Monthly Archives: June 2012

#followfriday: @vanessasilva

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#followfriday (or #ff) is a tradition started by Micah Baldwin (according to Mashable), whereby you name Twitter user your followers should know about. In addition to naming interesting users on Twitter, I provide a bit of background information on them in here. Enjoy!

Vanessa is a graphic designer based in Lisbon, Portugal. She tweets about design, user interface and the creative industry, and uses the Twitter handle @vanessasilva.

@vanessasilva

But even if you are not interested in any of these topics, consider following @vanessasilva because, every day, she publishes one picture made with the iPad app ‘Paper’. They are absolutely beautiful. This is one of my favourites.

More information about her work is available here.

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Oxford Brookes University recruiting participants for research study

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I am not directly involved in this research study, but I thought it might interest some of you.

If you would like to join the study, or know more, please contact Peter Lugosi on plugosi@brookes.ac.uk.

The description below has been copied from an advert in Brookes’s research mailing list.

TITLE: Recruiting mothers, fathers and carers who take children to cafes, restaurants and bars to participate in a research study

INFORMATION: Peter Lugosi and Jan Harwell from the Oxford School of Hospitality Management, are researching the experiences of mothers, fathers and carers (male and female) who take children to hospitality venues (cafés, restaurants, pubs etc.). They are interested in which venues they visit alongside which ones they avoid. They are also interested in how specific factors, such as the design and layout of the venue, the facilities available, the products and services they provide and the other customers in those venues, influence their experiences.

They would like to conduct interviews lasting approximately 30-60 minutes and they can accommodate the times, dates and places most suitable for you. Refreshments will be provided!

If you visit such venues with a child or children and would like to know more about the project, please email Peter Lugosi (plugosi@brookes.ac.uk). Please pass this invitation on to other people who you think may like to be involved in the study.

This study is being supported by Oxford Brookes University and has been approved by the University Research Ethics Committee. UREC Reference No:120620.

‘Minority Report’: the future vs. the present of profiling

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It has been 10 years since the release of the film Minority Report. It depicts a future where police can predict (and, thus, prevent) crime. When I went grocery shopping recently, I saw the DVD on sale and couldn’t resist getting a copy.

DVD Minority Report

In my mind, this film is very much related to my own PhD. It was released shortly before I started my doctorate programme at the LSE. Often, when I explained what I was researching (namely, the development of customer profiles to identify instances of money laundering in retail banking), I would be greeted with a ‘Oh… that’s just like Minority Report, then’.

Revisiting Minority Report after all these years made me think about customer profiling now vs. the movie’s vision of the future.

What are the similarities?

1. The goal

Both ‘Precrime’, the squad headed by John Anderton (Tom Cruise), and real-life predictive customer profiling rely on the principle that prevention is better than investigation. Being able to anticipate where and when crime might take place, means that actions can be taken to prevent it. These can be short-term actions such as stopping a terrorist just before s/he assembles a bomb or preventing an identify thief from accessing information or assets. It can also be long term actions, such as supporting the social and economic integration of young people at risk of turning to crime.

2. The problems

The social benefits of preventing crime are obvious in the film. The same happens in reality. I certainly feel more reassured to read that crime rates have fallen, than to hear that criminals have been arrested quickly after an incident. It’s the individual cost of false positives that is the problem.

In the movie, the ‘system’ predicts that John Anderton will commit a crime in the next 36 hours. A nightmare scenario ensues, with Anderton trying to prove his innocence and avoid being captured. In real life, too, many are temporarily unable to use their credit cards, are prevented from travelling, are stopped and searched, are reported to police or even taken into custody as a result of faulty predictions (i.e., the ‘false positives’).

False positives – in real life and in the film – occur because data can tell more than one story. Data is just data. It is a series of dots. We are the ones who see patterns in the data and interpret the correlations. Often, we see patterns in the data that simply are not there, as discussed in this great post by Tim Harford. And, as I discussed here, correlations are not causation.

What are the differences?

1. The process

According to the movie, in 2054 AD profiling will rely on a team of 3 psychic ‘beings’, the precogs. In real life, profiling uses automated systems, data mining, predictive analytics and, importantly, human intuition.

2. The future

When confronted with the limitations and the risks of the system, the authorities decide to abandon the Precrime programme, reverting to a focus on investigation.

Is that the destiny for customer profiling initiatives?

I don’t think so. I believe that predictive profiling is here to stay. It is too valuable a tool to be discarded, despite its flaws. Though, privacy concerns and legal challenges may change when and what data is collected, and how it is used.

Moreover,  I think that, in the age of big data, we need more than computing power and statistic skills. We need common sense to explain the behaviours behind the data. And we need sensibility to consider the implications of the predictions.

Remember that story about Target sending coupons for baby clothes to a teenager? It was hailed as a sign that Target’s profiling systems are so good that they spotted that the teenager was pregnant before her family knew. Well… maybe the algorithm was good. But the marketing management was poor – it lacked the sensibility to think through the consequences of sending the vouchers to the teenager.

