Russian Social Network Research Articles

A Way How to Impart Data Science Skills to Computer Science Students Exemplified by OBDA-Systems Development

Nowadays to explore and examine data from a variety of angles to tackle Big Data problems, to devise data-driven solutions to the most pressing challenges, it is necessary to build multidisciplinary students’ skills set for innovative methods not only for master’s in Data Science programs but in traditional Computer Science programs also. In the paper, we describe how teaching methods and tools, which are used to train students to develop Ontology-Based Data Access systems with natural language interface to relational databases helps Master’s Degree students in Computer Science to collaborate with Data Scientists in real-world interdisciplinary projects and to prepare them for a data science career. We use ontology engineering in a combination with Natural Language Processing methods based on lexico-syntactic patterns, in particular, to extract needful data from structured, semi-structured and unstructured datasets in a uniform way to analyze real-world Russian social networks related to new building area.

PROFILE-RELEVANT EMPLOYABILITY OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES: SOCIAL NETWORK DATA ANALYSIS

Russian educational policy in the recent years has been directed towards realization of institutional and infrastructure transformation of universities. This brought about governmental programmes aimed for development of leading Russian universities and for their competitive growth in the Russian and world markets. Russian universities began competing among themselves to achieve the key performance indicators (KPIs: publication activity, citation ratio, the share of income resulting from scientific activities in the university budget, the number of foreign students, the percentage of foreign teachers, the number of joint international educational programs etc.). It is quite obvious that science-related KPIs are generally more relevant and objective than education-related ones. Therefore, there appears the key question, whether the Russian universities are capable to fulfil their main mission - to provide highly skilled globally completive specialists, who would be able to work in conditions of the innovative knowledge-driven economy and all-world competition. The subject of our research is the profile relevance of employability of the graduates of the leading Russian universities - participants of Project 5-100. This KPI is not formally among the key indicators of Project 5-100, but believably belongs to the most important ones in evaluating the educational quality of any university. In this paper, we address this issue by using the new quantitative data from the biggest Russian social network «Vkontakte». By our research, we are bringing this new source of information to this research domain, and by doing so, we are getting access to data which are generated directly from the graduates themselves without any mediators or filters. On the basis of this information we conclude that more than 50 % of the Russian graduates are not employed according to their specialization after they leave university. This obviously reflects weak correlation between the content of their education and the demands of the employers, and also dissatisfaction of the latter with the quality of education provided by the universities. This means that even the leading Russian universities do not provide the necessary level of links with employers, despite the high demand for the skilled workforce at the labour market. According to the results of the analysis, we can state that the problem of non-educational employment of Russian university graduates concerns all areas of training and all regions of the country, and, therefore, is systemic in its nature. In general, the situation in the country looks approximately the same. There is a difference only in the effectiveness of employment between the various subject areas. The employed in the best way are graduates-physicians and IT-specialists, in the worst way - specialists in social and human sciences and jurisprudence. The novelty of the research is in the fact that the social network «Vkontakte» has never been used before to analyze this topic on the country-wide level. The research results appeared to be quite close in qualitative and quantitative sense to the previously studies, undertaken by the portal of Superjob.ru and by Petrozavodsk State University. Having addressed the same subject, but using different data, we came to comparable conclusions with them, but each time 5 years one after another (Superjob.ru - 2007, Petrozavodsk State University - 2012, ITMO University - 2017). The profile relevance of employability of the graduates of the leading Russian universities keeps being at the same level of 45-50 %. Our version is 46 %. Unfortunately, the visible progress in this area is still absent. The key conclusion of the study is the following: the Russian system of university graduate's employment is unbalanced and not effective. More than 50 % of graduates leave Russian universities «for nowhere». An integrated approach to the organization of labour force planning is required, in particular, to the development of foresights of specialists in the main areas of the future economy.

Construction of national identity through a social network: a case study of ethnic networks of immigrants to Russia from Central Asia

In contemporary discourse devoted to identity formation, there is important debate about the nature of the construction of virtual identities on the Internet. The research focuses on the virtual identity of the individual features of self-presentation on the Web. The study of the theme design of group social identity (gender, class, ethnicity) remains a peripheral consideration. This article presents an analysis of the mechanisms by which ethnic identity in ethnic groups in the Russian social network VKontakte ("In Contact", similar to Facebook) is created. The study aims to identify the roles and functions of social networks in national reproduction and ethnic support of Russian immigrants from Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan). The study uses the method of semiotic analysis to describe the discursive rhetoric and symbols of national identity of immigrants in the ethnic communities on the Web. The author's research identifies a complex of paradigmatic and rhetorical elements that reflect an evolving ethnic identity of immigrants on social networks. These rhetorical techniques include the appeal to Islamic values, the Quran, and Sharia law; an appeal to Islamic unity, anti-Americanism, and Muslim fundamentalism; preaching the values of patriarchy and chaste behavior of Muslim women, and male dominance; the use of visual images and characters of national identity (images of animals, heroes); appeal to the heroic archaic time and national mythology, and the achievements of the national culture; and similar elements. In conclusion, the analysis of the context of immigrants in the ethnic community network on VKontakte shows two trends: on the one hand, ethnic segregation, the craving for Muslim fundamentalism, and aggression toward Western values and way of life, and on the other hand, secularization, gender emancipation, and consumer behavior assimilation in the modernized host Russian community.

Comunicación política en la red social Facebook: segmento rusoparlante

El presente artículo expone el análisis de las características de la comunicación política en el segmento rusoparlante de la red social Facebook a base de grupos políticamente activos y sus actores. Al contrario de lo habitual en los EEUU y otros países, los usuarios de blogs rusos prefieren plataformas que combinan elementos típicos de un blog y los de las redes sociales tipo Facebook. Los datos fueron recogidos en un momento político complicado para Rusia (rebeldía en Ucrania) lo que avivó la actividad de la oposición rusa y los procesos manipuladores en las redes sociales rusas. Objetivos. El objetivo era clasificar los actores políticamente activos de Facebook ruso y analizar su comportamiento sociolingüístico. Metodología. Se efectuó un análisis interdisciplinar de los grupos políticos (N 200) y actores (N 291) durante enero-mayo 2014. Resultados. Según sus opiniones políticas los actores principales fueron clasificados como oficiales-gubernamentales, de oposición y nacionalistas y juzgando por su actividad como proyectores de espacio comunicativo, manipuladores, grafómanos y autores de Clusters locales. Su comportamiento comunicativo y verbal también ha sido analizado donde fueron identificadas identidades virtuales específicas compartidas. Discusión y conclusiones. Desde que las redes sociales están siendo utilizadas cada vez más con fines políticos el análisis de los procesos sociolingüísticos en las comunidades virtuales activas políticamente ha adquirido mucha importancia tanto en Rusia, como en el resto del mundo. Como la perspectiva del desarrollo futuro del presente estudio se contempla la detección de la relación entre la actividad comunicativa de los actores online y offline dentro de los grupos señalados.

Uyghur digital diaspora in Kyrgyzstan

‘The Uyghur problem’ occurred as a result of the combination of various degrees of complexities throughout history of the Uyghur people. Historical events and dispersion became a turning point in the formation of the Uyghur diaspora. However, not all Uyghur communities could express their diasporic identity publicly in daily discourse. The solution they found to express their diasporic identity became cyber space, communities on the Internet that were specifically opened for ethnic reinforcement, cultural expression, political activism and communication with other Uyghurs. This is what was lacking in their real lives particularly for Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan. This paper suggests that digital diaspora is a result of unavailability of offline resources and spaces for communication of their cultural and political identities. This paper presents a digital ethnographic research on the use of a Russian social network ‘Odnoklassniki.ru’ (www.odnoklassniki.ru) to communicate their cultural, political and religious identities, and how these practices contribute to the imaginative development, cohesion and enforcement of diasporic identity.

An AIDS-denialist online community on a Russian social networking service: patterns of interactions with newcomers and rhetorical strategies of persuasion.

