Social Information Seeking

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.

Offers a concise introduction to a new field concerned with seeking and acquiring information from social spaces on the Internet Intertwines general information research with social networking and other collaborative aspects of information seeking activities Combines theoretical work with practical considerations and evaluation techniques Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Chirag Shah is Associate Professor of Information and Computer Science at Rutgers University. His research interests include studies of interactive information retrieval/seeking, especially those involving social and collaborative aspects. He has published extensively on these topics, and received several grants and awards for his work. His research falls under and uniquely connects computer science, data science, and information science.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Information Seeking.- Social Media and Social Networking.- Online Question-Answering (Q&A).- Social Search.- Collaborative Information Seeking.- Social and Collaborative Information Seeking.- SIS in Research and Practice.- Conclusion.