Do you agree?

Research Project: The role of social media in customer service

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Social media users increasingly talk online about their consumption experiences – good and bad. Such comments can influence other buyers’ purchase decisions, are a source of insight for the firm and represent a service recovery opportunity. Yet, numerous examples show that, when handled poorly, online customer feedback can degenerate into public relations nightmares and produce costly damage. Therefore, it is critical to understand how organisations should handle customers’ comments on social media.

Professor Moira Clark of Henley Business School and I are investigating best practice in customer service via social media. We would appreciate if you could let us know:

  • In your opinion, which firms handle customer interaction on social media well? Please let us know what type of interaction you are referring to (e.g., dealing with a complaint, responding to a positive comment, answering a question)
  • What is particularly good about those interactions?

Thank you in advance for your support.

Using Twitter in Higher Education

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This academic year, I ran a pilot study exploring the use of social networks in post-graduate teaching. This post provides a brief overview of the project and of the main findings, as recently presented at the Brookes-Burgundy’s 3rd joint research conference. This was a small study – it ran over a very limited time and the data was gathered from a very small population.

Last year, I decided to add a social media dimension to the post-graduate modules that I teach. Why? Two reasons, really.

First, it seems odd to me that today’s students are taught in pretty much the same away I was taught 20 years ago. Essentially, we meet weekly for lectures, with some readings and tasks to complete in between. For some time now, I have been following some discussion threads and writings about ways of extending learning beyond the classroom – and social networks are mentioned over and over again.

Second, whenever I ask someone in the industry what is the single thing that our students ought to do to improve their employability, the answer is ‘digital presence’. Invariably. Having a digital presence is important because:
- It shows recruiters that the student has the skills that they need – for instance, 95% of Nokia’s recruits are now identified through social media
- It is a major advantage in the interview process as discussed by Mark Schaefer here.

The next step was to choose the platform.

Upon consideration of the relative advantages and drawbacks of various social network platforms, I settled on Twitter. This was to be used in addition to the standard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

At the start of the semester, I administered a short survey to obtain an overview of the students’ attitudes to the VLE and Twitter, and to assess their familiarity with the technology.

The survey was inspired by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This framework is used to predict the acceptability of a technological tool, and identify any modifications that need to be made.

The results of the survey were very encouraging. Overwhelmingly, students had very positive perceptions of the technology’s ease of use and usefulness. They also had very positive attitudes towards both the VLE and Twitter. So, according to TAM, the experience should proceed smoothly.

One (big) caveat though – the vast majority of students were not using Twitter when the semester started. While some had an account, less 5% actually used it consistently.

Throughout the semester, I used Twitter, alongside the VLE, to share links to news articles, opinion pieces or other multimedia resources related to the topics discussed in the modules.

Surprisingly (for me, at least – given the results of the survey), there was very limited reaction to the module postings. By and large, the students did not reply or react in a tangible, visible way to the Twitter posts. Though, neither did they react to the content on VLE (which was consistent with behaviour in previous editions of the modules).

At the end of the modules, I ran the survey again but this time I included a small number of open-ended questions to capture the students’ opinions and suggestions.

While the students still reported very positive attitudes towards Twitter, these were now at lower levels than those reported at the start of the semester. Though, it must be repeated that I am talking about a short pilot study and a small number of responses, only.

On a more positive note, there was some student activity on Twitter in a broad sense. So, if the goal was to get students to establish a digital presence, it worked… for some!

The comments from the second survey help understand the lack of enthusiasm for Twitter.

Students could see the benefits of using social media as part of their development as digital marketers (e.g. to engage in online discussions with social media experts). Yet, opinions were divided regarding its role in the classroom: some students appreciated its inclusion, others felt that it was a distraction from what should be, in essence, a face to face interaction.

Mostly, they were not familiar with the platform. The fact that Twitter was used for one module, only, meant that some did not have enough incentive to invest time and attention to learn how to use it.

There were also some questions regarding the suitability of the platform for the needs of module delivery – i.e., the extent to which 140 characters can facilitate discussion and sharing, and best position the students’ in the eyes of potential recruiters.

These findings suggest that there is room for using social media in postgraduate education, though Twitter may not be the best tool.

If educators do decide to use Twitter, it is advisable to provide training and/or to direct students to good sources of information about the practical aspects of the platform as well as its potential in personal branding and career development – one such source is, in my opinion, the book The Tao of Twitter.

Educators also need to consider what tools are used in other modules and, if possible, consider initiatives at programme level, rather than for specific modules.

Recent user statistics suggest that Twitter is becoming increasingly popular among youth. Hence, some of the challenges faced in this pilot may cease to exist – particularly the ones regarding familiarity. Still, it needs to be carefully considered whether this is the most suitable platform for educational purposes.

Did these results surprise you?

As an educator, an employer or someone in the classroom, what are your thoughts on the use of Twitter in education?