Section: New Results

Emotional and Social Web

Modeling, Detection and Annotation of Emotional States using an Algebraic Multidimensional Vector Space

Participants : Nhan Le Thanh, Imen Tayari.

In this research work, we presents a generic solution of emotional data exchange between heterogeneous multi-modal applications. This proposal is based on a new algebraic representation of emotions and it is composed of three distinct layers: the psychological layer, the formal computational layer and the language layer. Moreover, our proposal provides powerful mathematical tools for the analysis and the processing of these emotions and it enables the exchange of the emotional states regardless to the modalities and sensors used in the detection step. The validation of the proposed solution is done with K-nearest neighbor classification algorithm for detecting and evaluating emotion from Eight-Emotion Sentics Data.

Social radio: a Case Studies of Social Network Services

Participants : Amosse Edouard, Nhan Le Thanh.

In this project, we carry out some case studies of social radio that is an information service on social networking. Two case studies are conducted on the topics of traffic incidents and geo-epidemiologies. These case studies allow us to study a formal model of spatiotemporal annotations on social network.

Participatory Mapping and Social Bookmarking

Participants : Michel Buffa, Alain Giboin.

In continuation of ISICIL, collaboration began this year between the ITCS-HSS research teams Wimmics and Tech-CICO (UTT), in association with Mnemotix and Wannago startups, in order to design a platform of participatory mapping in the field of sustainable tourism. This platform will enable the various actors in the field (tourists, tourism service providers, scientific experts of fauna, flora and geology, associations, and so on) exchange knowledge about the site and thus enhance the site attraction. This platform is called ”socio-semantic” because it offers a unique combination of Semantic Web and Social Web technologies.

The article [51] details one of the planned scenarios of use of the platform and illustrates some proposed functionalities such as Webmarks (Wimmics and Mnemotix) and multiple viewpoints (Tech-CICO). The article also shows how ICT and HSS researchers will collaborate to analyze the innovative uses of the platform on the first fields of application (in Provence- Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region).

Modeling Team Processes

Participants : Pierre Robillard, Isabelle Mirbel, Zeina Azmeh, Alain Giboin, Mathieu Lavallée.

Recent studies outline the importance of software development teams’ interactions, suggesting that poor team dynamics can lead to poor software. The relationship between "soft" issues like team dynamics and "hard" issues like software quality is difficult to observe, however. To bridge the gap between these two kinds of issues, and to help development teams prevent quality issues through the planning of relevant team activities, we worked on an assessment method of the quality of team dynamics based on a taxonomy of episodes of interactions encountered in software development teams [83] – the CoDyMA (Collaborative Dynamics Measurement and Analysis) method. We proposed an analysis procedure of episodes based on the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) approach. This procedure uses as input the data (namely the accounts of face-to-face interactions) reported by the developers in their activity diary. The entries are coded in terms of interaction episodes and artifact types to produce a FCA lattice. The observed lattice is compared to a prescribed lattice, and adjustments can be proposed to the team if necessary. The procedure was applied to data from a case study. This work is described in a paper submitted for publication.

Modeling Users and Groups of Users

Participants : Isabelle Mirbel, Zeina Azmeh, Alain Giboin.

Emphasizing Dysfunctional Group Dynamics in Collaboration Personas: Specification of an Approach

Comparing Collaboration Personas and Individual Personas for the design and evaluation of collaboration software, Judge, Matthews, and Whittaker [79] found that practitioners preferred collaboration personas, but required that the method put more emphasis on problematic or dysfunctional group dynamics. Because Judge et al. only outlined a possible approach to meet this requirement, we decided to contribute to the specification of the approach. In [37] we report the first steps of this specification work.

Using Formal Concept Analysis to elicit Personas

Personas are built from a clustering of behavioral variables common to a set of users. Behavioral variables are ways in which users behavior differ (e.g., goals and attitudes); it is important to elicit them because they have an impact on the system to be designed. Today, the clustering is mainly performed manually. To automate it, we started this year to explore the use of Formal Concept Analysis tools.

Modeling Multimodal Grounding Processes in Design Teams

Participants : Aurore Defays, Alain Giboin.

Grounding is the process used by participants to a collective activity to coordinate both the content and process of their communication to be successful [71] . Grounding is also defined as the process of elaborating and maintaining the Common Ground (i.e., mutual knowledge, mutual beliefs, and mutual assumptions) necessary to participants’ mutual understanding [72] . So far, grounding has been studied mainly from a unimodal point of view, i.e., from the point of view of the verbal modality (oral or written). Some authors have begun to study grounding from a bimodal viewpoint; for example [78] have studied the use of verbal and gestural modalities necessary to ensure mutual understanding in interactions between Japanese airline pilots and an American flight instructor. In the context of her PhD thesis in Ergonomics applied to architectural design digital tools, Aurore Defays extended the study of grounding to actual multimodality (with n modality: oral, written, gestures, gazes, etc.).

With Aurore Defays, we focused this year on improving the methodology of analysis of multimodal grounding proposed in [74] . To do this, we relied on the data of an existing study by Defays on remote collaboration between dyads and triads of architects interacting through a collaborative digital studio (the Distributed Collaborative Digital Studio, DSDC). Our initial research question was: Is a multimodal shared representation preferable to a unimodal representation to collaborate effectively? Analyzing the data, this question was gradually transformed into: Which modalities are relevant to build the common ground necessary for a particular type of collaboration to succeed?

The ”Design Thinking” Toolset: Application to Discovery Hub

Participants : Gessica Puri, Alain Giboin, Nicolas Marie, Damien Legrand.

Last year was developed a ”design thinking” toolset (including a framework) for helping developers think in terms of a user's point of view when they design and evaluate link visualization and manipulation applications such as graph visualization applications [81] . The toolset was used this year to perform a qualitative evaluation of Discovery Hub, so contributing to the development of a new version of the discovery engine.

The ShowCaseMachine project led by Damien Legrand won the 11th Challenge Jeune Pousses at Telecom Valley in Sophia Antipolis.