Dr. Vivian Howard: “Board playing ‘games’ with librarian cuts: Dexter.” CBC http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2012/04/10/ns-chignecto-library-dexter.html
Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd: “Workers more likely to go online than exercise on break.” The Chronicle Herald.
Congratulations to our colleagues for their stellar work.
For your reading pleasure:
The Toronto Star ran a nice story today on Twitter’s 6th birthday featuring commentaries from Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, Director of the Social Media Lab at SIM.
And yesterday, Global News ran a story “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” about a longitudinal study using social network analysis (SNA) to track changing voting blocks and shifts in the voting patterns of Toronto City Council members since the election of Mayor Rob Ford. Global News relied on Dr. Gruzd’s expertise in SNA to verify their study’s methodology and confirm their analysis.
I am pleased to share with you an NPR Morning Edition interview with Dr. Barry Wellman from the University of Toronto, a research collaborator with the Dalhousie Social Media Lab. In the interview, Dr. Wellman discussed findings from a recent study entitled, “Geography of Twitter Networks,” that he co-authored with Dr. Yuri Takhteyev and SIM’s own Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd.
One of the findings from this study shows the importance of “local” ties on Twitter and that Twitter ties closely mirror real world ties and that in some ways they resemble airline hub maps that are usually found on the back of many inflight magazines
Dalhousie University School of Information Management faculty member and Director of the Social Media Lab, Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, has been awarded a Leaders Opportunity Fund (LOF) award in the amount of $150,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT).
This new infrastructure grant will allow Dr. Gruzd to continue to grow his social media research lab at Dalhousie. Dr. Gruzd will use the grant to renovate newly allocated space within the Dalhousie Faculty of Management and to purchase new equipment to support the lab’s future projects. Equipment includes new tablets, computers and a large multi-touch video wall that will allow researchers to visualize large datasets on a single screen and discover patterns in online data.
“I am very excited to have access to the new research space, latest computer equipment and analytics software. It will allow me and my students to thoroughly analyze and visualize social networks found in social media as well as to create new mobile apps that can help people to easily navigate through the vast amount of social data that is being created on the web. And more importantly, it will allow the lab to forge stronger connections with software developers and social analytic companies in Canada and abroad.” –Anatoliy Gruzd, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management.
“The CFI has made possible the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that is necessary for high level science to take place. Without it researchers cannot do their work and without research we cannot advance the knowledge that improves our lives, our society and our health.” – Martha Crago, Vice President Research, Dalhousie University
Canada Foundation for Innovation funding is awarded through a rigorous, objective and merit-based national competition process. The information technology research being conducted at the Dalhousie’s Social Media Lab is embedded in a growing industry, advancement made here will help businesses, government and not-for-profit organizations understand how to engage in online conversations with Canadians.
Catch up on the latest from SIM! nform (Vol40.2) covers the period from July to December 2011 – happy reading!
Yesterday, a new research paper, “Geography of Twitter Networks”, published by Dr. Anatoliy and his colleagues Yuri Takhteyev and Barry Wellman from the University of Toronto was featured in an article written by Richard Florida, author of The Creative Class and Who’s Your City.
The article is entitled “How Twitter Proves That Place Matters” appeared in the Atlantic new Cities section.
The time to buy tickets for the SIMSA Holiday Cocktail Party is here! There will be a SIMSA member in the SIM Common Room Monday November 28th to December 2nd to collect your money and take down your name. (There will be no physical tickets.) Cost of admission will get you some amazing appetizers, a chance to win some fabulous door prizes, and time to mingle with fellow students, faculty, and alumni. We will also be hosting a Mix CD/Book exchange, details below.
Space is limited, so to ensure your spot at the party, please buy your tickets in advance. Thank you!
If you are unable to make it to the Common Room this week, please contact me about making alternate arrangements.
Elinor Crosby
SIMSA VP Non-Academic
elinor.crosby@dal.ca
*****
The Foggy Goggle
1667 Argyle St.
8-10pm
Saturday December 3rd
Tickets:
Students (& guests) – $10
Faculty (& guests) – $15
Alumni (& guests) – $15
*****
A note from the SIMSA 1st Year Representative, Alan Chorney:
To add to the fun and festivities we will be doing a Mixed CD/Book exchange. Participation in this is completely optional, but if you do wish to take part please adhere to the following guidelines:
–Your Item must be wrapped.
–Your name must appear somewhere under the wrapping paper
–If you choose to make a CD please include a track list
–If you choose a book please make sure it is one of your favourites and inscribe on the inside a few remarks about why you enjoyed the book and why you think others should read it.
–Please ensure you arrive at The Foggy Goggle no later than 9:00 PM to participate.
We have a fun game planned to distribute the gifts and everyone who brings a gift will be assured a gift in return. If you are considering the book option don’t forget about the SLA/IWB Book sale that is happening Nov. 28 in the SUB from 8-4.
Also, here are a few used bookstores located in Halifax for all of you still learning about what the city of Halifax has to offer:
Dust Jacket Books And Treasures — 1505 Barrington St.
Trident Booksellers & Cafe — 1256 Hollis St.
Back Pages Used Books — 1526 Queen St.
If you have any questions about the gift swap don’t hesitate to contact myself, Ariel Kleber, or Amy Lorenz.
The annual Faculty of Management (FoM) retreat was held on November 10, 2011. The retreat included an award ceremony, where outstanding contributions by faculty and staff were celebrated. This year SIM was well represented with five award recipients; in fact, it’s safe to say that SIM owned the awards podium. SIM is indeed lucky to have such dedicated professionals, who are very worthy of recognition.
JoAnn Watson received the Administrative Professional of the Year award.
Vivian Howard was awarded the Academic Leadership in the Faculty of Management award.
Bertrum MacDonald was presented with the Award for Exceptional Interdisciplinary Endeavour in Scholarly Research.
Anatoliy Gruzd was recognized for his contributions as The Rookie of the Year.
Sandra Toze received a Faculty of Management Teaching Award.
Please join us in congratulating our colleagues for their hard work and dedication!
Photo credit to Tim Richard (tim.richard@dal.ca)
Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, Director of the Social Media Lab at SIM, was featured in unews.ca and CTV Morning Live recently. For your reading and viewing enjoyment, please see:
1) “Social media helping scholars connect“, an interview by Jonathan Briggins about Dr. Gruzd’s research on how social media is changing the ways scholars disseminate knowledge and information
http://unews.ca/story/item/social-media-helping-scholars-connect/
2) “Facebook privacy issues“, a live-on-air featured interview with Heidi Petracek, Co-host of CTV Morning Live at 8:15 am on Wed. 11/16/2011 ( exact links will be forthcoming)
Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd, Assistant Professor at SIM and Director of the Social Media Lab, has been awarded a MITACS Accelerate Grant in the amount of $15,000. Mitacs-Accelerate is Canada’s premiere research internship program. It connects Canadian companies to top notch students and researchers at research-based universities. Students and researchers selected for this program will apply skills and theory to real-world problems and find solution to business research challenges. This initiative is in partnership with the Capital District Health Authority (CDHA) of Nova Scotia and Dr. Calvino Cheng Incorporated, a health informatics company founded by Dr. Calvino Cheng from the Department of Pathology at Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine.