Folks,
Can we discuss this report in our next group meeting? This is extremely
relevant to all of our works.
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute <https://www.torontosri.ca/>
University of Toronto, ON, CA
Ph: +1 647 220 3482
Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed
web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/
My Availability: Google Calendar Link
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&c…>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Lex Paulson <lex.paulson(a)um6p.ma>
Date: Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 9:54 AM
Subject: Ishtiaque / report launch
To: Ishtiaque Ahmed <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Cc: Lakshminarayanan Subramanian <lakshmi(a)cs.nyu.edu>
Hi Ishtiaque,
The day has arrived. In a few hours the NYU GovLab report, “The Power of
Virtual Communities,” will be launched at a virtual event today with the
Facebook Community Partnerships team. Here’s an advance copy
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VPVLb68Szz4Ioy-M5WqOIGdeBbK57JAx/view?usp=…>
.
As you may remember, our report is built upon a 15,000 respondent global
survey by YouGov, interviews with 50 community leaders and 26 experts in
the field (including yourself), and a review of over 150 academic articles
and 29 pieces of internal Facebook research.
I wanted to say how much I enjoyed our interview, and how grateful I am for
your help in helping us define the most important questions and insights in
this report. Your work at University of Toronto is extremely impressive,
and on a personal note, I was delighted for the chance to learn from you.
I’d love to invite you, if you’re free, to listen in to our virtual launch
event at 12pm EST / 6pm CET today
<https://www.facebook.com/facebookcommunity/posts/2956243151277927>.
The event will feature a panel including David Brooks, columnist at The New
York Times; Shaylyn Romney Garrett, co-author of The Upswing; and Tom
Alison, Facebook VP, in conversation with community leaders Lola Omolola of
Female IN, and Lisa Heffernan of Grown and Flown.
A summary of the key findings from the report are below.
Again, huge thanks for your help, and I hope to cross paths again in the
future.
All best,
Lex
*--*
--
Summary
-
Issued by The Governance Lab, The Power of Virtual Communities report
examines the role and impact of digital communities today.
-
The report shows these communities play a vital role in connecting
people and providing emotional support.
-
In 11 out of the 15 nations surveyed the largest proportion of people
said the most important group in their lives is primarily
online. Forty-six
percent of Americans say their most important group is online while 30
percent say it’s in-person.
-
Many of these communities exist in Facebook groups. More than 1.8
billion people use Facebook Groups every month, and more than half of all
users are in five or more groups. Report findings note that:
-
People can experience a strong sense of community from membership in
Facebook groups despite the lack of physical proximity.
-
In many cases online groups attract members and leaders who are
marginalized in the physical societies they inhabit, and who use the
platform to build new kinds of community that would be difficult to form
otherwise.
-
With more than 70 million admins and moderators running active Facebook
groups, it’s important to understand the conditions under which these
groups are able to successfully become meaningful communities, as well as
the characteristics of the community leaders that create and support them.
Report findings include:
-
New kinds of community leaders have emerged in these groups with
unique skills in moderating often divisive dialogues, sometimes among
millions of members.
-
Most groups are run as a labor of love; many leaders are neither
trained nor paid and the rules that govern their internal operations are
often uncodified.
-
This report further shines a light on the role leaders have and why it
is important to further support them in running their community. Facebook
provides support to all community leaders through tools and programs such
as the Facebook Certified Community Manager program and Community
Accelerator.
FAQs
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xkHxi46BrXRzcLiegw_6kwaRFJ11ENVRnlEH9bI…>
Q. What is The Power of Virtual Communities Report?
A. The Power of Virtual Communities Report has been written by The
Governance Lab <http://www.thegovlab.org/>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan action
research organization with deep expertise exploring the nature and impact
of digital communities. The report builds on a 15,000 respondent global
survey by YouGov, interviews with 50 community leaders and 26 community
experts, and a review of over 150 academic articles and 29 pieces of
internal Facebook research.
Q. How did The GovLab choose which Facebook groups to profile?
A. With 1.8 billion people participating in Groups on Facebook this report
sought to understand the factors behind the success of those that are most
impactful and effective. Facebook’s Community Partnerships Team surfaced a
selection of several hundred thriving Groups from which the GovLab team
selected those they wanted to interview.
Q. Who was interviewed for this report?
A. The GovLab interviewed 50 leaders of Facebook groups from 17 countries,
26 digital community “experts” in 11 countries, analyzed internal Facebook
research, conducted a literature review of more than 150 academic articles
and studies across disciplines focused on virtual communities.
