01977nas a2200181   4500008004100000245007000041210006900111260001300180300001400193520139800207100002401605700002201629700002001651700002101671700001701692700002001709856006601729       2017                        eng d00aLarge Scale Engagement Through Web-Gaming and Social Computations0 aLarge Scale Engagement Through WebGaming and Social Computations  bSpringer  a237–2543 aIn the last few years the Web has progressively acquired the status of an infrastructure for social computation that allows researchers to coordinate the cognitive abilities of human agents, so to steer the collective user activity towards predefined goals. This general trend is also triggering the adoption of web-games as an alternative laboratory to run experiments in the social sciences and whenever the contribution of human beings can be effectively used for research purposes. Web-games introduce a playful aspect in scientific experiments with the result of increasing participation of people and of keeping their attention steady in time. The aim of this chapter is to suggest a general purpose web-based platform scheme for web-gaming and social computation. This platform will simplify the realization of web-games and will act as a repository of different scientific experiments, thus realizing a sort of showcase that stimulates users’ curiosity and helps researchers in recruiting volunteers. A platform built by following these criteria has been developed within the EveryAware project, the Experimental Tribe (XTribe) platform, which is operational and ready to be used. Finally, a sample web-game hosted by the XTribe platform will be presented with the aim of reporting the results, in terms of participation and motivation, of two different player recruiting strategies.1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aCaminiti, Saverio1 aGravino, Pietro1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aSirbu, Alina1 aTria, Francesca  uhttp://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-25658-0_1202813nas a2200157   4500008004100000245006200041210006000103260001300163300001400176520231700190100001702507700002102524700002402545700002002569856006602589       2017                        eng d00aOpinion dynamics: models, extensions and external effects0 aOpinion dynamics models extensions and external effects  bSpringer  a363–4013 aRecently, social phenomena have received a lot of attention not only from social scientists, but also from physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists, in the emerging interdisciplinary field of complex system science. Opinion dynamics is one of the processes studied, since opinions are the drivers of human behaviour, and play a crucial role in many global challenges that our complex world and societies are facing: global financial crises, global pandemics, growth of cities, urbanisation and migration patterns, and last but not least important, climate change and environmental sustainability and protection. Opinion formation is a complex process affected by the interplay of different elements, including the individual predisposition, the influence of positive and negative peer interaction (social networks playing a crucial role in this respect), the information each individual is exposed to, and many others. Several models inspired from those in use in physics have been developed to encompass many of these elements, and to allow for the identification of the mechanisms involved in the opinion formation process and the understanding of their role, with the practical aim of simulating opinion formation and spreading under various conditions. These modelling schemes range from binary simple models such as the voter model, to multi-dimensional continuous approaches. Here, we provide a review of recent methods, focusing on models employing both peer interaction and external information, and emphasising the role that less studied mechanisms, such as disagreement, has in driving the opinion dynamics. Due to the important role that external information (mainly in the form of mass media broadcast) can have in enhancing awareness of social issues, a special emphasis will be devoted to study different forms it can take, investigating their effectiveness in driving the opinion formation at the population level. The review shows that, although a large number of approaches exist, some mechanisms such as the effect of multiple external information sources could largely benefit from further studies. Additionally, model validation with real data, which are starting to become available, is still largely lacking and should in our opinion be the main ambition of future investigations.1 aSirbu, Alina1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aTria, Francesca  uhttp://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-25658-0_1701492nas a2200169   4500008004100000020002200041245006500063210006400128520092200192100002001114700002201134700001701156700002001173700002401193700002101217856008401238       2016                        eng d  a978-989-758-181-600aUnveiling Political Opinion Structures with a Web-experiment0 aUnveiling Political Opinion Structures with a Webexperiment3 aThe dynamics of political votes has been widely studied, both for its practical interest and as a paradigm of the dynamics of mass opinions and collective phenomena, where theoretical predictions can be easily tested. However, the vote outcome is often influenced by many factors beyond the bare opinion on the candidate, and in most cases it is bound to a single preference. The voter perception of the political space is still to be elucidated. We here propose a web experiment (laPENSOcos`ı) where we explicitly investigate participants’ opinions on political entities (parties, coalitions, individual candidates) of the Italian political scene. As a main result, we show that the political perception follows a Weber-Fechner-like law, i.e., when ranking political entities according to the user expressed preferences, the perceived distance of the user from a given entity scales as the logarithm of this rank.1 aGravino, Pietro1 aCaminiti, Saverio1 aSirbu, Alina1 aTria, Francesca1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aLoreto, Vittorio  uhttp://www.scitepress.org/DigitalLibrary/Link.aspx?doi=10.5220/000590630039004702544nas