The growth of Web 2.0 and fundamental theoretical breakthroughs have led to an avalanche of interest in social networks. This paper focuses on the problem of modeling how social networks accomplish tasks through peer production style collaboration. We propose a general interaction model for the underlying social networks and then a specific model (iLink for social search and message routing. A key contribution here is the development of a general learning framework for making such online peer production systems work at scale. The iLink model has been used to develop a system for FAQ generation in a social network (FAQtory), and experience with its application in the context of a full-scale learning-driven workflow application (CALO) is reported. We also discuss methods of adapting iLink technology for use in military knowledge sharing portals and other message routing systems. Finally, the paper shows the connection of iLink to SQM, a theoretical model for social search that is a generalization of Markov Decision Processes and the popular Pagerank model.
Abstract Slavery in the Islamic Middle East. Edited by Shaun E. Marmon. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 1999. Pp.x + 117. $39.95 (cloth) ISBN 1–55876–168–3; $16.95 (paper) ISBN 1–55876–169–1. A Diplomatic Revolution: Algeria's Fight for Independence and the Origins of the Post‐Cold War Era. By Matthew Connelly. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp.xiv + 400, 14 illus. $45.00, L38.99 (cloth) ISBN 0–19–514513–5. Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife. By Ronald Bruce St John. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. Pp.256, 1 vol. $49.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–8122–3672–6. The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam. Edited by John Hunwick and Eve Troutt Powell. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2002. Pp.xxxvii + 46. $44.95 (cloth) ISBN 1–55876–274–4; $22.95 (paper) ISBN 1–55876–275–2. Rachid Ghannouchi: A Democrat within Islamism. By Azzam S. Tamimi. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp.280. $49.95 (cloth) ISBN 0–19–514000–1. Colonial Histories, Post‐Colonial Memories: The Legend of the Kahina, a North African Heroine. By Abdelmajid Hannoum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2001. Pp.xix + 216. $59.95 (cloth) ISBN 0–325–00253–3. The Monks of Tibhirine: Faith, Love, and Terror in Algeria. By John W. Kiser. New York: St Martin's Press, 2002. Pp. xv + 235. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0–312–25317–6. Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria. By James D. Le Sueur. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Pp.xi + 342, 5 figures. $46.50 (cloth) ISBN 0–8122–3588–6. Outside In: On the Margins of the Modern Middle East. Edited by EUGENE ROGAN. London and New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers in association with the European Science Foundation, 2002. Pp.263, select bibliography (no index). $65.00 (cloth) ISBN 1–860–64698–0. Jewish and Muslim Dialects of Moroccan Arabic. By Jeffrey Heath. London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2002. Pp.xvi + 598, 509 maps. $90 (cloth) ISBN 0–7007–1514–2.
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) was pleased to present the AAAI 2008 Spring Symposium Series, held Wednesday through Friday, March 26‐28, 2008, at Stanford University, California. The eight symposia were titled (1) AI Meets Business Rules and Process Management, (2) Architectures for Intelligent Theory‐Based Agents, (3) Creative Intelligent Systems, (4) Emotion, Personality, and Social Behavior, (5) Semantic Scientific Knowledge Integration, (6) Social Information Processing, (7) Symbiotic Relationships between Semantic Web and Knowledge Engineering, (8) Using AI to Motivate Greater Participation in Computer Science. The goal of the AI Meets Business Rules and Process Management AAAI symposium was to investigate the various approaches and standards to represent business rules, business process management, and the semantic web with respect to expressiveness and reasoning capabilities. The focus of the Architectures for Intelligent Theory‐Based Agents AAAI symposium was the definition of architectures for intelligent theory‐based agents, comprising languages, knowledge representation methodologies, reasoning algorithms, and control loops. The Creative Intelligent Systems symposium included five major discussion sessions and a general poster session (in which all contributing papers were presented). The purpose of this symposium was to explore the synergies between creative cognition and intelligent systems. The goal of the Emotion, Personality, and Social Behavior symposium was to examine fundamental issues in affect and personality in both biological and artificial agents, focusing on the roles of these factors in mediating social behavior. The Semantic Scientific Knowledge Integration symposium brought together the semantic technologies community with the scientific information technology community in an effort to build the general semantic science information community. The Social Information Processing symposium's goal was to investigate computational and analytic approaches that will enable users to harness the efforts of large numbers of other users to solve a variety of information processing problems, from discovering high‐quality content to managing common resources. The goal of the Symbiotic Relationships between the Semantic Web and Software Engineering symposium was to explore how the lessons learned by the knowledge‐engineering community over the past three decades could be applied to the bold research agenda of current workers in semantic web technologies. The purpose of the Using AI to Motivate Greater Participation in Computer Science symposium was to identify ways that topics in AI may be used to motivate greater student participation in computer science by highlighting fun, engaging, and intellectually challenging developments in the AI‐related curriculum at a number of educational levels. Technical reports of the symposia were published by AAAI Press.
NEGOTIATING IDENTITIES IN THE PRE-COLONIAL SAHARA Becoming Walata: A History of Saharan Social Formation and Transformation. By TIMOTHY CLEAVELAND. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann, 2001. Pp. xxiii+232. $67.95 (ISBN 0-325-07027-X). - Volume 44 Issue 1
AFRICAN AND AFRICAN AMERICAN BUSINESS HISTORY Black Business and Economic Power. Edited by ALUSINE JALLOH and TOYIN FALOLA. Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2002. Pp. xii+628. $67.95; £50 (ISBN 1-58046-114-x). - Volume 45 Issue 1
This essay traces economic and social change in early modern Morocco from the perspective of the leaders and followers of the Nās˙iriyya, one of the largest sufi orders in North Africa. It suggests that people's social strategies for gaining access to productive resources acted as an important locus of change. Donations to the order provided clients access to mediation, protection, enforcement, credit, supernatural power and political influence, but also made them increasingly dependent on Nās˙iri leaders. Major shifts in Morocco's political economy, however, refocused strategies of resource access and social mobility. Growing international trade encouraged commercialization, specialization and competition between groups for access to markets, political favors and tax breaks.
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