The role of linker superusers in catalyzing online network evolution

December 13, 2013 Sorin Adam Matei

Computer feestje (Photo credit: arneheijenga)

An older study by Kumar et al. looking at Flickr and Yahoo 360 noticed not only the typical 80/20 distribution of connections, but also the social importance of the people in the top 20%. These individuals are the “linkers,” the ones that make the network stick together in the long run.

http://matei.org/url/kumarstructurenetworks

Sorin Adam Matei

Assistant Vice President for Partnerships in Strategic Defense Innnovation and Professor of Communication at Purdue University, Director of the FORCES initiative leads research teams that study the relationship between technological and social systems using big data, simulation, and mapping approaches. He published papers and articles in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Information Society, National Interest, and Foreign Policy. He is the author or co-editor of several books. The most recent is Structural differentation in social media. He also co-edited Ethical Reasoning in Big Data,Transparency in social media and Roles, Trust, and Reputation in Social Media Knowledge Markets: Theory and Methods (Computational Social Sciences) , all three the product of the NSF funded KredibleNet project. Dr. Matei's teaching portfolio includes technology and strategy, online interaction, and digital media analytics classes. A former BBC World Service journalist, his contributions have been published in Esquire and several leading Romanian newspapers. In Romania, he is known for his books Boierii Mintii (The Mind Boyars), Idolii forului (Idols of the forum), and Idei de schimb (Spare ideas).

Sorin Adam Matei

You May Also Like

Android Phones Outselling iPhone, BlackBerry – NYTimes.com

A Programmer Explains Why Android Apps Are Ugly | MIT Technology Review

When DSK (Dominique Strauss Kahn) Met Michelle (Obama)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply