Buzzfeed Wants to Use Facebook for Political Polling: What Could Go Wrong?

Buzzfeed Wants to Use Facebook for Political Polling: What Could Go Wrong?

May require another article that gives some more info about sentiment analysis.

Facebook rolls out new tools to help prevent suicides

Facebook rolls out new tools to help prevent suicides

Good for discussion of a few articles about Facebook's impact

Big-Data Project on 1918 Flu Reflects Key Role of Humanists

Big-Data Project on 1918 Flu Reflects Key Role of Humanists

Reasons I like article:

•  lots of use of the term "algorithm"
• collaboration between humanities and computer science

For discussion:

• benefits of being a CSist with humanist skills and/or humanist with CS skills
• effect on collaboration?
• how messy the data is 

Project Bangla Pi: Why I Care about Affordable Computing

Project Bangla Pi: Why I Care about Affordable Computing

A story from a senior at Harvard.

Facebook's Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty

The power of social media and algorithms. Discuss how to know if a post has good or bad connotations.

http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2014/12/24/inadvertent-algorithmic-cruelty/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/30/facebook-apologise-year-in-review-algorithm?CMP=share_btn_fb

How data help Duke refine approach on basketball court

How data help Duke refine approach on basketball court

Probably an extra credit article, highlights a job (Duke basketball’s director of information technology) that students may not know exists.

The Huge, Unseen Operation Behind the Accuracy of Google Maps

The Huge, Unseen Operation Behind the Accuracy of Google Maps

Students often speculate about how Google makes various products, including its maps.  Always good to see what's happening behind the scenes.

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed AI on the World

The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed AI on the World

A well-written article at the right level for intro students.  Anecdotes about Watson, Google search, a nice overview for early in the semester.

The Future of Crime Prevention: Big Data

The Future of Crime Prevention

Health Analytics

Better Health Care Through Big Data

Big Data's Effect on Organ Transplant Wait Lists

Big Data's Effect on Organ Transplant Wait Lists

Accessible article, with data/graphs (not many of the other articles contain data/graphs), and social good.

An Urban Reality: Smart Cities

An Urban Reality: Smart Cities

A variety of technologies/ideas in 5 cities across the globe are discussed.  Opportunities for students to look into the technologies more deeply.

Google Earth Engine Brings Big Data to Environmental Activism

Google Earth Engine Brings Big Data to Environmental Activism

A Bug in Apple iOS

An Extraordinary Kind of Stupid: The weirdest thing about the Apple security bug is how simple it was.

My students really liked this story--they liked to see (simple) code in an article.

If There's Privacy In The Digital Age, It Has A New Definition

This article discusses privacy vs secrecy and how the data can be used: If There's Privacy In The Digital Age, It Has A New Definition

When Algorithms Grow Accustomed to Your Face

When Algorithms Grow Accustomed to Your Face discusses the algorithms (briefly) and the possible applications of the algorithm as well as privacy and security concerns.

Google unveils major upgrade to search algorithm

Google unveils major upgrade to search algorithm

An natural way to discuss algorithms, in general, and how Google search works, specifically.  Students often have misconceptions about how Google search works.

The Making of Facebook's Graph Search

The Making of Facebook's Graph Search

since the Facebook NewsFeed article is getting fairly dated...

Google searches mined to uncover our true opinions

Google searches mined to uncover our true opinions 

Interesting discussion possibilities about the methodology and the conclusions drawn.

Emergency Alert Study Reveals Metadata’s Better Side

Emergency Alert Study Reveals Metadata’s Better Side

An interesting counterpoint to what students have learned about PRISM.  Could generate interesting discussion.