements about social presence and 10 out of 13 and 12 out of 13 statements about satisfaction. Findings indicated that positive and negative relationships exist between social presence and satisfaction. Both conversations in this study appeared to be successful. Therefore, agricultural communicators should feel comfortable using CMC more frequently to circulate agricultural information among populations across the globe. It was recommended that further research be conducted to examine social presence among new topics, populations, and other forms of CMC.

Decision making is an inherent part of everyday work and learning processes. Superior decision outcomes can be achieved by structuring decision processes, encouraging domain experts to work collaborative1y, providing visualization ofdecisions as they develop, and providing decision makers with time and flexibility to better understand problems and to project outcomes. Evaluation of distributed synchronous virtual teamwork environments has eluded researchers. The theoretical foundation of this study was Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) enhanced by a distributed cognition framework. Discourse analysis was used to explore ways to evaluate effectiveness of newly-formed time-constrained self-directed virtual teams using computer-mediated communication (CMC) to solve ill-defined problems. Measures of work process performance were percentages of meeting time devoted to Situation Assessment, Resource Coordination, Idea Generation, and Model Building. Ten measures of work outcome for each of six teams were taken to assess change in decision model quality over time. The data informing this study were obtained during an elective computer science course. The author's course design focused on human-computer interaction (HCI) aspects of use, design, and deployment of computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) and computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) systems. Participants were randomly assigned to teams that remained intact throughout the semester. Teams assumed various roles during policy and software-design scenarios. Networked TeamEC decision-modeling software enabled team problem solving. NetMeeting provided connectivity, application sharing, and text chat for intra-team communication to simulate distributed virtual meetings. Discourse analysis revealed process performance patterns and development of shared mental models ofproblem solutions. The outcome variable (Model Score) improved over time for all teams, but degree of improvement varied greatly among teams. Qualitative analysis of group process variables indicated variance was due to how well teams understood scenario-role requirements and managed available resources. Time usage by process variable was analyzed to measure critical resource use to discover "best practice" guidelines for distributed synchronous teamwork. A Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) approach extended collaborative experiential learning to complex applied knowledge domains in order to improve problem solving and critical thinking skills. Constructivist learner-centered course design facilitated a clear task focus enabling participants to learn new work practices applicable to classroom and workplace.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-04-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:09:30Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 menegazzo_ec_me_mar.pdf: 857038 bytes, checksum: 0bc8d28cc7aea8e6c53d8d5f222dab55 (MD5) / Com o desenvolvimento da Comunicação Mediada por Computadores (CMC), tornaram-se possíveis outras formas de interação social e, apesar de essas possibilitarem a formação de grupos sociais no ciberespaço, também podemos encontrar algumas formas de exclusão. O fenômeno do estrangeiro se apresenta na CMC em língua italiana como uma relação ao mesmo tempo de proximidade e distância, além de algumas barreiras para o desenvolvimento de uma sociabilidade entre italianos e estrangeiros. Na aproximação feita ao fenômeno do estrangeiro, em um dos sistemas mais usados na CMC, o webchat, verificou-se que apesar da possibilidade técnica de se construírem e de se utilizarem diversas identidades nos sistemas de CMC analisados, a identidade nacional se destaca na interação entre italianos e estrangeiros, acompanhada muitas vezes de hostilidades ou de um discurso retórico em relação aos imigrantes na Itália. / With the development of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), new forms of social interaction became possible and, despite of the fact that they are responsible for the creation of social groups in the cyberspace, we can also find some forms of exclusion. The “stranger phenomenon” presents itself, in the CMC that uses Italian language, as a relation, at the same time, of proximity and of distance, and also as barriers against the development of a sociability between strangers and Italians. By approaching the “stranger phenomenon”, through one of the most used CMC, the webchat, we could verify that, despite of technical possibility of constructing and of using multiple identities, national identity stands out in interrelation between Italians and strangers, bringing with it hostility or rethorical speeches related to immigrants in Italy.

