Title :
The value of the unpopular: Counteracting the popularity echo-chamber on the Web
Author :
Treviranus, Jutta ; Hockema, Stephen
Author_Institution :
Adaptive Technol. Resource Centre, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Abstract :
Theoretical proofs and empirical evidence show that diverse perspectives benefit groups, society and individuals. Current Web applications, by artificially emphasizing popularity, discourage this diversity. This paper examines the effect of the popularity ¿echo-chamber¿ on diversity, minority views and innovation. Applications and practices to counter this cascading trend and promote divergent thinking and minority perspectives are explored in a new project ¿unpopular.ca¿.
Keywords :
Internet; social aspects of automation; Web applications; divergent thinking; diversity; innovation; minority views; popularity echo chamber; unpopular.ca; Bidirectional control; Counting circuits; Cultural differences; Decision making; Polarization; Problem-solving; Social network services; Tagging; Technological innovation; Voting; Web 2.0; diversity; minority views; normal: ‘echo-chamber’; popularity; social networking; values;
Conference_Titel :
Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH), 2009 IEEE Toronto International Conference
Conference_Location :
Toronto, ON
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3877-8
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3878-5
DOI :
10.1109/TIC-STH.2009.5444430