Character computing is a trans-disciplinary field of research at the intersection of computer science and psychology. It is any computing that incorporates the human character within its context. Character is defined as all features or characteristics defining an individual and guiding their behavior in a specific situation. It consists of stable trait markers (e.g., personality, background, history, socio-economic embeddings, culture,...) and variable state markers (emotions, health, cognitive state, ...). Character computing aims at providing a holistic psychologically driven model of human behavior. It models and predicts behavior based on the relationships between a situation and character. Three main research modules fall under the umbrella of character computing: character sensing and profiling, character-aware adaptive systems, and artificial characters. == Overview == Character computing can be viewed as an extension of the well-established field of affective computing. Based on the foundations of the different psychology branches, it advocates defining behavior as a compound attribute that is not driven by either personality, emotions, situation or cognition alone. It rather defines behavior as a function of everything that makes up an individual i.e., their character and the situation they are in. Affective computing aims at allowing machines to understand and translate the non-verbal cues of individuals into affect. Accordingly, character computing aims at understanding the character attributes of an individual and the situation to translate it to predicted behavior, and vice versa. ''In practical terms, depending on the application context, character computing is a branch of research that deals with the design of systems and interfaces that can observe, sense, predict, adapt to, affect, understand, or simulate the following: character based on behavior and situation, behavior based on character and situation, or situation based on character and behavior.'' The Character-Behavior-Situation (CBS) triad is at the core of character computing and defines each of the three edges based on the other two. Character computing relies on simultaneous development from a computational and psychological perspective and is intended to be used by researchers in both fields. Its main concept is aligning the computational model of character computing with empirical results from in-lab and in-the-wild psychology experiments. The model is to be continuously built and validated through the emergence of new data. Similar to affective and personality computing, the model is to be used as a base for different applications towards improving user experience. == History == Character computing as such was first coined in its first workshop in 2017. Since then it has had 3 international workshops and numerous publications. Despite its young age, it has already drawn some interest in the research community, leading to the publication of the first book under the same title in early 2020 published by Springer Nature. Research that can be categorized under the field dates much older than 2017. The notion of combining several factors towards the explanation of behavior or traits and states has long been investigated in both Psychology and Computer Science, for example. == Character == The word character originates from the Greek word meaning “stamping tool”, referring to distinctive features and traits. Over the years it has been given many different connotations, like the moral character in philosophy, the temperament in psychology, a person in literature or an avatar in various virtual worlds, including video games. According to character computing character is a unification of all the previous definitions, by referring back to the original meaning of the word. Character is defined as the holistic concept representing all interacting trait and state markers that distinguish an individual. Traits are characteristics that mainly remain stable over time. Traits include personality, affect, socio-demographics, and general health. States are characteristics that vary in short periods of time. They include emotions, well-being, health, cognitive state. Each characteristic has many representation methods and psychological models. The different models can be combined or one model can be preset for each characteristic. This depends on the use-case and the design choices. == Areas == Research into character computing can be divided into three areas, which complement each other but can each be investigated separately. The first area is sensing and predicting character states and traits or ensuing behavior. The second area is adapting applications to certain character states or traits and the behavior they predict. It also deals with trying to change or monitor such behavior. The final area deals with creating artificial agents e.g., chatbots or virtual reality avatars that exhibit certain characteristics. The three areas are investigated separately and build on existing findings in the literature. The results of each of the three areas can also be used as a stepping stone for the next area. Each of the three areas has already been investigated on its own in different research fields with focus on different subsets of character. For example, affective computing and personality computing both cover different areas with a focus on some character components without the others to account for human behavior. == The Character-Behavior-Situation triad == Character computing is based on a holistic psychologically driven model of human behavior. Human behavior is modeled and predicted based on the relationships between a situation and a human's character. To further define character in a more formal or holistic manner, we represent it in light of the Character–Behavior–Situation triad. This highlights that character not only determines who we are but how we are, i.e., how we behave. The triad investigated in Personality Psychology is extended through character computing to the Character–Behavior–Situation triad. Any member of the CBS triad is a function of the two other members, e.g., given the situation and personality, the behavior can be predicted. Each of the components in the triad can be further decomposed into smaller units and features that may best represent the human's behavior or character in a particular situation. Character is thus behind a person's behavior in any given situation. While this is a causality relation, the correlation between the three components is often more easily used to predict the components that are most difficult to measure from those measured more easily. There are infinitely many components to include in the representation of any of C, B, and S. The challenge is always to choose the smallest subset needed for prediction of a person's behavior in a particular situation.
List of JavaScript libraries
This is a list of notable JavaScript libraries. == Constraint programming == Cassowary (software) CHR.js == DOM (manipulation) oriented == Google Polymer Dojo Toolkit jQuery MooTools Prototype JavaScript Framework == Graphical/visualization (canvas, SVG, or WebGL related) == AnyChart Apache ECharts Babylon.js Chart.js Cytoscape D3.js Dojo Toolkit FusionCharts Google Charts JointJS p5.js Plotly.js Processing.js Raphaël RGraph SWFObject Teechart Three.js Velocity.js Verge3D Webix == GUI (Graphical user interface) and widget related == Angular (application platform) by Google AngularJS by Google Bootstrap Dojo Widgets Ext JS by Sencha Foundation by ZURB jQuery UI jQWidgets OpenUI5 by SAP Polymer (library) by Google qooxdoo React.js by Meta/Facebook Vue.js Webix WinJS Svelte === No longer actively developed === Glow Lively Kernel Script.aculo.us YUI Library == Pure JavaScript/Ajax == Google Closure Library JsPHP Microsoft's Ajax library MochiKit PDF.js Socket.IO Spry framework Underscore.js == Template systems == jQuery Mobile Mustache Jinja-JS Twig.js == Unit testing == Jasmine Mocha QUnit == Test automation == Playwright Cypress == Web-application related (MVC, MVVM) == Angular (application platform) by Google AngularJS by Google Backbone.js Echo Ember.js Enyo Express.js Ext JS Google Web Toolkit JsRender/JsViews Knockout Meteor Mojito MooTools Next.js Nuxt.js OpenUI5 by SAP Polymer (library) by Google Prototype JavaScript Framework qooxdoo React.js SproutCore svelte Vue.js == Other == Blockly Cannon.js MathJax Modernizr TensorFlow Brain.js
User-generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is content generated by users of the Internet such as images, videos, audio, text, testimonials, software, and user interactions. Online content aggregation platforms such as social media, discussion forums and wikis by their interactive and social nature, no longer produce multimedia content but provide tools to produce, collaborate, and share a variety of content, which can affect the attitudes and behaviors of the audience in various aspects. This transforms the role of consumers from passive spectators to active participants. User-generated content is used for a wide range of applications, including problem processing, news, entertainment, customer engagement, advertising, gossip, research and more. It is an example of the democratization of content production and the flattening of traditional media hierarchies. The BBC adopted a user-generated content platform for its websites in 2005, and Time magazine named "You" as the Person of the Year in 2006, referring to the rise in the production of UGC on Web 2.0 platforms. CNN also developed a similar user-generated content platform, known as iReport. There are other examples of news channels implementing similar protocols, especially in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe or terrorist attack. Social media users can provide key eyewitness content and information that may otherwise have been inaccessible. Since 2020, there has been an increasing number of businesses who are utilizing User Generated Content (UGC) to promote their products and services. Several factors significantly influence how UGC is received, including the quality of the content, the credibility of the creator, and viewer engagement. These elements can impact users' perceptions and trust towards the brand, as well as influence the buying intentions of potential customers. UGC has proven to be an effective method for brands to connect with consumers, drawing their attention through the sharing of experiences and information on social media platforms. Due to new media and technology affordances, such as low cost and low barriers to entry, the Internet is an easy platform to create and dispense user-generated content, allowing the dissemination of information at a rapid pace in the wake of an event. == Definition == The advent of user-generated content marked a shift among media organizations from creating online content to providing facilities for amateurs to publish their own content. User-generated content has also been characterized as citizen media as opposed to the "packaged goods media" of the past century. Citizen Media is audience-generated feedback and news coverage. People give their reviews and share stories in the form of user-generated and user-uploaded audio and user-generated video. The former is a two-way process in contrast to the one-way distribution of the latter. Conversational or two-way media is a key characteristic of so-called Web 2.0, which encourages the publishing of one's own content and commenting on other people's content. The role of the passive audience, therefore, has shifted since the birth of new media, and an ever-growing number of participatory users are taking advantage of these interactive opportunities, especially on the Internet, to create independent content. Grassroots experimentation then generated an innovation in sounds, artists, techniques, and associations with audiences, which then are being used in mainstream media. The active, participatory, and creative audience is prevailing today with relatively accessible media, tools, and applications, and its culture is in turn affecting mass media corporations and global audiences. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined three core variables for UGC: Accessible Content: User-generated content (UGC) is publicly produced through platforms located on the Internet and is available to any individual browsing such a publicly accessible website or a public social media account. There are other contexts where users must remain in a community or closed group to access and publish on such platforms (for example, wikis). This is a way of differentiating that although the content is accessible to the audience, there are certain restrictions for the users who generates the content. Creative effort: Creative effort was put into creating the work or adapting existing works to construct a new one; i.e. users must add their own value to the work. UGC often also has a collaborative element to it, as is the case with websites that users can edit collaboratively. For example, merely copying a portion of a television show and posting it to an online video website (an activity frequently seen on the UGC sites) would not be considered UGC. However, uploading photographs, expressing one's thoughts in a blog post or creating a new music video could be considered UGC. Yet the minimum amount of creative effort is hard to define and depends on the context. Creation outside of professional routines and practices: User-generated content is generally created outside of professional routines and practices. It often does not have an institutional or a commercial market context. In extreme cases, UGC may be produced by non-professionals without the expectation of profit or remuneration. Motivating factors include connecting with peers, achieving a certain level of fame, notoriety, or prestige, and the desire to express oneself. == Media pluralism == According to Cisco, in 2016 an average of 96,000 petabytes was transferred monthly over the Internet, more than twice as many as in 2012. In 2016, the number of active websites surpassed 1 billion, up from approximately 700 million in 2012. Reaching 1.66 billion daily active users in Q4 2019, Facebook has emerged as the most popular social media platform globally. Other social media platforms are also dominant at the regional level such as: Twitter in Japan, Naver in the Republic of Korea, Instagram (owned by Facebook) and LinkedIn (owned by Microsoft) in Africa, VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (eng. Classmates) in Russia and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, WeChat and QQ in China. However, a concentration phenomenon is occurring globally giving dominance to a few online platforms that become popular for some unique features they provide, most commonly for the added privacy they offer users through disappearing messages or end-to-end encryption (e.g. Jami, Signal, Snapchat, Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp), but they have tended to occupy niches and to facilitate the exchanges of information that remain rather invisible to larger audiences. Production of freely accessible information has been increasing since 2012. In January 2017, Wikipedia had more than 43 million articles, almost twice as many as in January 2012. This corresponded to a progressive diversification of content and an increase in contributions in languages other than English. In 2017, less than 12 percent of Wikipedia content was in English, down from 18 percent in 2012. Graham, Straumann, and Hogan say that the increase in the availability and diversity of content has not radically changed the structures and processes for the production of knowledge. For example, while content on Africa has dramatically increased, a significant portion of this content has continued to be produced by contributors operating from North America and Europe, rather than from Africa itself. == History == The massive, multi-volume Oxford English Dictionary was exclusively composed of user-generated content. In 1857, Richard Chenevix Trench of the London Philological Society sought public contributions throughout the English-speaking world for the creation of the first edition of the OED. As Simon Winchester recounts: So what we're going to do, if I have your agreement that we're going to produce such a dictionary, is that we're going to send out invitations, were going to send these invitations to every library, every school, every university, every book shop that we can identify throughout the English-speaking world... everywhere where English is spoken or read with any degree of enthusiasm, people will be invited to contribute words. And the point is, the way they do it, the way they will be asked and instructed to do it, is to read voraciously and whenever they see a word, whether it's a preposition or a sesquipedalian monster, they are to... if it interests them and if where they read it, they see it in a sentence that illustrates the way that that word is used, offers the meaning of the day to that word, then they are to write it on a slip of paper... the top left-hand side you write the word, the chosen word, the catchword, which in this case is 'twilight'. Then the quotation, the quotation illustrates the meaning of the word. And underneath it, the citation, where it came from, whether it was printed or whether it was in manuscri
Hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, #. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content by topic or theme. For example, a search within Instagram for the hashtag #flowers returns all posts that have been tagged with that term. After the initial hash symbol, a hashtag may include letters, numerals or other punctuation. The use of hashtags was first proposed by American blogger and product consultant Chris Messina in a 2007 tweet. Messina made no attempt to patent the use because he felt that "they were born of the internet, and owned by no one". Hashtags became entrenched in the culture of Twitter and soon emerged across Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. In June 2014, hashtag was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as "a word or phrase with the symbol # in front of it, used on social media websites and apps so that you can search for all messages with the same subject". == Origin and acceptance == The number sign or hash symbol, #, has long been used in information technology to highlight specific pieces of text. In 1970, the number sign was used to denote immediate address mode in the assembly language of the PDP-11 when placed next to a symbol or a number, and around 1973, '#' was introduced in the C programming language to indicate special keywords that the C preprocessor had to process first. The pound sign was adopted for use within IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks around 1988 to label groups and topics. Channels or topics that are available across an entire IRC network are prefixed with a hash symbol # (as opposed to those local to a server, which uses an ampersand '&'). The use of the pound sign in IRC inspired Chris Messina to propose a similar system on Twitter to tag topics of interest on the microblogging network. He proposed the usage of hashtags on Twitter: How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]? According to Messina, he suggested use of the hashtag to make it easy for lay users without specialized knowledge of search protocols to find specific relevant content. Therefore, the hashtag "was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages". The first published use of the term "hash tag" was in a blog post "Hash Tags = Twitter Groupings" by Stowe Boyd, on August 26, 2007, according to lexicographer Ben Zimmer, chair of the American Dialect Society's New Words Committee. Messina's suggestion to use the hashtag was not immediately adopted by Twitter, but the convention gained popular acceptance when hashtags were used in tweets relating to the 2007 San Diego forest fires in Southern California. The hashtag gained international acceptance during the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests; Twitter users used both English- and Persian-language hashtags in communications during the events. Hashtags have since played critical roles in recent social movements such as #jesuischarlie, #BLM, and #MeToo. Beginning July 2, 2009, Twitter began to hyperlink all hashtags in tweets to Twitter search results for the hashtagged word (and for the standard spelling of commonly misspelled words). In 2010, Twitter introduced "Trending Topics" on the Twitter front page, displaying hashtags that are rapidly becoming popular, and the significance of trending hashtags has become so great that the company makes significant efforts to foil attempts to spam the trending list. During the 2010 World Cup, Twitter explicitly encouraged the use of hashtags with the temporary deployment of "hashflags", which replaced hashtags of three-letter country codes with their respective national flags. Other platforms such as YouTube and Gawker Media followed in officially supporting hashtags, and real-time search aggregators such as Google Real-Time Search began supporting hashtags. == Format == A hashtag must begin with a hash (#) character followed by other characters, and is terminated by a space or the end of the line. Some platforms may require the # to be preceded with a space. Most or all platforms that support hashtags permit the inclusion of letters (without diacritics), numerals, and underscores. Other characters may be supported on a platform-by-platform basis. Some characters, such as "&", are generally not supported as they may already serve other search functions. Hashtags are not case sensitive (a search for "#hashtag" will match "#HashTag" as well), but the use of embedded capitals (i.e., CamelCase) increases legibility and improves accessibility. Languages that do not use word dividers handle hashtags differently. In China, microblogs Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo use a double-hashtag-delimited #HashName# format, since the lack of spacing between Chinese characters necessitates a closing tag. Twitter uses a different syntax for Chinese characters and orthographies with similar spacing conventions: the hashtag contains unspaced characters, separated from preceding and following text by spaces (e.g., '我 #爱 你' instead of '我#爱你') or by zero-width non-joiner characters before and after the hashtagged element, to retain a linguistically natural appearance (displaying as unspaced '我#爱你', but with invisible non-joiners delimiting the hashtag). === Etiquette and regulation === Some communities may limit, officially or unofficially, the number of hashtags permitted on a single post. Misuse of hashtags can lead to account suspensions. Twitter warns that adding hashtags to unrelated tweets, or repeated use of the same hashtag without adding to a conversation can filter an account from search results, or suspend the account. Individual platforms may deactivate certain hashtags either for being too generic to be useful, such as #photography on Instagram, or due to their use to facilitate illegal activities. === Alternate formats === In 2009, StockTwits began using ticker symbols preceded by the dollar sign (e.g., $XRX). In July 2012, Twitter began supporting the tag convention and dubbed it the "cashtag". The convention has extended to national currencies, and Cash App has implemented the cashtag to mark usernames. == Function == Hashtags are particularly useful in unmoderated forums that lack a formal ontological organization. Hashtags help users find content similar interest. Hashtags are neither registered nor controlled by any one user or group of users. They do not contain any set definitions, meaning that a single hashtag can be used for any number of purposes, and that the accepted meaning of a hashtag can change with time. Hashtags intended for discussion of a particular event tend to use an obscure wording to avoid being caught up with generic conversations on similar subjects, such as a cake festival using #cakefestival rather than simply #cake. However, this can also make it difficult for topics to become "trending topics" because people often use different spelling or words to refer to the same topic. For topics to trend, there must be a consensus, whether silent or stated, that the hashtag refers to that specific topic. Hashtags may be used informally to express context around a given message, with no intent to categorize the message for later searching, sharing, or other reasons. Hashtags may thus serve as a reflexive meta-commentary. This can help express contextual cues or offer more depth to the information or message that appears with the hashtag. "My arms are getting darker by the minute. #toomuchfaketan". AnoHashtags can also be used to express personal feelings and emotions. ther function of the hashtag can be used to express personal feelings and emotions. For example, with "It's Monday!! #excited #sarcasm" in which the adjectives are directly indicating the emotions of the speaker. Verbal use of the word hashtag is sometimes used in informal conversations. Use may be humorous, such as "I'm hashtag confused!" By August 2012, use of a hand gesture, sometimes called the "finger hashtag", in which the index and middle finger both hands are extended and arranged perpendicularly to form the hash, was documented. === Co-optation by other industries === Companies, businesses, and advocacy organizations have taken advantage of hashtag-based discussions for promotion of their products, services or campaigns. In the early 2010s, some television broadcasters began to employ hashtags related to programs in digital on-screen graphics, to encourage viewers to participate in a backchannel of discussion via social media prior to, during, or after the program. Television commercials have sometimes contained hashtags for similar purposes. The increased usage of hashtags as brand promotion devices has been compared to the promotion of branded "keywords" by AOL in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as such keywords were also promoted at the end of television commercials and series episodes. Organized real-world events have used hashta
Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories
Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories (FIVARS) is a Canadian media festival for story-driven works using extended reality (XR) and immersive media, including virtual reality, augmented reality, WebXR, live VR performance, projection mapping and spatialized audio. Founded in Toronto in 2015, it has been described as Canada's first dedicated virtual and augmented reality stories festival, the first Canadian festival of its kind, and Canada's original festival dedicated to immersive storytelling. FIVARS has described itself as "the original and longest-running festival wholly dedicated to Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories", while third-party XR coverage has called it one of the longest-running events dedicated to immersive content. FIVARS is produced by Constant Change Media Group, Inc., with its partner event VRTO. == History == FIVARS began in 2015, with preview screenings at the Camp Wavelength music festival on Toronto Island and an inaugural festival held in Toronto in September 2015. Contemporary coverage described the first edition as a virtual reality film festival held at UG3 Live in Toronto. The festival