Cette thèse concerne l’analyse automatique des SMS et l'extraction des informations qui y sont contenues. Le point de départ de notre recherche est le constat que la plupart des messages courts, observés dans le corpus alpes4science, présentent des différences en comparaison avec le langage standard. Les différences sont mises en évidence, d’une part, par la morphologie particulière des mots et, d’autre part, par les règles de syntaxe et de grammaire qui ne sont pas respectées lorsque l’émetteur considère que cela ne nuit pas à l’intelligibilité du message. À cause des écarts par rapport à la langue standard, le traitement et l'analyse des messages bruités est toujours un défi pour les tâches du TAL. Par conséquent, réduire les écarts est un défi fondamental que nous surmontons en utilisant l’approche de la normalisation pour la conception d’outils en traitement automatique des SMS.Nous proposons un modèle de normalisation en deux étapes, fondé sur une approche symbolique et statistique. La première étape vise à produire une représentation intermédiaire du message SMS par l’application de grammaires locales, tandis que la deuxième utilise un système de traduction automatique à base de règles pour convertir la représentation intermédiaire vers une forme standard. Le résultat produit par ce modèle a été évalué, par la suite, pour la reconnaissance d'entités nommées au travers d'une série de tests appliqués à l'aide de trois autres systèmes. Les résultats obtenus ont montré que les performances de ces systèmes de reconnaissance d'entités nommées présentent des améliorations significatives lorsqu’ils sont appliqués sur les SMS automatiquement normalisés en comparaison avec le corpus brut et manuellement transcrit.Mots-clés : communication médiée par ordinateur, langage SMS, normalisation des SMS, extraction d’informations / This thesis focuses on SMS language and information extraction from the point of view of natural language processing. The starting point of our study is the observation of the differences that most short messages have, using the alpes4science corpora, in comparison with the standard language. The differences are highlighted by the particular morphology of words and by the syntactic and grammar rules that are not respected when the issuer considers that it would not impair the intelligibility of the message.Because of the deviations from the standard language, processing and analyzing noisy messages is still a challenge for any NLP task. Therefore, reducing the gaps is a fundamental step to overcome when designing approaches for automatic SMS processing.We propose a two-step normalization model based on a symbolic and statistical approach. The first step aims to produce an intermediate representation of the SMS by applying local grammars. The second step uses a rule-based machine translation system to convert the intermediate representation to a standard form. The obtained result from this model was evaluated, afterwards, for named entities recognition through a series of tests applied thanks to three other systems. The results have shown that these performances of named entity recognition systems are significantly improved when applied to automatically normalized SMS in comparison with raw and manually normalized corpora.Keywords: computer-mediated communication, SMS language, SMS normalization

Advances in technology over the last few decades have led to significant changes in the way we communicate. Technological innovation has been one of the reasons for the development of computer-mediated communication (CMC), which has had far-reaching implications in the private and professional lives of many people. Instant messaging (IM), which is one form of computer-mediated communication, has significantly gained popularity over the years and many scholars have examined its influence in areas including business and academics. Initially developed to enhance communication between users who understood the same language, some IM clients including Wechat (www.wechat.com), QQ International (www.imqq.com), and Skype Translator (www.skype.com) have integrated a built-in translation application that facilitates communication among users that speak different languages. The current research project explores the relationship between machine translation, IM, and foreign language (FL) learning. In particular, it investigates whether machine-translated IM could improve the willingness to communicate (WTC) of beginner FL learners and whether the IM translation tool offers learners opportunities to communicate (OTC) in the FL. To answer these questions, China-based beginner FL learners were recruited and paired with native and near-native English speakers based in Canada. China-based participants completed two questionnaires and also exchanged (machine-translated) IM on selected topics with Canada-based participants for a period of ten weeks. Some China-based participants communicated with the help of the IM translation tool, while the others communicated without the tool. After analyzing the data gathered during the study, we found that WTC increased more for participants with the IM translation tool than for participants without the IM translation tool. Our analysis also indicated that the IM translation tool offered participants OTC in English. This was illustrated in various conversation aspects including number of words and turns exchanged, synchronous exchanges, ownership, conversation enhancement, topics discussed, tasks undertaken, and requests for paraphrase, repetition and explanation. In the discussion of the implications of our findings, we outline how the research project reinforced our understanding of the concept of WTC in a technology driven FL learning environment. We also discuss the implications of our findings for machine translation (MT), FL, and translation studies. Our discussion focuses on the debate on the tools to use and content to teach in the translator and FL training environments as well as various concepts in translation studies including MT quality, writing for MT, fit-for-purpose MT, collaboration and MT post-editing. This project enables us to test the applicability of MT in a different context using a novel group of users. The project therefore contributes to ongoing research on the relationship between CMC (specifically IM), MT, and FL learning, as well as to our knowledge of applications and perceptions of MT.

