Third Assignment

Choose one of the options below and write an essay in response. Your essay should be at least three and a half pages in length and should not exceed six pages. Use double-space lineation, a 12-point serif font, and one-inch margins on all sides. Your writing is expected to be error-free and up to university standards.

Essay should be argumentative essays: there should be one main thesis that the essay attempts to support/prove. The thesis represents your own original insight into the topic.

The assignment is due on February 5th. Consult the course outline for information about late assignments.

Option 1: Science and Human Visualization

Examine the following three digital videos/visualizations:
      • Mitochondria: Powering the Cell
      • 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
      • CNN ECOSPHERE
Write an essay that compares the use of visualization in two of the videos/visualizations. Focus your discussion on how the data from sciences and social sciences are being visualized to say something about humanity. What visual metaphors are being used (if any)? How does the visual medium enhance the power of the data being visualized? Analyze the appeal of these videos/visualizations from the perspective of at least two of the following three: the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities.

Option 2: Social Computing Analysis

Use the web application Twit Search to search through recent tweets (from Twitter). Choose a word, words, or a phrase and search through recent tweets that contain the word(s)/phrase you have chosen. The web site will return the one hundred or so most recent tweets that match your search. Retrieve the search results for the same word(s)/phrase for at least four different times/days. Write an essay that analyzes the results.

The Twit Search web site will allow you to save those search results that you want to save. You can then retrieve the results at a later date, to enable comparison between result sets. The web site will list the top twenty or so most frequent words that occur in each of the results sets. Note that some words are not counted for the list of the most frequent words. Your essay must refer to the results by file identification number. You are welcome to use more advanced text analysis techniques on your results (as individual sets or altogether).

Your essay should attempt to come to an understanding of the types of Tweets being written about or containing your word(s)/phrase. How do the most frequent words relate to the search term? How do these words change over time? Can you get a sense of the general attitude towards the search term and/or how the search term is being used given the result sets? How is this social medium being used to communicate information about the search term?

You are welcome to use any search term for this assignment. You will probably want to choose a search term that will be included in many tweets on any given day. You are welcome to use names of people and/or products. You are welcome to search for “adult,” vulgar, and/or swear words. If you choose a particular phrase (such as, “don't tell my wife” or “don't tell my boss” or “are driving me crazy”), be sure to include quotation marks around the phrase.

Option 3: Social Profiling: The Numerati

Write a detailed response to The Numerati. Examine the human implications of two or more of the types of profiling discussed in the book. What might the author be ignoring, especially when considering how social profiling might alter the definition of what it means to be a human and/or change society radically? More importantly, examine how the author presents his argument. To what extent does he endorse the type of social profiling he is presenting? How does he portray humans, computers, and the Numerati in his writing?