Title: CHARACTERISING SOCIAL STRUCTURES IN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS FROM LOGS OF USERS INTERACTIONS
Speaker: Andrea Passarella, PhD
Date: 14.05.2013 (12:30 – 13:30)
Location: EIT ICT Labs, Via Sommarive 18 - Northern Building - 1st floor, Povo-Trento.
Streaming: http://ic.kspaces.net/#!event/bigdata
Abstract: In this talk we describe some recent results that characterise key properties of the social structures created and maintained by users of Online Social Networks. In particular, results have been obtained by analysing large data sets collected both in Facebook and Twitter. These data sets log the history of interactions between users, not the mere existence of a friendship relationship. Therefore, we are able to characterise social structures based on how much a friendship relationship is active, i.e. based on actual interactions between users. Results about offline social networks – derived primarily by sociologists and anthropologists – demonstrated that the social relationships that an individual (ego) maintains with other people (alters) can be organised into different groups according to the “ego network” model. In this model the ego can be seen as the centre of a series of layers of increasing size. Social relationships between ego and alters in layers close to ego are stronger than those belonging to more external layers. Online Social Networks are becoming a fundamental medium for humans to manage their social life, however the structure of ego networks in these virtual environments has not been investigated yet. In our work we have started to fill this gap by analysing large data sets of Facebook and Twitter relationships. We filter the data to obtain the frequency of contact of the relationships, and we check - by using different clustering techniques - whether structures similar to those found in offline social networks can be observed. The results we will present in the talk show a strikingly similarity between the social structures in offline and Online Social Networks. In the talk we will present a Facebook application we are about to launch in order to collect more complete data sets about users interactions, to refine our analysis and characterise further properties of social relationships in OSNs.
Bio: Andrea Passarella is a Researcher at UI-IIT. Before joining UI-IIT he was a Research Associate at the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK. Currently, he is mainly interested in mobile social networking, characterisation of human social networks in online environments through the analysis of large data sets, content and resource management for opportunistic and delay-tolerant networks. He published 70+ papers in international journals and conference proceedings, and was the recipient (with M. Conti) of the IFIP Networking 2011 Best Paper Award. He is CNR PI for the FP7 MOTO, RECOGNITION and EC COST Action IC0804 EU Projects. He was co-editor of the book "Multi-hop Ad hoc Networks: from theory to reality", and Guest Co-Editor of several special sections on Elsevier Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal, Elsevier Computer Communications Journal, and ACM Mobile Computing and Communications Review. He was Program Co-Chair for IEEE WoWMoM 2011, TPC Vice-Chair for IEEE CPSCom 2012, REALMAN 2005, MDC 2006 and REALMAN 2006, TPC co-chair of ACM MobiOpp 2007 and Workshop Co-Chair of IEEE AOC 2009. He was Workshops Co-Chair for IEEE PerCom 2010 and IEEE WoWMoM 2010. He is in the Editorial Board of the Elsevier Pervasive and Mobile Computing Journal, and of Inderscience Intl. Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems.
Big Data Seminar Series is a set of multi-disciplinary seminars around the subject of Big Data. The series of seminars are organised twice a month by the Big Data Group of Trento RISE in collaboration with EIT ICT Labs Italy.
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Contact: Sandro Battisti
Following the decision taken by the Managemet Committee in February, Big Data aspects will be addressed in a number of Action Lines within the EIT ICT LABS, like Digital Cities, Health and Well Being, Smart Energy.