Q. Who funded the report?
A. While Facebook funded the report, provided access to its own internal
research and introductions to community admins and moderators, the GovLab
team are the sole authors and maintained the highest standards of academic
integrity.
Q. Where is the survey data from that is mentioned in this report?
A. In August 2020, Facebook and the data analytics firm YouGov conducted
the Communities Insights Survey, an online survey in 15 countries:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Egypt, France, Indonesia, India,
Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the
United States. More than 1,000 respondents in each country were asked about
the groups they belong to, what makes these groups meaningful, and the
leadership traits that make them successful.
Q. Will this be an annual report?
A. We are always looking at opportunities to spotlight and support
communities and community leaders. While there are no immediate plans to
launch an annual report, this report is intended to serve as an anchor for
future research around virtual communities and its role in people’s lives.
--
*Lex Paulson, PhDExecutive Director*
*UM6P School of Collective Intelligence*
*Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique / Ben Guérir, Morocco*
*(+33)6-29-55-47-10*
Hi all,
I am a new Postdoctoral Fellow working with Prof. Tovi Grossman, and I am
coordinating an HCI guest talk next week.
Thijs Roumen (PhD student from Hasso Plattner Insitute, Germany) will give
a talk on *Feb. 24th (Wed) @ 10-11am (EST). *Thijs will be presenting his
work on portable laser cutting techniques (more details below). We will be
using the zoom link below.
zoom link (pc: 909215): https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/83764572467
Thijs's website: http://www.thijsroumen.eu/
*Speaker's Biography*
Thijs Roumen is a PhD candidate in Human Computer Interaction in the lab of
Patrick Baudisch, Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. He received
his MSc from the University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg in 2013 and BSc
from the Technical
University of Eindhoven, Netherlands in 2011. Between the PhD and master he
worked
at the National University of Singapore as a Research Assistant with
Shengdong Zhao.
His research interests are in personal fabrication, digital collaboration
and enabling
increased complexity for laser cutting. His papers are published as full
papers in top-tier
ACM conferences CHI and UIST. He serves on several ACM program committees
including ACM UIST.
*Talk title*
Portable Laser Cutting
*Abstract*
Laser-cut 3D models shared online tend to be basic and trivial—models build
over long periods of time and by multiple designers are few/nonexistent. I
argue that this is caused by a lack of an exchange format that would allow
continuing the work. At first glance, it may seem like such a format
already exist, as laser cut models are already widely shared in the form of
2D cutting plans. However, such files are susceptible to variations in
cutter properties (aka kerf) and do not allow modifying the model in any
meaningful way (no adjustment of material thickness, no parametric changes,
etc.). I consider this format machine specific.
My first take on the challenge is to see how far we can get by still
building on the de-facto
standard, i.e., 2D cutting plans. I tackled the challenge by rewriting 2D
cutting plans, replacing non-portable elements with portable ones. However,
this comes at a cost of extra incisions, reducing the structural integrity
of models and impacting aesthetic qualities and rare mechanisms or joints
may go undetected. I thus take a more radical approach, which is to move to
a 3D exchange format (kyub). This eliminates these challenges, as it
guarantees portability by generating a new machine-specific 2D file for the
local machine when exported. Instead, it raises the question of
compatibility: Files already exist in 2D—how to get them into 3D? I
demonstrate a software tool to reconstruct the 3D geometry of the model
encoded in a 2D cutting plan, allows modifying it using a 3D editor, and
re-encodes it to a 2D cutting plan. I demonstrate how this approach allows
me to make a much wider range of modifications, including scaling, changing
material thickness, and even remixing models.
The transition from sharing machine-oriented 2D cutting files, to 3D files,
enables users
worldwide to collaborate, share, and reuse. And thus, to move on from users
creating
thousands of trivial models from scratch to collaborating on big complex
projects.
Hope to see many of you there!
Yan
-------
Postdoctoral Fellow, https://chensivan.github.io/
FYI
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute <https://www.torontosri.ca/>
University of Toronto, ON, CA
Ph: +1 647 220 3482
Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed
web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/
My Availability: Google Calendar Link
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&c…>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Aparna Moitra <aparna(a)ulula.com>
Date: Sat, Feb 13, 2021 at 9:53 AM
Subject: Fwd: Ulula 2021 Summer Internship
To: <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Hi Ishtiaque,
Please find a call for Summer internship at Ulula attached below.