The language used in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs) is a form of computer-mediate communication. It consists of elements from both written and spoken language, but it is a highly abbreviated and innovative form of written language. This study focuses on the English language used in a MMORPG called Warhammer Online. The aim of this study is to identify abbreviations, interpret their meanings and to analyze the word formation processes and semantic changes that are involved in new words. The method used in this study is a qualitative case study of the English language in a MMORPG from a synchronic point of view. The secondary sources used in this study include previous works on morphology and semantics. The material used is based on logs acquired from the game Warhammer Online as a subscribed player. The results presented in this study show new and unique words created by players in Warhammer Online, along with other semantic changes that have taken place. It is concluded that the English written language has not seen such a major change in its entirety before, within one community.

O objetivo deste trabalho é identificar os recursos de TI e analisar de que forma as pequenas empresas podem utilizá-los para realizar a comunicação e a gestão da informação, privilegiando o uso de computadores para esta finalidade. A criação e o surgimento de recursos baseados na tecnologia da informação permitiram uma nova abordagem para estes aspectos. A realização da comunicação e a gestão da informação por meio de recursos baseados na tecnologia da informação impactaram de maneira significativa na forma com que o trabalho era realizado nas empresas. A importância do uso de recursos que possibilitem a realização do processo de comunicação mediada por computador, aliada à necessidade de se obter informações tempestivas e corretas, se tornaram variáveis associadas à melhoria da competitividade organizacional. A metodologia empregada nesta pesquisa foi o método qualitativo-exploratório, em que o estudo multicaso, proporcionou vivenciar a realidade com base no referencial teórico apresentado na pesquisa bibliografia. O trabalho de campo contou com a colaboração de três pequenas empresas do setor de informática da cidade de Ribeirão Preto-SP, nas quais foram possíveis a identificação dos recursos contemplados na pesquisa bibliográfica, e a análise de sua utilização em cada uma das empresas pesquisadas. / This essay was done in order to identify the IT (Information Technology) resources and analyse the way that it may be used by the small companies to perform communication and information management, thus making use of computers for this purpose. The creation and emerging of resources based on information technology permitted a new approach to these aspects. The achievement of communication and information management through means based on information technology caused a significant impact on the way that job was performed in the companies. The importance of using means that make possible the realization of the communication process, added to the need to obtain timely and correct information, have become associated variables to the improvement of the organization competitiveness. This research was done by the exploratory-qualified method, in which the multicase study, enabled the experiment of reality based on the theoretical reference presented in the research bibliography. The field work had the collaboration of three small companies of the computer field in the city of Ribeirão Preto-SP, where it was possible to identify the resources contemplated in the bibliography research, and the analyses of the usage in each one of the researched companies.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2016-06-14T11:42:30Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO (2014-DEZEMBRO-16) - O COMPUTADOR E A CAIXA MÁGICA - ANÁLISE DA INTERAÇÃO ENTRE O BAN.pdf: 3928581 bytes, checksum: 7a66bf3af0bbb1b1b29e297f88d1bc66 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-14T11:42:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO (2014-DEZEMBRO-16) - O COMPUTADOR E A CAIXA MÁGICA - ANÁLISE DA INTERAÇÃO ENTRE O BAN.pdf: 3928581 bytes, checksum: 7a66bf3af0bbb1b1b29e297f88d1bc66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-16 / Um teatro e um computador têm uma relação importante, do ponto de vista antropológico. Considerando que o indivíduo, em suas relações humanas, constantemente, se apresenta diante dos outros exercendo papéis e regulando seu desempenho, de modo a controlar a impressão que outros têm a seu respeito, adotamos a Teoria da Metáfora Teatral de Erving Goffman para analisar as interações entre o Banco do Brasil, maior banco da América Latina, e os seus clientes. O ambiente de estudo é a fanpage da empresa na rede social da Internet Facebook. Assumimos a abordagem interacionista simbólica, na qual os indivíduos atribuem significados às coisas conforme suas experiências e os modificam por meio de critérios interpretativos. Neste processo a comunicação – particularmente a mediada por computador – e a linguagem são elementos fundamentais. A Comunicação Mediada por