The objective of this research is to model the effect of community structure on information diffusion through the analysis of online interactions. As our lives are increasingly conducted in the digital domain, these online activities represent a growing proportion of our interactions - from the way we acquire and share information, to the way we communicate, socialize, and organize. Such activities leave digital traces, ranging from citation patterns among millions of blogs to avatar interactions in online virtual worlds such as Second Life.
Empirical studies of these traces will address the following information diffusion and social network phenomena on an unprecedented scale and with great accuracy: 1) the interplay between social network structure, community affiliation and interaction; 2) the effect of social network structure and community boundaries on information diffusion and change; 3) the range of influence of individuals, related to the structure of their social network and community affiliation; 4) the dynamics of opinion formation in networks of overlapping communities.
The topic of information diffusion, having both theoretical and practical significance, has received sustained attention across several scientific disciplines for some time. However, past empirical studies have lacked the size and accuracy needed to differentiate between different theoretical models. To address this problem, this project will assemble three very large scale, high resolution network data sources: one encompassing the interactions of millions of users of the online virtual world Second Life, the second comprising millions of blogs, and the third mapping exact traces with a novel information and opinion sharing application that will be developed. Together, these three contexts will serve as a testbed for modeling the dynamics of information diffusion. Beyond testing existing models, this project will incorporate network community boundaries and overlap into new descriptive and predictive models of information diffusion and opinion formation.
Understanding how information diffuses and how opinions are formed in today's highly connected and community-focused online environments has important implications not just for public policy and marketing, but also for the dissemination of innovations. Knowing how to traverse community boundaries, or conversely, to target different communities separately, can also facilitate the spread and adoption of educational and community outreach efforts, including those initiated by several educational institutions in Second Life. The research will directly feed into network and data analysis courses taught by the principal investigator as part of two new social computing and information retrieval Masters of Information Science specializations. It will add to a collection of online data sets, analysis tools, and tutorials already shared by the principal investigator for educational and research purposes. Some of the online tutorials will be adapted as interactive exhibits in Second Life. To educate an even younger audience, one or more Discovery Carts on the topic of social networks will be developed in collaboration with the Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum, which will become part of the museum's outreach.
