According to a new study, “paid posters are poisoning the internet with their untrustworthy content.” The article begins, “In China, they’re called the Internet Water Army: legions of people paid to flood online hangouts with postings and comments (primarily for marketing purposes). And according to academic researchers, they’re degrading information quality on the Web. In a research paper released this week, researchers Cheng Chen, Kui Wu, Venkatesh, Srinivasan, and Xudong Zhang explain that paid posters are hired by public relations and marketing firms to post content on Websites–usually about a social event, product, or company.” Read more

SemTechBiz is Less Than 2 Weeks Away

The Semantic Tech & Business Conference (SemTechBiz) is coming to San Francisco on June 3-7! Join us for case studies, innovative panels, tutorials, and keynotes that will provide you with practical advice, hands-on guidance, and breakthrough approaches to solving business problems with semantic technology. Passes go up $200 at the door. Sign up now and save !

Third International Workshop Social Data on the Web, Shanghai, China Cordis News The Third International Workshop Social Data on the Web will take place in Shanghai, China on 8 November 2010. The 'semantic web' is a term used to describe …

In China, a new era of Web censorship looms Christian Science Monitor The article continues: Reuters, however, talked with the same person, who indicated that it can perform semantic and image-based evaluation of incoming content—as such, the founder claimed that it’s impossible for the software to be used for general …

Back when I was an industry analyst (VP, E-Business Strategies at the META Group, since acquired by Gartner), I often had to critique emerging markets.  Unlike venture capitalists, industry analysts are privy to product roadmaps from publicly-traded companies, including the industry giants (Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM).  And unlike i-bankers, they are privy to product roadmaps from start-ups.  And as a kicker, some analysts (actually, only those with the largest firms; back then, primarily limited to those analysts with Gartner, Forrester, META and Giga) get a lot of great feedback from CIOs and other end users.

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