continued with a second edition in 2016. L'Express described the 2016 festival as presenting Canadian and international interactive works in virtual and augmented reality narrative forms. FIVARS's 2016 festival was also listed in a York University Future Cinema course page as a public event students could attend. In 2017, the third annual FIVARS festival was held at the House of VR in Toronto. In 2018, the festival was held at the Matador Ballroom, which NOW Magazine reported was reopening for FIVARS from September 14 to 16. The festival's own history states that the 2018 edition included 36 works from 12 countries and that Stephanie Greenall took over as co-producer that year. In 2019, FIVARS moved to the Toronto Media Arts Centre for its fifth anniversary and listed official selections in passive and interactive immersive-experience categories. The festival also held talks and panels at the Toronto Media Arts Centre. During the COVID-19 pandemic, FIVARS moved part of its programming online. In 2020, Voices of VR reported that Malicki-Sanchez and WebXR developer James Baicoianu used JanusXR code to create a platform for presenting 360-degree video through the web. The festival's history states that its 2020 online festival included 39 selections from 16 countries and was produced by Malicki-Sanchez and Greenall. In 2021, FIVARS introduced a dual-event structure with FIVARS in FEB and FIVARS in FALL. The fall 2021 edition used a hybrid format, with an in-person component in West Hollywood from October 15 to 17 and an online WebXR component from October 22 to November 2. In 2022, FIVARS held hybrid programming with pop-up viewing locations in Los Angeles and Toronto. The fall 2022 edition was listed by blogTO as the festival's tenth edition, with an in-person component at Stackt - an outdoor arts park built from shipping containers in Toronto and online programming. The 2023 festival was presented as a hybrid exhibition of 65 immersive stories, with an in-person Toronto component and an online component. The FIVARS Online Festival was later listed among the Innovator of the Year nominees for the 2024 Poly Awards. FIVARS stated that the nominees for that recognition were producer and designer Keram Malicki-Sanchez and developer James Baicoianu. The 2024 edition was listed as FIVARS 2024 (Toronto + Online), with an in-person Toronto event from October 3 to 8 and an online component beginning October 10. The festival also published a 2024 official selections list covering virtual reality, augmented reality, spherical video, spatial web and related immersive formats. In 2025, FIVARS and VRTO were held together at OCAD University. The 2026 edition is scheduled for June 15 to 19, 2026, at OCAD University in Toronto, with OCAD University as presenting sponsor and first-time venue host. FIVARS has featured official selections from more than forty countries across six continents. == Organization == FIVARS was founded in 2015 by Keram Malicki-Sánchez. Joseph Ellsworth was the festival's original technical director and helped operate FIVARS during its early years. Malicki-Sánchez remains executive director and festival director. Jessy Blaze joined Malicki-Sánchez as co-producer in 2016 and served until Stephanie Greenall took over the role in 2018. Greenall served as co-producer and associate producer from 2018 to 2022. Aimee Reynolds took over from Greenall in 2022 and has served as associate producer of FIVARS and VRTO since 2022. == Immersive Media Awards == FIVARS presents People's Choice awards for interactive works and immersive video or passive immersive works. Juried award categories have included the Grand Jury Prize, Impact Award, Technical Achievement, Excellence in Experience Design, Excellence in Visual Design, Excellence in Sound Design, and Outstanding Performance. === 2015 === On Monday, September 21, the festival announced People's Choice awards for two categories at the Cadillac Lounge, a music venue and restaurant in Toronto. People's Choice Best Interactive Experience: Apollo 11 Best Immersive Video: SONAR === 2016 === People's Choice Best Interactive Experience: Pearl (Patrick Osborne) Best Immersive Video: Help (Justin Lin) Juried Grand Jury Award: Real (Connor Hair and Alex Meader) === 2017 === People's Choice Best Interactive: Alteration Best Immersive (Passive): Guardian of the Guge Kingdom Juried Impact Award: Priya's Shakti / Priya's Mirror (Dan Goldman) Grand Jury Prize: Manifest 99 === 2018 === People's Choice Best Interactive: Museum of Symmetry (Paloma Dawkins) Best Immersive (Passive): Going Home (David Beier) Juried Impact Award: The Hidden (Annie Lukowski, BJ Schwartz) Grand Jury Prize: Battlescar (Nico Casavecchia, Martin Allais) === 2019 === People's Choice Best Interactive: After Dan Graham (David Han/Friend Generator) Best Immersive (Passive): 2nd Step (Joerg Courtial) Juried Technical Achievement: tx-reverse Excellence in Experience Design: Battlescar (Nico Casavecchia, Martin Allais) Excellence in Sound Design: Unheard (Zhechuan Zhang) Excellence in Visual Design: Ex Anima (Pierre Zandrowicz) Impact Award: State Power (Jeff Stanzler) Grand Jury Prize: The Industry (Mirka Duijn) === 2020 === People's Choice Best Interactive: Gravity VR (Fabito Rychter, Amir Admoni) Best Immersive (Passive): Warsaw Rising (Tomasz Dobosz) Juried Technical Achievement: The Cosmic Laughter of Cucci Binaca (Jonathan Sims) Excellence in Experience Design: Sleeping Eyes (Sojung Bahng, Sungeun Lee) Excellence in Sound Design: Symphony of Noise VR (Michaela Pnacekova) Excellence in Visual Design: Hominidae (Brian Andrews) Impact Award: Indirect Actions (Maranatha Hay) Grand Jury Prize: Minimum Mass (Raqi Syed, Areito Echevarria) === 2021 === FIVARS in FEB – People's Choice Best Interactive: CLAWS (created by Evan Neiden; directed by John Ertman) Best Immersive (Passive): Inside COVID 19 (Gary Yost, Adam Loften) FIVARS in FALL – People's Choice Best Interactive: Samsara (director: Hsin-Chien Huang) Best Immersive (Passive): The Invasion of Normandy Omaha Beach (director: Uli Futschik) Juried Technical Achievement: Dark Threads (director: Jonathon Corbiere) Excellence in Experience Design: Andy's World (director: Liquan Liu) Excellence in Sound Design: Symphony (director: Igor Cortadellas) Excellence in Visual Design: Mind VR Exploration (director: Deng Zuyun) Outstanding Performance: Lori Kovachevich, Lena's Journey (director: Wes Evans) Impact Award: Om Devi: Sheroes Revolution (director: Claudio Casale) Grand Jury Prize: Montegelato (director: Davide Rapp) === 2022 === FIVARS in FEB – People's Choice Best Interactive: Severance Theory: Welcome to Respite (Lyndsie Scoggin, United States) Best Immersive (Passive): Beescapes (Alan Nguyen, Australia) FIVARS in FALL – People's Choice Best Interactive: Namuanki (Kevin Mack, United States) Best Immersive (Passive): Reimagined Vol. 1: Nyssa (Julie Cavaliere, United States) Juried (Whole Year) Technical Achievement: Namuanki (Kevin Mack, United States) Excellence in Experience Design: Unframed: Hand Puppets, Paul Klee (Martin Charrière, Switzerland) Excellence in Visual Design: The Last Dance (Toshiaki Hanzaki, Japan) Excellence in Sound Design: Kingdom of Plants with David Attenborough (Iona McEwan, UK and USA) Outstanding Performance: Ari Tarr, OffRail (Ari Tarr, United States) Impact Award: Tearless (Gina Kim, South Korea) Grand Jury Prize: Klaxon. My dear sweet Friend (Nikita Shokhov, United States) === 2023 === People's Choice Best Interactive: PULSAR Best Immersive (Passive): Behind the Dish Juried Technical Achievement: VFC Excellence in Experience Design: Broken Spectre Excellence in Visual Design: Night Creatures Excellence in Sound Design: VFC Outstanding Performance: Origins Impact Award: LOU Grand Jury Prize: Stay Alive, My Son === 2024 ==
AdTruth
AdTruth is a software product and the digital media division of 41st Parameter, a company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with regional offices in San Jose, California; London, England; and Munich, Germany. AdTruth allows marketers to recognize and reach target audiences across online devices. AdTruth software identifies users for targeting, tracking, performance tracking across digital media, including mobile and desktop, by analysing patterns in large numbers of advertisements served over the internet, rather than through the use of cookies. == History == AdTruth was founded in 2011 by Ori Eisen of 41st Parameter, to repurpose the company's fraud detection and prevention technology, for use within the advertising industry to accurately target intended audiences, particularly in mobile. Eisen was joined by James Lamberti in the role of vice president and general manager. In 2012 41st Parameter raised $13 million in Series D financing from Norwest Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Jafco Ventures and Georgian Partners, bringing total funding to about $35 million. In May 2012, AdTruth hosted a meeting of digital media executives to discuss Apple’s UDID deprecation, with the intent of developing a device-neutral replacement standard. AdTruth joined the World Wide Web Consortium's Tracking Protection Working Group, which provides guidance for implementing and adhering to Do Not Track policies. AdTruth also worked with privacy firm Truste to create a privacy compliant Do Not Track-style mechanism for mobile. In 2013, the company Experian purchased 41st Parameter, acquiring AdTruth as part of the deal. == Product == AdTruth software helps marketers track, target and retarget consumers using more than 100 parameters, including milliseconds in differences in the internal clock setting, to recognize a particular device anonymously. AdTruth's technology uses non-UDID information to identify a wide range of devices for cookieless ad targeting. Its technology currently has about a 90 percent accuracy rate on iOS, higher on Android and desktop. AdTruth also has mobile web to app bridging capabilities as well as DeviceInsight technology, enabling marketers to identify users across mobile web and app content. 41st Parameter's patented AdTruth technology is being used by MdotM, in response to the deprecation of the UDID that included tracking and targeting capabilities. == Competitors == AdTruth's main competitor is BlueCava, which deploys a similar device-fingerprinting technology.
