Analyzing the Social Web

Description

Analyzing the Social Web provides a framework for the analysis of public data currently available and being generated by social networks and social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. Access and analysis of this public data about people and their connections to one another allows for new applications of traditional social network analysis techniques that let us identify things like who are the most important or influential people in a network, how things will spread through the network, and the nature of peoples' relationships. Analyzing the Social Web introduces you to these techniques, shows you their application to many different types of social media, and discusses how social media can be used as a tool for interacting with the online public. Front Cover Analyzing the Social Web Copyright Page Dedication Brief Table of Contents Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Foreword Preface 1 Introduction Analyzing the social web A brief history of the social web Websites discussed Tools used Exercises 2 Nodes, Edges, and Network Measures Basics of network structure Representing networks Adjacency lists Adjacency matrix XML and standard formats Basic network structures and properties Subnetworks Cliques Clusters Egocentric networks Paths and connectedness Paths Connectedness Bridges and hubs Exercises 3 Network Structure and Measures Describing nodes and edges Centrality Degree centrality Closeness centrality Betweenness centrality Eigenvector centrality Describing networks Degree distribution Density Calculating density Density in egocentric networks Connectivity Centralization Small worlds Exercises 4 Network Visualization Graph layout Random layout Circular layout Grid layout Force-directed layout Yifan Hu layout Harel-Koren fast multiscale layout Other layouts Visualizing network features Labels Size, shape, and color Larger graph properties Scale issues Density Filtering for visual patterns Graph simplification Exercises 5 Tie Strength The role of tie strength Measuring tie strength Tie strength and network structure Tie strength and network propagation Exercises 6 Trust Defining trust Nuances of trust Development of trust Asymmetry Context and time Measuring trust Propensity to trust Trust in others Trust in social media Inferring trust Network-based inference Similarity-based trust inference Exercises 7 Understanding Structure Through User Attributes and Behavior Analyzing attributes and behavior Analyzing content Example analysis Case study: Identifying user roles Exercises 8 Building Networks Modeling networks Defining nodes Node types Node selection Defining edges Examples Case study: The Enron email network Sampling methods Random sampling Snowball sampling Egocentric network analysis Exercises 9 Entity Resolution and Link Prediction Link prediction Mathematical notation Computing score Advanced link prediction techniques Entity resolution Scoring techniques Incorporating network data More sophisticated entity resolution Link prediction: Case study—Friend recommendation Entity resolution: Case study—Finding duplicate accounts Conclusion Exercises 10 Propagation in Networks Epidemic models Threshold models The firefighter problem Stochastic models Applications of epidemic models to social media Exercises 11 Community-Maintained Resources Supporting technologies for community-maintained resources Wikis Message boards Repositories User motivations User Motivation—case study: Wikipedia Background Editor motivation Site maintenance—case study: Geocaching Background Maintenance Exercises 12 Location-Based Social Interaction Location technology User-posted location data Estimating location data via IP address GPS location data Mobile location sharing Location-based social media analysis Location-based analysis of offline events The flu Fires Crowdsourced crisis information Marketing Privacy and location-based social media Conclusions Exercises 13 Social Information Filtering Social sharing and social filtering Automated recommender systems Traditional recommender systems Social recommender systems Case study: Reddit voting system Case study: Trust-based movie recommendations Conclusions Exercises 14 Social Media in the Public Sector Analyzing public-sector social media Analyzing individual users Case study: Social media to solve an attempted child abduction Case study: Congressional use of twitter Case study: Predicting elections and astroturfing Exercises 15 Business Use of Social Media Measuring success Broadcast example: Will it Blend? Marketing campaign Interaction and monitoring example: Zappos customer service Social media failure example: Celeb boutique and the NRA Conclusions Exercises 16 Privacy Privacy policies and settings Privacy settings Privacy policies Aggregation and data mining Deanonymization Inferring data Data mining Data ownership and maintaining privacy online Respecting privacy in social media analysis Exercises 17 Case Study: Social Network Strategies for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse Introduction The zombies are coming Related work and background of the zombie apocalypse Network strategies for the individual: Avoiding infection Tie strength Network structure Network strategies for the government: Stopping the spread Network strategies for the individual: Obtaining information Network strategies for the government: Information sharing Exercises References Glossary Index