Computador gerou novos arranjos de ambiente e novos modos de interação que obrigaram áreas como a Administração e a Publicidade a se rearranjarem. Do ponto de vista mercadológico, as empresas não podem estar desapercebidas em relação ao fenômeno dos relacionamentos nas redes sociais. Neste sentido, o Marketing de Serviços apresenta-se como área de conhecimento substancial, pois o cliente é co-criador de valor e partícipe ativo em suas interações. Utilizamos como método de pesquisa a netnografia, derivação da etnografia que analisa o comportamento do indivíduo na internet. / Under a unthropological view, Theater and a computer have an important relationship. Whereas the individual in their human relations often presents himself before the others exerting social roles and regulating her performance so as to control the impression that people have about him, we have taken the Erving Goffman's theory of Theatrical Metaphor to analyze the interactions between Banco do Brazil, the bigest bank of Latin America, and it customers. The study environment is the company's fanpage on Facebook social network the Internet. We have applied the symbolic interacionalism approach in which people assign meanings to things according to their experiences and modify it through interpretive criteria. This communication, especially computer-mediated communication process, and the language are key elements. Computer-mediated communication environment created new arrangements and new modes of interaction that forced such areas as administration and Advertising to rearrange themselves. Under a market view mecadológico, companies can not be overlooked about the phenomenon of relationships in socialnetworks. In this sense, the Marketing Services presents as a substantial area of knowledge, because the clients are co-creators of value and they are active participant in their interactions too. We have used as a research method netnography. It is a derivation of ethnography that examines the behavior of individuals on the internet.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:13:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese final -alzino.pdf: 986421 bytes, checksum: 26f621183b75e6b3c7876707f71a25d9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-25 / This research has been carried out in the Pos-Graduation Program in Education of the Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal de Goiás , being part of the research line , Professor Formation and Professionalization, which aims to study the relationship between the teaching work together with information and technologies as well as the epistemological, cultural, pedagogical and institutional implications of these relations. It selects as its scope the exercise of docent work in virtuality and the knowledge that the communication by means of a computer net demands on the professor in his effective exercise. Under the title Online education: computers mediated communication in the teaching practice, seeks to understand what the socioeconomic environment constituent of contemporaneous time has specifically, and how such specifity expresses itself in the teaching practices. The general target of this research is to understand this new socio technical means, identifying its specificities and discussing its implications in the teaching practices. The specific targets are: to characterize the process of communication by means of a net of computers, discussing its potential in the educational field; to describe how the exercise of online teaching occurs and to interpret the collected data in the empiric field. For the understanding of the multiple relations, which constitute the education phenomena in computerized nets, it makes use of the concept of informational society, of Castells, as a background to understand the contemporaneous socio technical environment, and its communicational logics. It also relies on Pierre Lévy for the understanding of social relations brought about in the social fabric, permeated by information and communication technologies also present in the teaching and learning processes. When reporting to the first three decades of online education, it recalls the theoretical contributions and practices of the researchers and educators who have become pioneers of online education. The investigation employs the qualitative broaching of ethnographic study case as a methodological option, by means of participation procedures, observation, interpretative description and production of the studied case report, a course given totally online, the empiric field work as well as the analysis and interpretation of the collected data converge to the conclusion that the communication by computer net, breaking the space time barriers and allowing the non linear, hypertext, multimedia and multidirectional communication opens new possibilities, and also, triggers implications in the relations with knowledge, making evident the necessity to take into account, in the exercise of online teaching, the twofold mediation process: pedagogical and technological. Such possibilities and implications become more evident when the use of the most recent