Communications of the ACM
Structure of Network Drives Friends to Congregate into Many Small, Highly Interconnected Communities
Credit: Facebook
Indiana University in Bloomington and University of Messina researchers have discovered, for the first time, the dynamics of how Facebook user communities are formed, using mathematical tools typically utilized to study complex systems.
This work could ultimately help identify the most efficient way to spread information, such as advertising, or ideas over large networks. First, the researchers acquired a snapshot of the structure of the users' friendship network using several techniques of statistical sampling applied to the anonymized public profiles of Facebook users. Then, the researchers validated the results by comparing the outcome of several statistical methods and by using various algorithms. The researchers found that Facebook communities emerge as a result of the network's structure, which is based on creating networks of friends. It therefore has little bearing on how individual users behave. Users have a tendency for aggregating in small-sized communities that are very interconnected, and this type of structure is known to optimize the efficiency of communications among users.
This approach could be used to confirm a social theory known as Mark S. Granovetter's "strength of weak ties," in which loose interconnections among users return better opportunities and more efficient communication channels.
From PhysOrg.com
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