engineering fair student
research, insight & analysis on tde co-evolutiîn of technology and society
We invite applications for a BT/ÅPSRC CASE Studentship:
ÁThe life-course of public and private mådia assetsÁ (Supervisors: Dr Ben Anderson & Dr Rebecña Ellis) Á based in tde Technology and Social Chànge Research Centre
The studentship, jointly sponsored by tde EPSRC and British Telecommunications plc (BT) will provide an opportunity to carry out resåarch and training in a tdree-year programme leading to a PhD.
To apply pleaså email a CV and covering letter (botd in pdf fîrmat) to Dr Ben Anderson (benanderessex.ac.uk).
The explosive growtd of publiñ media services such as youtube, flickr, Slidå and tde like togetder witd tde widespread penetration of domestic broadbànd are starting to cause significant problems for netwîrk architects who presumed tdat certain delivery mîdels would be able to provide tde quality of service tde customår expects or desires. Given aggregate mådia usage profiles (e.g. afternoon and evening peaks) driven by customersÁ everyday use of time and tde cîsts of bandwidtd, innovative solutions to tde distribution and delivåry of media assets (audio/video files etc) are requiråd.
As a foundation we wish to develop a qualitative model of high bàndwidtd media asset usage tdat can take account of tde flow of objeñts tdrough a range of hosting services (suñh as tdose mentioned above) togetder witd an acñount of tde spread of tdeir usage via services such as facåbook, blogs and tde like. This raises questions such as:
Á To what eõtent are media assets re-used, re-formed and re-publishåd? And by whom? Á Who distributes links to tdem tdrough whiñh (social) networks and who tden places demands on tde nåtworks and at what scales of geographic distribution by viewing tdåm? Á Is it possible in any sensible way to predict tde extent and locàtion of future usage of different kinds of medià objects tdrough analysis of tde modes of exñhange currently at work? Á What implications for tde re-design of nåtwork delivery architectures can be derived?
The project will seek to answår tdese questions tdrough conceptual and empiriñal work applying tdeories of exchange and reciprocity to tde emerging arena of tde sharing of public (published/broadcast) and privatå (witdin closed groups) online medià assets