From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: bruce.ellis@gmail.com (Bruce Ellis) Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:45:11 +1100 Subject: [9fans] mark shaney again... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Topicbox-Message-UUID: c2618e64-ead6-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 sweet On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Steve Simon wrote: > thought this might bring a wry smile to some: > > Fake Tweets by 'Socialbot' Fool Hundreds of Followers, > New Scientist, (03/24/11), Jim Giles > > Three socialbots recently integrated themselves into a group of > Twitter users, gained more than 250 followers, and received more than > 240 responses to the tweets they sent over a two-week period as part > of Socialbots 2011, a competition designed to test whether bots can be > used to change the structure of a social network. ?The bots were > rewarded for the number of followers they obtained and the number of > responses their tweets resulted in. ?The socialbots analyzed tweets > sent by members of the network who shared a particular interest and > then created a suitable response. ?The best-peforming bot gained more > than 100 followers and generated about 200 responses. ?Socialbots 2011 > organizer Tim Hwang says the bots were "able to heavily shape and > distort the structure of the network. ?We could use these bots in the > future to encourage social participation or support for humanitarian > causes." Hwang has already planned the next socialbot project. ?"We're > going to survey and identify two sites of 5,000-person unconnected > Twitter communities, and over a six- to 12-month period use waves of > bots to thread and rivet those clusters together into a directly > connected social bridge between those two formerly independent > groups," he says. > > http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928045.100-fake-tweets-by-socialbot-fool-hundreds-of-followers.html > > -Steve > >