Dr. Laila Shereen Sakr, Film and Media Studies Department, UCSB 

Benjamin Doherty, Caxy Interactive, Chicago

Mahmoud Said, eSpace Alexandria Egypt

Abstract:

R-Shief.org is an archival and visualizing media system with a five-year archive of over twenty-six billion social media posts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and sites) in more than seventy languages. It has been used by scholars and practitioners from social sciences, humanities, and engineering to conduct computational and textual analysis on social media and digital activism. At this talk, the developers of R-Shief will unveil the plans for the next iteration of this analytic tool, which is moving to UCSB and will be available for faculty and graduate students. In an address at Stanford University, Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller recognized R-Shief for its predictive analysis of the overthrow of former President Qaddafi of Libya in 2011. And more recently, in March 2015, R-Shief media system was featured in an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Please come join us to learn about this exciting tool that will be housed and available at UCSB.

About the Speakers:

The creator of R-Shief is Laila Shereen Sakr, assistant professor of Film and Media Studies. She specializes in social media, digital archives, live cinema, data visualization, and digital activism.

The lead developer from R-Shief is Benjamin Doherty, an experienced web application developer with expertise in numerous Free and Open Source environments. He is also a blogger and activist.

R-Shief's software engineer from Alexandria, Egypt is Mahmoud Said, currently a Lead Developer at eSpace, a leading Software House in Egypt.

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This talk is co-sponsored with the IHC, the Computer Science Dept, and the Film and Media Studies Dept.