New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Facebook’s new virtual assistant ‘M’: mastermind or menace?

Facebook recently introduced the world to ‘M’, its brand new virtual assistant that will reside in Facebook’s messaging app. Will, because for now, the new application is still in its test phase. Nonetheless, this rather unexpected move of Facebook...

By Lianne Kersten on 09/15/15 Comments Off

I need some Beer & Chips! Can you get me some? – The new way of personal assistance and how it impacts our society

On the 26th of August the Vice President of Messaging products at Facebook, David Marcus, announced on his personal Facebook Page that Facebook is beginning to test a new service within the Facebook Messenger called “M”. With that post...

By Katharina Lueke on 09/15/15 Comments Off

Artificial intelligence for everyone: indico.io

Image: Still from Amazon Machine Learning introduction video Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed alongside with computing since its earliest days. Today when thinking about AI the famous Kasparov beating chess computer Deep Blue, smartphone personal assistants like Siri or the...

By Clemens Buchegger on 09/14/15 Comments Off

How was school today?

“Jeremy hasn’t finished his Math assignment – and it’s not for the lack of trying. Math has been especially difficult this year. The concepts of Speed, Distance and Time seem incomprehensible to him. All his other friends seem to understand the concept...

By Sameena on 09/18/14 Comments Off

Data mining at The Times

Data mining, also defined as KDD (Knowledge Discovery in Databases), is a subfield of computer science which has extensively raised in the last years, rapidly becoming a discipline known to a widespread audience, mainly because of its use in...

By Roberto Pizzato on 09/10/14 Comments Off

Shazam: predicting future hits

Have you ever listened to a song and almost died trying to find out the name of the song? Then Shazam is going to be your best friend. Shazam is a music recognition app that was launched in 2002....

By Yvette Ducaneaux on 09/08/14 Comments Off

Tangible Data Visualizations

We live in a world of three dimensions (alright 4, and a spattering of more depending on which school of quantum theory you adhere to). However, when it comes to visualizing data, the results are surprisingly 2-dimensional, and mostly...

By Philip Anderson on 04/22/14 1

Data visualization: New professionals in demand

Data is the biggest change in the digital society that appeared during the era of the Internet and technologies. Information is exploding: 90% of the world’s data was generated over last two years. Data visualization and analytic view makes possible...

By Indre Lauciute on 04/16/14 Comments Off

Where should I live? Visualizing well-being in different countries

Raw data on its own does not contain much meaning. It presents values of quantitative or qualitative variables that are results of measurements and computations. Data needs some context so that it can be analyzed and visualized in...

By Charlotte on 03/13/13 Comments Off

The Quantified Self & Big Data: causing a new turn in science?

How much time do you spend on Facebook? How many of your friends are living in Amsterdam? What is the best time to wake up in the morning? These questions are hard to answer and can take a lot...

By Serena Westra on 03/08/13 1

What to do with all that big data?

“Big data will be bigger in 2013” according to the article on the website of Telegraph written on the 26th of December 2012. Even though ‘big data’ was ‘big’ in 2012, they predict that it will be bigger in...

By Jaimy Quadekker on 03/07/13 1

Big data, long data and… ephemeral data?

Currently the topic of data is mostly approached in terms of volume and temporal scope – a perspective translated in expressions such as “big data” and “long data”. Nevertheless, these terms are somehow abstract to most users and only...

By Ana Crisostomo on 03/05/13 1

Digital books: The end of private reading?

Digital books are touted for their new possibilities: portability, searchability, durability and ubiquitous notes and bookmarks, to name a few. But while readers benefit from this, so do third parties. The thought of someone reading over your shoulder feels...

By Larissa Hildebrandt on 03/03/13 Comments Off