Thanks,
Aparna
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ijeoma Awagu <ijeoma(a)ulula.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 1:51 PM
Subject: Ulula 2021 Summer Internship
To: Ronald Daligadu <ron(a)ulula.com>, Vera Belazelkoska <vera(a)ulula.com>,
Arisa Goldstone <arisa(a)ulula.com>, JC Ulat <jc(a)ulula.com>, Konstantinos
lentas <kostas(a)ulula.com>, Laura Castro <laura.castro(a)ulula.com>, Zahra
Swadi <zahra(a)ulula.com>, Aroshi Amarasinghe <aroshi(a)ulula.com>, Teslim
Salawu <teslim(a)ulula.com>, Uttam Solanki <uttam(a)ulula.com>, Irene Ferro <
irene(a)ulula.com>, Alex Phuong Nguyen <alex(a)ulula.com>, Aparna Moitra <
aparna(a)ulula.com>, Hui Wen Zheng <huiwen(a)ulula.com>, Andres M. Fernandez <
andres(a)ulula.com>, Thomas Radal <thomas(a)ulula.com>, Belise Kabahizi <
belise(a)ulula.com>, Antoine Heuty <antoine(a)ulula.com>
Hello All,
We have now published the 2021 Summer Internship Opportunities for the
following roles:
Digital Marketing Intern
<https://www.goodandwell.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021_Internships_Ulul…>
Software Development Intern
<https://www.goodandwell.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021_Internships_Ulul…>
These opportunities are being offered as a part of The Good & Well Social
Impact Internship Program. More information about the Program, as well as
the application procedure can be obtained here
<https://www.goodandwell.ca/jobs/>.
Please feel free to share within your networks as usual. However, all
applications must be sent in through the specified application channel.
This information and the appropriate links will also be up on the
Ulula website and LinkedIn page.
Regards
*Ijeoma Awagu*
Human Resources & Operations
M: 437 234 7706 | ijeoma(a)ulula.com
Ulula
<http://t.sidekickopen08.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg2…>
| @ulula4good
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| Sign up for our email newsletter!
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<http://ulula.com/covid-19>
This message is intended only for the named recipients. This message may
contain information that is confidential or personal. If you are not one of
the intended recipients, you are prohibited from using, distributing or
copying this email or any attachments. If you have received this email in
error, please notify us immediately and delete the original message and all
copies.
--
*Aparna Moitra*
Program Manager, Ulula
<http://t.sidekickopen08.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg2…>
M: +1(647)-540-2948 | aparna(a)ulula.com <ijeoma(a)ulula.com>
@ulula4good
<http://t.sidekickopen08.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg2…>
| Sign up for our email newsletter!
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<http://ulula.com/covid-19>
This message is intended only for the named recipients. This message may
contain information that is confidential or personal. If you are not one of
the intended recipients, you are prohibited from using, distributing or
copying this email or any attachments. If you have received this email in
error, please notify us immediately and delete the original message and all
copies.
--
*Aparna Moitra*
Program Manager, Ulula
<http://t.sidekickopen08.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg2…>
M: +1(647)-540-2948 | aparna(a)ulula.com <ijeoma(a)ulula.com>
@ulula4good
<http://t.sidekickopen08.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg2…>
| Sign up for our email newsletter!
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<http://ulula.com/covid-19>
This message is intended only for the named recipients. This message may
contain information that is confidential or personal. If you are not one of
the intended recipients, you are prohibited from using, distributing or
copying this email or any attachments. If you have received this email in
error, please notify us immediately and delete the original message and all
copies.
FYI
Best Regards,
Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Affiliate, Schwartz Reisman Institute <https://www.torontosri.ca/>
University of Toronto, ON, CA
Ph: +1 647 220 3482
Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed
web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/
My Availability: Google Calendar Link
<https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&c…>
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <info(a)ai4goodlab.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 1:56 PM
Subject: Only two weeks left to apply for the AI4Good Lab!
To: <ishtiaque(a)cs.toronto.edu>
Dear Ishtiaque Ahmed,
I contacted you two weeks ago to let you know about the AI4Good Lab, a
tuition-free machine learning bootcamp for women-identified STEM students
and graduates across Canada.
Our call for applications opened January 15th and closes February 15th so
there are only 2 weeks left to apply for the 2021 cohorts!
If you haven’t already, please share this with students who may be
interested!
To apply: www.ai4goodlab.com/apply
Information on the program available on our website
<https://www.ai4goodlab.com/> and in our PDF
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/10skLXbs-8HMOcwluRHW29e_fL6-H1WPq/view?usp=…>
Best,
*The AI4Good Lab Team*
CIFAR-OSMO AI4Good Lab
ai4goodlab.com