a2200373   4500008004100000022001400041245008200055210006900137260000900206300001300215490000700228520142000235100001701655700001901672700002201691700002201713700001501735700002001750700002001770700001901790700002101809700002101830700001901851700002101870700001601891700002601907700002001933700002401953700001701977700001701994700002002011700002702031856011202058       2015                        eng d  a1932-620300aParticipatory Patterns in an International Air Quality Monitoring Initiative.0 aParticipatory Patterns in an International Air Quality Monitorin  c2015  ae01367630 v103 a<p>The issue of sustainability is at the top of the political and societal agenda, being considered of extreme importance and urgency. Human individual action impacts the environment both locally (e.g., local air/water quality, noise disturbance) and globally (e.g., climate change, resource use). Urban environments represent a crucial example, with an increasing realization that the most effective way of producing a change is involving the citizens themselves in monitoring campaigns (a citizen science bottom-up approach). This is possible by developing novel technologies and IT infrastructures enabling large citizen participation. Here, in the wider framework of one of the first such projects, we show results from an international competition where citizens were involved in mobile air pollution monitoring using low cost sensing devices, combined with a web-based game to monitor perceived levels of pollution. Measures of shift in perceptions over the course of the campaign are provided, together with insights into participatory patterns emerging from this study. Interesting effects related to inertia and to direct involvement in measurement activities rather than indirect information exposure are also highlighted, indicating that direct involvement can enhance learning and environmental awareness. In the future, this could result in better adoption of policies towards decreasing pollution.</p>1 aSirbu, Alina1 aBecker, Martin1 aCaminiti, Saverio1 aDe Baets, Bernard1 aElen, Bart1 aFrancis, Louise1 aGravino, Pietro1 aHotho, Andreas1 aIngarra, Stefano1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aMolino, Andrea1 aMueller, Juergen1 aPeters, Jan1 aRicchiuti, Ferdinando1 aSaracino, Fabio1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aStumme, Gerd1 aTheunis, Jan1 aTria, Francesca1 aVan den Bossche, Joris  uhttps://kdd.isti.cnr.it/publications/participatory-patterns-international-air-quality-monitoring-initiative02195nas a2200289   4500008004100000022001400041245005900055210005800114260000900172300001100181490000600192520133700198100001901535700002201554700002101576700002001597700002001617700002801637700001901665700002101684700002101705700002601726700002401752700001701776700002001793856009201813       2013                        eng d  a1932-620300aAwareness and learning in participatory noise sensing.0 aAwareness and learning in participatory noise sensing  c2013  ae816380 v83 a<p>The development of ICT infrastructures has facilitated the emergence of new paradigms for looking at society and the environment over the last few years. Participatory environmental sensing, i.e. directly involving citizens in environmental monitoring, is one example, which is hoped to encourage learning and enhance awareness of environmental issues. In this paper, an analysis of the behaviour of individuals involved in noise sensing is presented. Citizens have been involved in noise measuring activities through the WideNoise smartphone application. This application has been designed to record both objective (noise samples) and subjective (opinions, feelings) data. The application has been open to be used freely by anyone and has been widely employed worldwide. In addition, several test cases have been organised in European countries. Based on the information submitted by users, an analysis of emerging awareness and learning is performed. The data show that changes in the way the environment is perceived after repeated usage of the application do appear. Specifically, users learn how to recognise different noise levels they are exposed to. Additionally, the subjective data collected indicate an increased user involvement in time and a categorisation effect between pleasant and less pleasant environments.</p>1 aBecker, Martin1 aCaminiti, Saverio1 aFiorella, Donato1 aFrancis, Louise1 aGravino, Pietro1 aHaklay, Mordechai, Muki1 aHotho, Andreas1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aMueller, Juergen1 aRicchiuti, Ferdinando1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aSirbu, Alina1 aTria, Francesca  uhttps://kdd.isti.cnr.it/publications/awareness-and-learning-participatory-noise-sensing00492nas a2200145   4500008004100000245006800041210006700109300001200176490000700188100001700195700002100212700002400233700002000257856006900277       2013                        eng d00aCohesion, consensus and extreme information in opinion dynamics0 aCohesion consensus and extreme information in opinion dynamics  a13500350 v161 aSirbu, Alina1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aTria, Francesca  uhttp://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S021952591350035500461nas a2200133   4500008004100000245006500041210006500106300001100171100001700182700002100199700002400220700002000244856006300264       2013                        eng d00aOpinion dynamics with disagreement and modulated information0 aOpinion dynamics with disagreement and modulated information  a1–201 aSirbu, Alina1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aTria, Francesca  uhttp://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10955-013-0724-x00611nas a2200169   4500008004100000245005200041210005000093260000900143100002200152700002000174700002000194700002100214700002400235700001700259700002000276856014500296       2013                        eng d00aXTribe: a web-based social computation platform0 aXTribe a webbased social computation platform  bIEEE1 aCaminiti, Saverio1 aCicali, Claudio1 aGravino, Pietro1 aLoreto, Vittorio1 aServedio, Vito, D P1 aSirbu, Alina1 aTria, Francesca  uhttp://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6686061&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D6686061