BackgroundThe rise of social media proved to be a fertile ground for the expansion of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-denialist movement (in the form of online communities). While there is substantial literature devoted to disproving AIDS-denialist views, there is a lack of studies exploring AIDS-denialists online communities that interact with an external environment.ObjectiveWe explored three research areas: (1) reasons for newcomers to come to an AIDS-denialist community, (2) the patterns of interactions of the community with the newcomers, and (3) rhetorical strategies that denialists use for persuasion in the veracity of their views.MethodsWe studied the largest AIDS-denialist community on one of the most popular social networking services in Russia. We used netnography as a method for collecting data for qualitative analysis and observed the community for 9 months (at least 2-3 times a week). While doing netnography, we periodically downloaded community discussions. In total, we downloaded 4821 posts and comments for analysis. Grounded theory approach was used for data analysis.ResultsMost users came to the community for the following reasons: their stories did not fit the unitary picture of AIDS disease progression translated by popular medical discourse, health problems, concern about HIV-positive tests, and desire to dissuade community members from false AIDS beliefs. On the basis of strength in AIDS-denialist beliefs, we constructed a typology of the newcomers consisting of three ideal-typical groups: (1) convinced: those who already had become denialists before coming to the group, (2) doubters: those who were undecided about the truth of either human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) science theory or AIDS-denialist theory, and (3) orthodox: those who openly held HIV science views. Reception of a newcomer mainly depended on the newcomer’s belief status. Reception was very warm for the convinced, cold or slightly hostile for the doubters, and extremely hostile or derisive for the orthodox. We identified seven main rhetorical strategies of persuasion used by the denialists on the “undecided”.ConclusionsContrary to the widespread public health depiction of AIDS denialists as totally irrational, our study suggests that some of those who become AIDS denialists have sufficiently reasonable grounds to suspect that “something is wrong” with scientific theory, because their personal experience contradicts the unitary picture of AIDS disease progression. Odd and inexplicable practices of some AIDS centers only fuel these people’s suspicions. We can conclude that public health practitioners’ practices may play a role in generating AIDS-denialist sentiments. In interactions with the newcomers, the experienced community members highlighted the importance of personal autonomy and freedom of choice in decision making consistent with the consumerist ideology of health care. The study findings suggest that health care workers should change a one-size-fits-all mode of counseling for a more complex and patient-tailored approach, allowing for diversity of disease progression scenarios and scientific uncertainty.

The information security of children: Self-regulatory approaches

IntroductionThe digital revolution: New opportunities and new problemsThe previous decades have brought significant changes in perceptions of children's safety in their access to information. Technological progress, by inspiring a rapid development of the Internet, radically changed the traditional media environment. Digital technologies mixed conventional media: TV programs today might be easily watched on the screens of personal computers and tablets; connected TV sets become windows to the Internet; and a traditional newspaper text is transformed into a convergent multimedia product combining video and audio.The digital revolution has opened endless possibilities for creating and dissemi­nating news and entertainment content. However, it has also posed new problems for mass media and audiences by increasing the amount of accessible information and fostering competition between the old/analogue and new/digital media; by challenging existing legislation, business models, and copyrights; and by disregard­ing the traditional roles of journalism and the values of audiences. At the core of the crucial issues of the digital age stands the problem of children's information security: the need to secure children's rights to safe media and a safe Internet in order to prevent serious threats to their psychological health. Unlike adults, who have gotten used to living in an information-rich environment, children, because of their age and social position, remain vulnerable to intense media and are un­able to filter the content coming from different media sources and technological platforms, which are always increasing their influence on the younger audience (Fenton, 2010; Tornero & Varis, 2010).TV programs, net video resources, digital games, and other new media options constitute a big threat today because they are the most accessible types of content. In the analogue era parents could limit children's access to media by hiding inap­propriate publications, but it becomes rather complicated to control what children watch on multichannel TV sets or multi-screen media devices in digital reality to­day.Unattended interaction between children and television or the Internet may cause serious harm to their health and age-specific development. Realizing this threat, the majority of North American, European, and Asian countries, includ­ing Russia, have taken a number of measures to regulate media content targeted to children. Different types of harassments, child prostitution, child pornography, drugs, production of explosives, demonstrations of violence--these are some of the kinds of media content countries are trying to prevent children from watching (Roskomnadzor, 2013).At the same time surveys of children, who spend more and more time on the Internet, show that they often face other threats, of which many parents are un­aware. One example is the so-called cyber-bullying phenomenon, which involves deliberate assaults, threats, use of offensive language, mocking, and swearing on the Internet. In some countries - for example, Canada - the struggle against cyber- bullying stands at the core of children's information-security policy. However, in other countries, including Russia, the state and media do not pay enough attention to it, although, for example, about 11% of the users of the most popular Russian social network, Vkontakte, are younger than 18 (TNS Web Index, 2014).One of the main current problems is that in many countries legislative initia­tives in the sphere of Internet regulation lag behind the rapid development of in­formation and communication technologies. In previous decades the protection of children's interests in the mass media included a comprehensible set of measures: restricting children's access to adult movies in the cinema, not showing action movies on television in the daytime, hiding adult magazines in special packages. However, today, because of the rapid progress of the digital media, many of the established measures have become obsolete, and misunderstanding exists even in defining the agencies that should be responsible for such regulation. …