Facebook is an American social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms. It was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, along with his Harvard College roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The name Facebook derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. The service was initially limited to Harvard students before gradually expanding to other universities in North America. Since 2006, Facebook has permitted registration by individuals aged 13 and older, with the exception of South Korea, Spain, and Quebec, where the minimum age is 14. As of December 2023, Facebook reported approximately 3.07 billion monthly active users worldwide. As of July 2025, it was ranked as the third-most-visited website in the world, with 23 percent of its traffic originating from the United States. It was the most downloaded mobile application of the 2010s. Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing personal information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared either publicly or exclusively with other users who have agreed to be their friend, depending on privacy settings. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Messenger, edit messages (within 15 minutes after sending), join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow. Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance. The company has also been subject to criticism over its psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech. Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content, as well as overemphasizing its number of users to appeal to advertisers. == History == The history of Facebook traces its growth from a college networking site to a global social networking service. While attending Phillips Exeter in the early 2000s, Zuckerberg met Kris Tillery. Tillery, a one-time project collaborator with Zuckerberg, would create a school-based social networking project called Photo Address Book. Photo Address Book was a digital face book, created through a linked database composed of student information derived from the official records of the Exeter Student Council. The database contained linkages such as name, dorm-specific landline numbers, and student headshots. Mark Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used photos from online face books, asking users to choose the 'hotter' person". Zuckerberg was reported and faced expulsion, but the charges were dropped. A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information. In January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new site known as "TheFacebook", stating, "It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin, and each agreed to invest $1,000. On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook". Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the site. It became available successively to most universities in the US and Canada. In 2004, Napster co-founder Sean Parker became company president and the company moved to Palo Alto, California. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel gave Facebook its first investment. In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com. In 2006, Facebook opened to everyone at least or only 13 years old with a valid email address. Facebook introduced key features like the News Feed, which became central to user engagement. By late 2007, Facebook had 100,000 pages on which companies promoted themselves. Facebook had surpassed MySpace in global traffic and became the world's most popular social media platform. Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million ($373 million in 2025 dollars), giving Facebook an implied value of around $15 billion ($23.3 billion in 2025 dollars). Facebook focused on generating revenue through targeted advertising based on user data, a model that drove its rapid financial growth. In 2012, Facebook went public with one of the largest IPOs in tech history. Acquisitions played a significant role in Facebook's dominance. In 2012, it purchased Instagram, followed by WhatsApp and Oculus VR in 2014, extending its influence beyond social networking into messaging and virtual reality. The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018 revealed misuse of user data to influence elections, sparking global outcry and leading to regulatory fines and hearings. Facebook's role in global events, including its use in organizing movements like the Arab Spring and its impact on events like the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, highlighted its dual nature as a tool for both empowerment and harm. In 2021, Facebook rebranded as Meta, reflecting its shift toward building the "metaverse" and focusing on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies. == Features == Facebook does not officially publish a maximum character limit for posts; however, user posts can be lengthy, with unofficial sources suggesting a high character limit. Posts may also include images and videos. According to Facebook's official business documentation, videos can be up to 240 minutes long and 10 GB in file size, with supported resolutions up to 1080p. Users can "friend" users, both sides must agree to being friends. Posts can be changed to be seen by everyone (public), friends, people in a certain group (group) or by selected friends (private). Users can join groups. Groups are composed of persons with shared interests. For example, they might go to the same sporting club, live in the same suburb, have the same breed of pet or share a hobby. Posts posted in a group can be seen only by those in a group, unless set to public. Users are able to buy, sell, and swap things on Facebook Marketplace or in a Buy, Swap and Sell group. Facebook users may advertise events, which can be offline, on a website other than Facebook, or on Facebook. == Website == === Technical aspects === The site's primary color is blue as Zuckerberg is red–green colorblind, a realization that occurred after a test taken around 2007. Facebook was initially built using PHP, a popular scripting language designed for web development. PHP was used to create dynamic content and manage data on the server side of the Facebook application. Zuckerberg and co-founders chose PHP for its simplicity and ease of use, which allowed them to quickly develop and deploy the initial version of Facebook. As Facebook grew in user base and functionality, the company encountered scalability and performance challenges with PHP. In response, Facebook engineers developed tools and technologies to optimize PHP performance. One of the most significant was the creation of the HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM). This significantly improved the performance and efficiency of PHP code execution on Facebook's servers. The site upgraded from HTTP to the more secure HTTPS in January 2011. ==== 2012 architecture ==== Facebook is developed as one monolithic application. According to an interview in 2012 with Facebook build engineer Chuck Rossi, Facebook compiles into a 1.5 GB binary blob which is then distributed to the servers using a custom BitTorrent-based release system. Rossi stated that it takes about 15 minutes to build and 15 minutes to release to the servers. The build and release process has zero downtime. Changes to Facebook are rolled out daily. Facebook used a combination platform based on HBase to store data across distributed machines. Using a tailing architecture, events are stored in log files, and the logs are tailed. The system rolls these events up and writes them to storage. The user interface then pulls the data out and displays it to users. Facebook handles requests as AJAX behavior. These requests are written to a log file using Scribe (developed by Facebook). Data is read from these log files using Ptail, an internally built tool to aggregate data from multiple Scribe stores. It tails the log files and pulls data out. Ptail data are separated into three streams and sent to clusters in different data centers (Plugin impression, News feed impressions, Actions (plugin + news feed)). Puma is used to manage periods of high data