We attack the problem of topic segmentation in the domain of Internet Relay Chat logs. In this process, we examine the previous work in text segmentation using a variety of methods. After considering the pros and cons of the methods, we employ Text Tiling, pause detection, and latent semantic analysis because they did not require the usage of large pre-tagged corpora. With these systems in plac...

In this paper we describe what a desynchronised channel on IRC is. We give procedures on how to create such a channel and how to remove desynchronisation. We explain which types of desynchronisation there are, what properties desynchronised channels have, and which properties can be exploited.

designs or figurative “drawings”. This art and two groups that create and use it were the subject of one of five studies in my recent book CYBERPL@Y: COMMUNICATING ONLINE (Danet 2001). I will summarize the main points from that study, and then present new material from research now in progress. Like its predecessor, ASCII art, IRC art is a form of aestheticized play with writing. Artists use le...

Research into text-based chat environments for foreign language learning has shown that discussions online have a signi®cantly different character from those in the classroom. In this paper, we begin with a brief design history of one of these environments: IRC FrancËais. Our experience both illustrates the challenges involved in moving these chat environments from the language lab to the Inter...

The health professions are increasing the placement of students within working environments in other institutions and the community. The aim of this study was to assess the readiness for online and web-based learning of future health professionals at the University of Sheffield prior to the establishment of a national web-based Inter-professional Learning Network (WILeN). A link to a short surv...

Many scholars anticipate that online interaction will have a long-term effect on the evolution of language, but little linguistic research yet addresses this question directly. In sociolinguistics, social network relations are recognized as the principal vehicle of language change. In this paper, I develop a social network approach to online language variation and change through qualitative and...

This paper is an analysis of how mediated interaction has changed the ways in which we establish and develop interpersonal relationships. The paper examines the dimensions of friendship and also the attempts to separate out the role of interaction via various media such as mobile telephony, MUDs, MOOs, and IRC. The paper finds that interaction via the Internet may aid the establishment of relat...

Why do adults find it difficult to learn foreign languages? In the research literature, there are a number of hypotheses. Studies on the use of the Internet for learning, however, suggest that a hypothesis that has been largely ignored for the past two decades might have increased validity. The language ego permeability hypothesis argues that adults have difficulty learning foreign languages, b...

Internet-based virtual communities have become an important mode of communication among people all over the world (Eschenbrenner et al., 2008). Scott and Johnson (2005) found that some of the most heavily visited sites on the World Wide Web are either fully or in part online communities. These communities allow groups of people to utilize many to many interactions as a mode for sharing experien...

A commonly used metric for comparing the resilience of key predistribution schemes is fails, which measures the proportion of network connections which are ‘broken’ by an adversary which has compromised s nodes. In ‘Random key predistribution schemes for sensor networks’, Chan, Perrig and Song present a formula for measuring the resilience in a class of random key predistribution schemes called...