The work of the committe is non-public. Suffice it to say it was extremely interesting and very thought provoking. The dirty word list is just one of the angles we are taking up. ~Stu's iPhone Stu@polsci.umass.edu Dr. Stuart W. Shulman UMass Amherst, Political Science On Nov 30, 2009, at 11:41 AM, Deen Freelon <dfreelon@gmail.com> wrote:
Dr. Shulman,
By any chance are the findings or proceedings of the Secret Service NAS workshop you mention below publicly available? Via Google I could only find this: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bbcss/Committee_on_Communications_and_Beha... , which I assume is what you were referring to. I imagine others on this list might be interested as well. Thanks, ~DEEN
Stuart Shulman wrote:
All great questions and comments. I put my reply to Jerom below and can now make an interim update.
My lawyer is reviewing the risk associated with release of the list, which is 250+ items so far. A cautious person naturally avoids unintended harm that might result from use of the list for purposes other than those stated. I can envision sharing the list with established research labs working in this area.
I see many indirect benefits accruing to users of software developed in proprietary settings. I also give away powerful software for free over the Web. Both are good models that leverage the Internet to distribute work with innovative tools and data sets easily to many volunteers, users, or content creators.
In this case, my new research on threat detection has both basic research (QDAP) and commercial (Texifter) potential and the added chance of making public figures potentially safer in a volatile political climate. I am responding to a direct need expressed through the National Academies of Science recent workshop for the US Secret Service and to other agency personnel from across the federal government.
We are looking for ways to design, test and deploy useful tools that make democracy run a little more smoothly when millions of people are participating online. If US health care reform drives significant numbers of people to say awful things, or if the first African American President is just too much for some folks to bear, simple dictionaries of hate and threats may be required to make the landscape of democracy more navigable and civil for those who chose not to go there.
In some cases, we are talking about making it easier for law enforcement officials to preempt aggressive or violent behavior. In others, we are looking at modeling the behavior of depraved citizens who use rhetoric for purposes that go beyond worldly comprehension.
Finally, no, to all who wondered it, I am not planning to leave academia to become the next George Carlin either.
Doggedly yours, ~Stu
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Stuart Shulman <stuart.shulman@gmail.com> Date: Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 1:51 PM Subject: Re: [Air-L] QDAP/Texifter Foul Language List To: Jerom Janssen <jfjanssen@gmail.com>
Jerom,
I am wary of legal repercussions and would probably think it unwise. The language is both awful and valuable as research data.
What would you do?
~Stu
On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 2:01 PM, Jessica Richman <jessica.richman@gmail.com>wrote:
Yes, I was wondering this too. It seems unfair to ask for public contribution if this is a private project that only your company will profit from.
On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Jerom Janssen <jfjanssen@gmail.com>wrote:
Dear Dr. Stuart Shulman,
This is a very interesting project. Will the results (tokens/ phrases plus their counts and ratings) be put in the public domain?
Regards,
Jerom Janssen
On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 13:58, <stuart.shulman@gmail.com> wrote:
If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it out online:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGNQZGVLNUQ3SHhxYXU3ZjZsS3J...
QDAP/Texifter Foul Language List
We are compiling a list of oaths, dirty words, racist and sexual
derogatory
and other offensive terms to build new language models and software
tools.
The notable increase in public and private threats communicated via the Internet to Congress and the White House makes it important to do basic research that identifies the precursors of aggressive or violent
behavior.
Adding your uniquely offensive contribution to the list, with an
associated
rating from 1-7, with 1 representing a mildly offensive term and 7 representing the most foul term, will advance this work.
We are not collecting any data about the people submitting items to this list. The process is anonymous. The research is jointly sponsored by
QDAP &
Texifter, LLC and directed by Dr. Stuart Shulman, QDAP Director and
Texifter
President & CEO.
http://www.umass.edu/qdap/ http://texifter.com/
Insert your word *
Rate the word 1-7 (1 = least & 7 = most offensive) *
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Terms
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