The Social Media in Academia and Education Research R-evolutions and
a Paradox: Advanced Next Generation Social Learning Innovation
J.UCS Special Issue
Miltiadis D. Lytras
(The American College of Greece, Athens, Greece
mlytras@acg.edu)
Wadee Al-Halabi
(King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
wsalhalabi@kau.edu.sa)
Jacky Xi Zhang
(Tianjin University, Tianjin, P. R. China
jackyzhang@tju.edu.cn)
Ramzi A. Haraty
(Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon
rharaty@lau.edu.lb)
Mehedi Masud
(Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
mmasud@tu.edu.sa)
Abstract: The last years we faced a tremendous development of social
media powered by innovative technologies related to web services, web
2.0 and social networks. Nowadays we are entering in to the next
digitally enriched generation of social media and enabled by
thrilling, currently under extensive development technologies, like
Big Data, Cloud Computing, Virtual/Augmented Reality and Internet of
Things. To our understanding the new generation of social media and
the integrated business models that will support them are within a
converging area where social features and ubiquitous technologies are
met. Social elements, related to behavior, self-esteem, attachment and
other psychological dimensions of personality will be transparently
integrated to a number of technologies. Thus for the next years we
have to wait for a number of new applications and systems, all
targeted in a meta-existence level where the characteristics of human
identity will be mixed with various digital identity elements. This
basic trend and direction in the Social Media research in the next
decade will boost the transparency of technologies and will stimulate
an extremely different Web than the one we are exploiting
together. The key dimension of the Social Media sphere will be the
dependent social identification of humans by a number of technologies.
Keywords:Social Media, Internet of Things, Big Data, Virtual Reality,
Immersive Technology, Mixed Reality
Categories: L.2.3, L.5.0, L.6.1
1 New technology enabled social interactions
The use of social media in higher education, business and industry has
entered into a critical momentum for the innovations to come in the
near future [Lytras, Mathkour, Abdalla, Al-Halabi, Yanez-Marquez &
Siqueira, 15]. Like every new technology and business practice, social
media face the challenges of maturity and value adding performance
[Lytras, Mathkour, Abdalla, Al-Halabi, Yanez-Marquez & Ordonez, 14],
[Barriocanal, Sicilia, Alonso & Lytras, 11]. To this end a number of
critical developments have been realized: Extensive research on the
domain, significant commercialization and amazing adoption from
billions of users worldwide. A critical focus on the emerging
technologies currently provide the next context for the integration of
social media in every aspect of human activity [Lytras & Kurilovas,
14], [Zhuhadar, Yang, & Lytras, 13].
We are moving fast toward to the Big Data era. A number of transparent
applications and ubiquitous will generate data that have never been
realized before in the modern civilization. Advanced data mining and
analytical processing processes will serve as the main vehicle for the
provision of numerous intelligent services. In a complicated way in
the near future the social interactions allowed by social media will
have critical digital components that in some contexts would touch
delicate issues associated to human identity, privacy and ethos.
In parallel Internet of Things technology sets one more
multidimensional context for the integration of smart information
technology components in next generation social media. In simple
worlds a new giant techno-human space is created with the extensive
use of sensors signals, receivers, and transmitters. Any device or
thing that can be connected to the IoT will be connected generating
unbelievable before years scenarios for business
exploitation. According to Forbes "the reality is that the IoT
allows for virtually endless opportunities and connections to take
place, many of which we can't even think of or fully understand the
impact of today". We live in an era of critical digital
transformation and the impact is not still fully analyzed.
If we add in the previous two technological revolutions the case of
Augmented/Mixed/Virtual Reality, then we have almost the full
picture. A number of digitally defined contexts and virtual worlds
will cause a critical reconsideration on everything that in the near
past we thought it was physical or virtual. This convergence will
increase the impact of Social Media in human lives and in all the
aspects of human activity. From a behavioral point of view the first
implication of this convergence will be a deep crisis in the perceived
traditional features of human personality. From a computing point of
view the first implication will be an extremely unpredicted adoption
of Immersive and Wearable technologies that currently have a limited
range of application especially in the Entertainment and the Health
Domains.
Last but not least Cloud Computing is also a key enabler for the next
generation of Social Media application and services for the near
future. It is really hard to imagine a social media platform without a
cloud computing components. Whether or not the concern about the
security in Cloud technologies will exist, the use of cloud services
will set new business opportunities for large scale
implementations. In the next section we present the main directions of
a visioning framework for the innovation enabled social media.
2 A conceptual framework for next generation Social Media
According to the current literature on innovative computing there is a
strong belief that the next critical shift in the contribution of the
computer discipline to the humanity will have a critical social
component [Lytras, 10]. To this direction various technological and
political enablers will set the new context for exploitation in any
dimension of the human activity. Furthermore beyond this digital
enrichment in the human to human social interaction we will realize
also a human to machine and machine to machine enriched reality.
2.1 The Big Data and Internet of Things dimension
The strategic objective of improving the quality of services in modern
human activities including business, living, learning, etc and their
transformation to evolving living organizations with digital reference
layers enabling unique service experiences is a key challenge of our
times. In fact, Big Data Research, provide a context for a
multidisciplinary discussion related to the value adding proposition
of several leading edge technologies, including immersive
technologies, virtual and augmented reality, wearable technologies,
cloud computing, Data science, Social Networks, Web Applications and
Internet Technologies.
The Big Data is a brand new paradigm, for the integration of Internet
Technology in the human and machine context. For the first time in the
history of the human mankind we are able to transform raw data that
are massively produced by humans and machines in to knowledge and
wisdom capable of supporting smart decision making, innovative
services.
For the social media research, this is a new methodological and
technological spectrum of advanced functionalities never experienced
in the past.
A number of key issues should be investigated and a lot of bold
contributions are required in theory and practice:
- Web Services Integration and web applications for Smart Cities
- Censoring, Cloud, GIS applications at micro and wide levels. The social media of the next generation should be able to operate and to analyze data at the micro level supporting communication and data flows from individuals, devices, small groups of people. And for sure a number of unexploited segments will emerge as the new hot domain for support. E.g. the convergence of Geriatrics, Bioinformatics are critical new areas of excellent potential for next generation social media applications exploiting the Big Data technologies and methods
- Data Science for Smart personalized social media services
- Big Data Research for Sustainable Innovations
- Social Media Big Data Research in Education, Poverty, Disability, Water Management, Energy, Transportation, Research, Business, Tourism, Leisure, Living, Security, Economy, and Governance
In parallel a wide spread initiative for the promotion of the Internet
of Things research provides the "machine" components to the
vision of a next generation web.
The capacity of any item/device in
the near feature to be considered as a peer of fully operational data,
and as a potential receiver and transmitter of critical information is
critical for the realization of more advanced business scenarios. The
Internet of Things, will cause an unforeseen explosion in the
provision of targeted personalized services to humans and thus the new
generation of social media will exploit this feature to its full
potential. In a way the matching of services to human needs will
incorporate the identification, distribution and management of many
machine-generated data. Additionally a boost in smart applications and
intelligent agents will be the required meta-level for the
justification of these services with the extensive exploitation of
semantics research.
The following is a short indicative list of challenges for social
media research related to the evolution of Internet of Things
research:
- Internet of Things for social Media: technologies, standards, protocol
- Social Networks integration in Internet of Things strategies
- Urban /Social applications enabled by Internet of Things technologies
- Open Media, Open Data, Linked Data
- Social Innovation, Social Well-being, Social Sharing of Services
- Security and Privacy Issues
- Business Models for Smart Media powered by IoT technology
2.2 Immersive Virtual Reality for Social Media and Cloud Computing Services
Immersive Virtual Reality is recognized in our days as one of the most
promising technologies with an estimated critical impact on the way
that humans will interact with systems. Huge investments on the domain
of the Immersive Virtual Reality from well-established vendors and
startup companies provide a large scale of constitutional tools and
applications for an enriched user experience.
The social media domain is one of the first that will be challenged by
the evolution of Immersive Virtual Reality. The provision of content,
the design of interaction contexts, the justification of effective
interaction scenarios and strategies are key requirements for the next
generation Immersive Social Media powered by Virtual
Reality. Furthermore more delicate insights like the facilitation of
perception, presence, distance, virtual embodiment, and cognition in
Immersive Virtual Reality systems for social interactions set several
research questions and demand a multidisciplinary approach.
A number of organizations and businesses foresee in the use of
Immersive Virtual Reality for the enhancement of their innovation
capabilities aiming to release the creativity and the brain capacity
of their personnel.
The move toward Immersive Smart Media Applications/Platforms will
require sophisticated approaches for enhanced interaction contexts
with enriched digital media elements. New media strategies will also
be required for the adoption of technologies in the daily social
process beyond limitations and barriers of the traditional
communication paradigm. Issues related to presence, distance,
inclusion, exclusion, will be analyzed and supported with novel
approaches. All of them will be a combination of new, advanced, social
interaction designs, business models and adoptive strategies that can
expand the sustainability frontiers in advanced applied social media
research towards Smart Media and knowledge society vision.
- Immersive Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality / Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR) Applications for Social Media
- Case Studies of Exploratory and Personalized Social Interactions using Immersive Virtual Reality Applications
- Context Awareness in Immersive Virtual Reality learning systems
- Novel Media Strategies for Immersive Virtual Reality Systems
- Multi-user and distributed Immersive Virtual Reality Media Systems
- 3D interaction for VR/AR/MR Media Systems
- Locomotion and navigation in Immersive Virtual Reality Media environments
- User studies and evaluation of Immersive Virtual Reality Social Media
- Perception, presence, distance, virtual embodiment, and cognition in Immersive Virtual Reality social media systems
- Grabbing and manipulation of remote objects in Immersive Virtual Reality social media systems
- Multimodal Interaction Techniques in Immersive Virtual Reality for social media systems
- Rehabilitative Applications with Immersive Virtual Reality social media systems
- Immersive Virtual reality in behavioral neuroscience and beyond
- Advanced Social Media Labs powered by Immersive Virtual Reality
- Content Creation and Annotation for Immersive Virtual Reality social media systems
3 Conclusions
The contribution of this special issue is unique. It sets new
direction for future research and provides a full discussion of
critical thinking and comparative studies on the phenomena under
analysis. We are at the disposal of the readers for further analysis
and collaborations in the domain. Currently we are preparing two
proposals for next generation s for learning under the HORIZON 2020
program.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the contributors of the special issue for
their excellent collaboration and valuable scientific
contributions. The quality of their research and their passion for
making science valuable to the Society is reflected in every article
of this work. We are also grateful to Christian Gütl, the managing editor of the Journal of Universal Computer Science and the editorial team without whose support this achievement could not have been possible.
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