Inference of the Russian drug community from one of the largest social networks in the Russian Federation

The criminal nature of narcotics complicates the direct assessment of a drug community, while having a good understanding of the type of people drawn or currently using drugs is vital for finding effective intervening strategies. Especially for the Russian Federation this is of immediate concern given the dramatic increase it has seen in drug abuse since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early nineties. Using unique data from the Russian social network ‘LiveJournal’ with over 39 million registered users worldwide, we were able for the first time to identify the on-line drug community by context sensitive text mining of the users’ blogs using a dictionary of known drug-related official and ‘slang’ terminology. By comparing the interests of the users that most actively spread information on narcotics over the network with the interests of the individuals outside the on-line drug community, we found that the ‘average’ drug user in the Russian Federation is generally mostly interested in topics such as Russian rock, non-traditional medicine, UFOs, Buddhism, yoga and the occult. We identify three distinct scale-free sub-networks of users which can be uniquely classified as being either ‘infectious’, ‘susceptible’ or ‘immune’.

Russia’s Surveillance State

Russia’s Surveillance State

Challenges for social work in modern Russia: problems and future prospects. Towards the 20th anniversary of social work in Russia

This article began working on the exchange of research papers with the Kazan State University. The collaboration with the Chair of Intercultural Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Bologna, was launched on March 2010 with the visit of Professor Liliya Yagudina. We hope that this cooperation will continue developing on the issues of relations between ethnic minorities, the evaluation of university systems, the problems inherent to social services and welfare. The purpose of this article is to attract attention to modern social work in Russia and to create a body of knowledge of its development for the comparative follow-on research. The article has six sections: 1. Social work as a synthetic, integrative, interdepartmental profession; 2. Main characteristics of Russian social services network; 3. Large families as an object of social work; 4. The teenager-mothers’ support centers: prevention and rehabilitation; 5. Social work problems which need a solution; 6. Some directions for the actions needed to solve Russia’s social work problems.

A virtual community in transition, a Russian social science and humanities network

This article is about evolving patterns of participation in an electronically-supported network organised in 1999 in Russia for research scholars in the social sciences and humanities (the Russian Social Science and Humanities Network, RSSH.Net). The service provides search, databases, discussion and information services for a world-wide academic community interested in Russian studies. Its users are located in Russia, the FSU, Central and Eastern European countries and in the US, EU, Japan and China. The analysis draws on data from the log of the Web service, describing senders and their messages by monthly data for 28 months, 1999-2002. The results show stable participation, predominantly by Russian users, among whom messaging activity is highly concentrated as well as localised in the Moscow region's subscribers. The usage of the RSSH.Net for messaging is somewhat lower, but still roughly within the same range as that found in comparable networks based in the US.