YouTube, MySpace, Facebook: U of M Professor John Riedl Explores the Social Web
Contacts: Rachel Wright, College of Continuing Education, (612) 624-7770, rwright@cce.umn.edu
Jeff Falk, University News Service, (612) 626-1720, jfalk@umn.edu
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/25/2006) —News coverage of Google’s acquisition of YouTube has focused on YouTube’s three young inventors, including St. Paul native Jawed Karim, and their $1.65 billion payday. But the merger, with its huge payment for a year-old Web site, also raises broader questions about the changing nature of the Internet.
No longer is the Internet merely for sharing facts and figures; increasingly it’s for creating connections with people. The hundreds of social networks springing up all over the Internet are changing how people keep friends, find jobs, enjoy hobbies and even choose life partners. What is the social Web? How did it happen? And why is it so important?
John Riedl, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Minnesota, will discuss these and other questions at the next “Headliners” discussion series at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Continuing Education and Conference Center, Room 135, Buford Ave., St. Paul. He will present a selection of YouTube movies, social Web sites and so-called massively multiplayer online games in action. A Q&A session will follow.
Tickets cost $10 and can be obtained by calling (612) 624-4000, visiting www.cce.umn.edu/headliners or at the door.
Professor Riedl’s research has been featured in The New Yorker, NBC Nightly News and Dateline. He holds four U.S. patents and is co-author of “Word of Mouse: The Hidden Marketing Power of Collaborative Filtering,” and co-founder of Net Perceptions, a leading real-time e-marketing company.
Headliners, a new monthly series from the university’s College of Continuing Education, gives the public the opportunity to get news firsthand, from the experts. In order to be responsive to current headlines, topics and presenters are finalized only a few weeks before each date. To sign up for e-notifications of each month’s topic, visit www.cce.umn.edu/headliners.