When it comes to data mining, I have to go to my older sister Kristin, who is currently getting her second Master’s degree at UVa. Yes, in our family – education is definitely a top priority. 🙂 It was never a question if we would go to college, but the question was after we get our undergraduate and graduate degrees – do we want to go on for a PhD, or second master’s, or a MD / Law degree? So many decisions! 🙂 It has been really fascinating to me to see what Kristin is doing in systems engineering, and how we can bridge these two disciplines together when studying social media and other emerging digital technologies.
One class Kristin got to take this past year was data mining, which I find really interesting and important to know and understand, especially when you are researching and working with social media. However, when I was doing research in preparation for a conference I will be attending shortly, I found out that data mining is important, but what about reality mining? So, exactly what is reality mining you ask? Well, according to the MIT Media Lab’s website, reality mining is “ the collection of machine-sensed environmental data pertaining to human social behavior. This new paradigm of data mining makes possible the modeling of conversation context, proximity sensing, and temporospatial location throughout large communities of individuals. Mobile phones (and similarly innocuous devices) are used for data collection, opening social network analysis to new methods of empirical stochastic modeling.” MIT is doing some extraordinary research studies and projects looking at not only reality mining, but also emerging technologies and the impact that these devices have on society – so they are definitely a resource to watch for new research in this area.
There are a lot of opportunities for organizations, businesses, and even public relations professionals to look at reality mining. We are constantly connected with the digital world and are continuing to integrate and use social media and digital communications throughout our daily lives. We are definitely becoming social customers, where we are expecting information to come in different formats, constantly updated and ready to view at our fingertips, and are looking for a personalized interaction with others online – whether this is with other professionals or individuals, or with organizations. We are not only expecting this information to come in various forms (audio, visual, text), but we are expecting it to be coming to us on the move with our mobile devices such as our smartphones or the iPad. When you are thinking about it, there is a lot of “data” that is being explored and analyzed that is being reviewed from these sites – but is it data, or the representation of the different realities these individuals are experiencing online and willing to share with others to create meaning and better understanding? There are many different philosophical perspectives you can look at when it comes to reality mining, but I do think that this is indeed one of the emerging trends public relations professionals (and others in social sciences) need to not only know about, but understand and implement into their social media campaigns and research studies.
What is very exciting about the dynamic evolution of social media and other emerging technology is the fact that professionals and researchers from many disciplines are coming together in large teams and working and studying the same phenomenon. I think that this is not just a trend in both research and academia, but across the board. It is exciting to see and be a part of! 🙂 In summary, what is exciting is to see that as a public relations professional presently, you are always learning something new – whether it is new technology or integrating research and knowledge about a particular phenomenon, and see how it can impact the discipline and field of PR. 🙂 Hope you all are having a wonderful day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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