CMU study finds employer discrimination via social media sites; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/27/13

Kim Lyons, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; CMU study finds employer discrimination via social media sites: "Employers trying to screen a job candidate based on Facebook or Twitter or even LinkedIn run the risk of discovering information they're not allowed to have. And a new study suggests that practice could lead to hiring discrimination. Employers acknowledge using social networking sites to find potentially unprofessional behaviors in job candidates, according to a new study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers Christina Fong and Alessandro Acquisti... And, if employers or would-be employers think their extra online research is off the record, they could be in for a rude surprise, Mr. Murphy said. "Computers don't forget," he said. "There's almost always evidence.""

Groups produce collective intelligence, study says; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1/10/11

Mark Roth, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Groups produce collective intelligence, study says:

"There were three factors that did make a difference, though.

One was the social sensitivity of group members -- how much they paid attention to each other and asked questions.

The second was turn-taking. Groups that shared the floor had much better results. "When you had someone really dominating the conversations in these groups, the group did not perform well," she said.

Finally, in general, the more women in a group, the smarter it was...

One critical step, she said, is to make sure group members take some time to discuss how they can work together to achieve their goal.

Many people don't like to discuss such "process" issues, she said, but the research has shown that "groups that pay more attention to that gets things done more efficiently."