digital technologies seek base in other knowledge areas, noticing currently a variety of proposals set on different conceptions about education and online teaching, a field of theoretical and practical investigation still on the buildup / A presente investigação foi desenvolvida no âmbito do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal de Goiás e faz parte da linha de pesquisa Formação e Profissionalização Docente, que busca estudar as relações do trabalho docente com as tecnologias de informação e comunicação bem como as implicações epistemológicas, culturais, pedagógicas e institucionais destas relações. Elege como objeto de estudo o exercício da docência na virtualidade e os saberes que a comunicação mediada por computadores em rede exige do professor no seu efetivo exercício. Sob o título Docência online:comunicação mediada por computadores em rede na prática docente, busca compreender o que o meio sociotécnico constitutivo da contemporaneidade tem de específico e como tal especificidade se expressa na prática docente. É objetivo geral desta pesquisa compreender este novo meio sociotécnico, identificando suas especificidades e discutindo suas implicações na prática docente. São objetivos específicos: caracterizar o processo de Comunicação Mediada por Computador (CMC) em rede, discutindo seu potencial no campo educacional; descrever como se dá o exercício da docência online; analisar e interpretar os dados colhidos no campo empírico. Para a compreensão das múltiplas relações que constituem o fenômeno da educação em redes informatizadas, recorre ao conceito de sociedade informacional, de Castells, como pano de fundo para se entender o meio sociotécnico contemporâneo e sua lógica comunicacional. Apoia-se, também, nas reflexões de Pierre Lévy, para a compreensão das relações sociais instauradas no tecido social permeado pelas tecnologias de informação e comunicação e presentes, também, nos processos de ensinar e aprender. Ao se reportar à história das três primeiras décadas da educação online, faz um resgate das contribuições teóricas e práticas dos pesquisadores e educadores que se tornaram pioneiros da educação online. A investigação utiliza, como opção metodológica, a abordagem dialética e da pesquisa qualitativa e, mais precisamente, o estudo de caso do tipo etnográfico, mediante os procedimentos da participação, observação, descrição interpretativa e produção do relato do caso estudado, um curso ministrado totalmente online. A revisão bibliográfica realizada, o resgate das primeiras formulações teóricas e práticas da docência online, o trabalho empírico de campo, bem como a análise e interpretação dos dados coletados convergem para a conclusão de que a comunicação mediada por computadores em rede, abre novas possibilidades, ainda não totalmente exploradas. Por outro lado, ao romper com as barreiras espaço-temporais e permitir a comunicação não linear, hipertextual, multimídia e multidirecional, acarreta, também, implicações nas relações com o conhecimento, evidenciando a necessidade de se levar em conta, no exercício da docência online, o processo de dupla mediação: a pedagógica ou tecnopedagógica e a tecnológica ou tecnocomunicacional Tais possibilidades e implicações tornam-se mais evidentes na medida em que o uso das mais recentes tecnologias digitais busca fundamentação em outras áreas do conhecimento, observando-se, atualmente, uma variedade de propostas assentadas em diferentes concepções a respeito da educação e da docência online, um campo de investigação teórica e prática ainda em construção.

This study investigates the use of emoticons and abbreviations in a mode of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), blogs written by Swedish individuals in English. The aim of the study is to find out whether the emoticons and abbreviations used in these blogs are tailor-made by Swedish users or if they are the same as those found on the rest of the Internet. Another question asked by the study concerns if the use of emoticons and abbreviations differs depending on the gender and age group of the blogger. The method used is mainly concordance searches in a corpus, using the concordance program AntConc to find particular features of CMC. The data used for the study is a corpus of one hundred thousand words from blogs all over the Internet on a wide range of topics written by males and females of different age groups. The results of the investigation indicate that no local variations of abbreviations and emoticons exist within Swedish blogs written in English. While emoticons were used more frequently by males than their female counterparts, abbreviations were used mostly by female bloggers. It also appeared that bloggers aged thirty or younger use emoticons and abbreviations most frequently, suggesting that their use was influenced quite significantly by the age of the blogger. The conclusion drawn from this is that if any eventual local Swedish variations of emoticons and abbreviations, they exist in Swedish blogs and not English ones, as those discovered in this study do not deviate from what already exist in blogs written by native speakers of English.