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This paper examines the effect of a social network on prediction markets using a controlled laboratory experiment that allows us to identify causal relationships between a social network and the performance of an individual participant, as well as the performance of the prediction market as a whole. Through a randomized experiment, we first confirm the theoretical predictions that participants with more social connections are less likely to invest in information acquisition from outside information sources, but perform significantly better than other participants in prediction markets. We further show that when the cost of information acquisition is low, a social network-embedded prediction market outperforms a nonnetworked prediction market. We find strong support for peer effects in prediction accuracy among participants. These results have direct managerial implications for the business practice of prediction markets and are critical to understanding how to use social networks to improve the performance of prediction markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been stellar growth of location-based/enabled social networks in which people can "check in" to physical venues they are visiting and share with friends. In this paper, we hypothesize that the "check-ins" made by friends help users learn the potential payoff of visiting a venue. We argue that this learning-in-a-network process differs from the classic observational learning model in a subtle yet important way: Rather than from anonymous others, the agents learn from their network friends, about whose tastes in experience goods the agents are better informed. The empirical analyses are conducted on a unique data set in which we observe both the explicit interpersonal relationships and their ensuing check-ins. The key result is that the proportion of checked-in friends is not positively associated with the likelihood of a new visit, rejecting the prediction of the conventional observational learning model. Drawing on the literature in sociology and computer science, we show that weighting the friends' check-ins by a parsimonious proximity measure can yield a more intuitive result than the plain proportion does. Repeated check-ins by friends are found to have a pronounced effect. Our empirical result calls for the revisiting of observational learning in a social network setting. It also suggests that practitioners should incorporate network proximity when designing social recommendation products and conducting promotional campaigns in a social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online social networks (OSNs), comprised of varying types of relations among actors that interact through social technologies, are widespread in today's media environment. However, questions remain whether we are moving towards convergence within the sub-disciplines of communication and with other disciplines in OSN research. This article pursues two interrelated goals. First, it performs a bibliometric analysis of existing scholarship on OSNs in the past 20 years, highlighting both the convergence and divergence of inquiry on OSNs in computer-mediated communication (CMC) research. Second, based on the results of the bibliometric analysis, it articulates an agenda for future CMC research. Specifically, we advocate for a social network approach that will bridge various theoretical frameworks and disciplinary/sub-disciplinary boundaries, for employing the communication network taxonomy, for greater effort to integrate traditional and computational approaches within and beyond social network analysis, and for addressing a greater diversity of institutional contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the use of social media in corporate customer relations and marketing. The creation and management of so-called virtual communities, online social networks created by companies for consumers, is discussed. A three-stage plan through which management can successfully engage with consumers through such an online social network is presented. This involves research on consumer needs and motivations related to their participation, promotion of participation in the network by consumers and motivating cooperation within the network with the company's aims.

We study users behavior in online social networks (OSN) as a means to preserve privacy. People widely use OSN for a variety of objectives and fields. Each OSN has different characteristics, requirements, and vulnerabilities of the private data shared. Sharing-habits refers to users' patterns of sharing information. Sharing-habits are implied by the communication between users and their peers. While social networks allow users to have some control over the dissemination of their information, most users are not aware that the private information they share might leak to users with whom they do not wish to share it. In this paper we address the growing need of social network users to share information with close fiends while hiding it from others. We apply several different well-known strategies from graph-flow theory to an OSN graph with sharing-habits insights, to control the information flow among OSN users. The goal of the method we present is to allow maximum information sharing while enforcing a user's pre-defined privacy criteria. Our method is evaluated using real data from well known social networks and the results are analyzed in terms of accuracy and run-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The directionality is a significant but inherent property of social ties, though usually ignored in undirected social networks due to its invisibility. However, we believe most social ties are natively directed, and the perception of directionality can improve our understanding about the network structures and further benefit other tasks upon social networks. In this study, we address the latent tie direction inference problem in undirected social networks. We engage in the investigation of directionality on real-world large-scale directed social networks and summarize our findings using four patterns. Upon that we propose a family of ReDirect approaches, including ReDirect-N, ReDirect-T and ReDirect-One, to inferring the hidden directions of undirected social ties based on the network topology only. ReDirect can incorporate with other predictive tasks, and introduce supervision to improve performance. We also present a simple but effective strategy to construct self-labeled data. Experimental results show that even without external information, our approach can recover the directions of networks effectively. Moreover, we find the ReDirect approaches can benefit the predictive tasks remarkably in an experimental study on link prediction. The ReDirect family can be a beneficial general data preprocess tool for various network analysis tasks by uncovering the hidden directions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – Creative performance relies on the capability of developing and presenting an original concept or idea, and the collaborative production of creative content which enhances feeling of connection with others and formation of strong community. The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of work performance containing four dimensions (capacity, opportunities, willingness, and performance) to investigate how the capabilities of social network sites enhance user creative performance through collective social capital and information capital (opportunities) for and individual habit of use (willingness) of the user to engage in social learning process. Design/methodology/approach – Many measurement items are adapted from the literature, except those measuring the constructs of social media capabilities (i.e. transmission velocity (TV), parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reprocessability) and user creative performance. The study uses survey method to collect data from social media network (SMN) users in Taiwan. Facebook is chosen as the source because it is the most prevalent and sophisticated social media platform that provides a home for users to interact and communicate. Structural equation modeling with partial least square is used to analyze the usable data collected from 533 Facebook users. Findings – The results show that the constructs are significantly and positively correlated, meaning that social media capabilities enable social capital, information capital, and habit of use to improve user creative performance in SMNs. Three out of five social media capabilities (i.e. TV, parallelism, and rehearsability) are identified as the key enablers. Research limitations/implications – Because of the sampled surveyed subjects and the single research method, there are some limitations in this study. The research results may lack generalizability that should be taken into account when they are interpreted. The authors encourage researchers to test the proposed theoretical model further with additional subjects, variables, and linkages. Practical implications – The findings of this research shed light for managers of SMN platforms on how to manage the platforms more effectively. A healthy SMN platform must implement at least these three media capabilities: the functions of news feed (i.e. TV), chat (i.e. parallelism), edit (i.e. rehearsability), in order to sustain its service. Social implications – This study confirmed that user creative performance can be increased in various ways through social capital, information capital, and habit of use. Company management should use SMNs (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) to enable employees to interact and exchange ideas and promote “coopetition” among employees across the company. If the organizational culture supports free expression of ideas and sharing of opinions, the development and robustness of group creativity can be enhanced, leading to higher competitive advantage for a company against its competitors. Originality/value – Past studies related to individual creativity have mostly discussed it as a personality trait or talent; yet, personality trait or talent is implicit until it is shown by one’s behavior. Thus, for the collective performance of user creativity on SMNs, the authors elicit individual creativity through the creative performance manifested by user behavior. Furthermore, the authors confirm that social capital, information capital, and habit of use are the critical antecedents of user creative performance, and that the five social media capabilities are the enablers of social capital, information capital, and habit of use on SMNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advancement of technology, writing in English is no longer confined to the classroom as nowadays students are exposed to various forms of writing on the Internet. Specifically with Generation Y in mind, online writing is a new method that needs to be implemented to enhance Malaysian students’ writing skills. This article aims at identifying what motivates English as a Second Language students to write in English on Facebook. Ten Chinese-speaking students from a private urban school were selected for this study. These students had just started secondary education after being educated in Chinese-vernacular elementary schools for six years. The students were required to participate in an ongoing discussion on their Facebook class page in order to complete a writing task. Data for this study comprised both online discussions and interviews. The findings suggest that peer influence and school surroundings motivated the students to write better in English on Facebook. The findings also imply that the use of technology in writing tasks made students write better in English owing to the exchanges of feedback and ideas that took place through this social networking site. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates cache placement on a cooperative cache built from individual client caches in an online social network or web service. We use a service that maintains a mapping between content and the clients that cache it, and propose cache placement schemes that leverage relationships between clients (for example, social links) and workload statistics, proactively placing content on clients that are likely to access it. We evaluate efficacy through simulation, comparing our schemes against commonly used cache placement algorithms as well as optimal placement. We synthesize a workload to match characteristics of online social networks. Simulation results of our proposed caching schemes impose moderate network overhead and show considerable improvement to the client's cache hit ratio, even under churn. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Organizations increasingly rely on corporate social networks and online communities, under what is called today Enterprise 2.0, to enhance socialization and favor information/knowledge sharing, collaboration and value creation among coworkers. Researchers and practitioners to date have mostly assumed that people from this generation Y, because of their massive use of social media in the private arena, would be willing to accept and use them more easily and quickly in corporate environment. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical work which has been reported on this issue confirming this assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of social networks is that they can influence people's public opinions and group behaviors form quickly. Negative group behavior influences societal stability significantly, but existing behavior-induction approaches are too simple and inefficient. To automatically and efficiently induct behavior in social networks, this article introduces trust agents and designs their features according to group behavior features. In addition, a dynamics control mechanism can be generated to coordinate participant behaviors in social networks to avoid a specific restricted negative group behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how users in an anonymous virtual environment react to an offer to trade in access to their social network profile. Design/methodology/approach – The experiment was conducted in Second Life (SL). Participants were offered varied sums of money in exchange for access to their Facebook profile, effectively undermining their anonymity. Findings – Even in an anonymous environment, money plays a role in users’ decisions to disclose their offline identity, but a closer look at the findings reveals that users also use deception to enjoy the benefits of the offer without paying the costs. The results illustrate three types of users according to the strategies they employ: abstainers, traders, and deceivers. Research limitations/implications – The implications to the field of online information disclosure lie at the ability to illustrate and distinguish between the different strategies users choose with regard to online information disclosure, as the study design simulates a common information disclosure trade offer in online environments. Originality/value – Unlike previous studies that focussed on trades with specific pieces of information, this study examines willingness to sell access to a user’s entire profile, by thus better simulating online services conduct. This is also the first privacy experiment conducted in the anonymous environment of SL, and the first to study deception as a privacy protection strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interaction through online social networks potentially results in the contestation of prevailing ideas about health and health care, and to mass protest where health is put at risk or health care provision is wanting. Through a review of the academic literature and case studies of four social networking health sites (PatientsLikeMe, Mumsnet, Treatment Action Campaign, and My Pro Ana), we establish the extent to which this phenomenon is documented, seek evidence of the prevalence and character of health-related networks, and explore their structure, function, participants, and impact, seeking to understand how they came into being and how they sustain themselves. Results indicate mass protest is not arising from these established health-related networking platforms. There is evidence of changes in policy following campaigning activity prompted by experiences shared through social networking such as improved National Health Service care for miscarriage (a Mumsnet campaign). Platform owners and managers have considerable power to shape these campaigns. Social networking is also influencing health policy indirectly through increasing awareness and so demand for health care. Transient social networking about health on platforms such as Twitter were not included as case studies but may be where the most radical or destabilizing influence on health care policy might arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the use of social networking sites among the scientists of Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE). A total of 153 scientists are working in the various institutions coming under KSCSTE. Questionnaire method was used for collecting the data. More than half of the scientists are aware of scientific article sharing, presentation sharing, blogging, image and video sharing. Maximum numbers of respondents are aware of Academia and Research Gate. Other science social media that are aware to scientists are Lab Meeting, Nature Network, Science 2.0 and Social M D. The ability to communicate internationally is the major benefit of social networking. Lack of time, problem of authority and trust, technology factor, unsure about moral right or copyright and slow internet speed are barriers faced in accessing social media. All the respondents depend on social media to identify research opportunities. Scientists use social media in the following phases of research such as secure support, review the literature, collect the research data, analyze the research data and manage the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by the resource-based view, this study draws on customer relationship management (CRM) and value co-creation literature to develop a framework examining the impact of social networking sites on processes to manage customer relationships. Facilitating the depth and networked interactions necessary to truly engage customers, social networking sites act as a means of enhancing customer relationships through the co-creation of value, moving CRM into a social context. Tested and validated on a data set of hotels, the main contribution of the study to service research lies in the extension of CRM processes, termed relational information processes, to include value co-creation processes due to the social capabilities afforded by social networking sites. Information technology competency and social media orientation act as critical antecedents to these processes, which have a positive impact on both financial and non-financial aspects of firm performance. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social network services (SNSs) provide the functions for both the management of social networks and information diffusion. We considered SNS networks as the networks that embrace both the strong links formed through the making-relationship function and the weak links formed through the sharing function. For identifying the structural role of each link, we constructed the SNS networks using Twitter data and analysed them focusing not on nodes but on links of the networks at a component level and at an ego-network level. More than 200,000 tweets were randomly sampled through the streaming API of Twitter. As a result, we found that weak links formed through the sharing function play a more important role in maintaining the range of information diffusion and provide more structural advantage in acquiring and controlling information than the strong links formed through the making-relationship function. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Today, OSNs (online social networks) have become a popular communication platform, and a wide range of applications are considered for them. One fundamental relationship among members of a social network is friendship. Friend matching is a reasonable way to suggest people to each other. In this paper, we propose a model for measuring the similarities of two members based on information contained in their profiles. Unlike other profile-matching models, we do not assign equal weights to different items in users’ profiles to measure their similarity. In the first phase of the proposed scheme, we develop a mining model to discover the actual degree of influence of different factors that affect the formation of friendships. We extract this information from a real online social network. Then, based on the analysis results of this large dataset, matching and recommender systems are designed. The experimental results are encouraging and show that the proposed model significantly outperforms its counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Online social networks have recently become an innovative and effective method for spreading information among people around the world. Information diffusion, rumour spreading and diseases infection are all instances of stochastic processes that occur over the edges of social networks. Many prior works have carried out empirical studies and diffusion models to understand how information propagates in online social networks; however they suffer from problems. In this paper, we propose an information diffusion model inspired by information propagation among people. Our proposed Social Behavioural Information Diffusion Model, abbreviated as SBIDM, considers the effect of mainstream media like TV and radio, as well as interaction with the neighbours. The advantages of our approach are four-fold. First, it models information diffusion in social networks inspired by social life, which considers the effect of aggregate social behaviour to diffuse information; second, it allows partial knowledge to be held in each individual; third, it considers the effects of social media in propagating information as well as the effects of interacting with neighbours; and last but not least, it is applicable to different types of data including synthetic and well-known real social networks like Facebook, Amazon, Epinions and DBLP. To explore the advantages of our approach, many experiments with different settings and specifications were conducted. The obtained results are very promising. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of dedication- and constraint-based mechanisms on users' post-adoption behavior in the social networking site (SNS) context. Design/methodology/approach -- The proposed framework uses user satisfaction and trust belief to capture the dedication-based mechanism and perceived switching costs and social norms to capture the constraint-based mechanism. Hypotheses were tested by applying partial least squares to data from 250 experienced Facebook users. A structural equation modeling was used to test the validity of the proposed research models. Findings -- The analysis results show that SNS users' continuance intention is jointly affected by two distinctive mechanisms: a dedication-based one and a constraint-based one, the former playing a more critical role. The findings indicate that both perceived relative benefits and perceived enjoyment significantly influence user satisfaction. Learning and network size were found to be the key predictors of perceived switching costs. Research limitations/implications -- This study applies the dedication- and constraint-based models by incorporating numerous sets of antecedents. The framework provides a theoretical lens of how two distinctive mechanisms influence SNS users' post-adoption behaviors. Practical implications -- The analysis results provide several insights that can aid SNS providers understand SNS users post-adoption behaviors. Moreover, the findings will help SNS providers effectively facilitate dedication- and constraint-based mechanisms by enhancing the key antecedents of two distinctive mechanisms. Originality/value -- SNSs have become an important component of individuals lives. However, few systematic works investigate the fundamental mechanisms leading to SNS users' continued usage. In an attempt to extend the horizons of SNS research, this study incorporates a set of antecedents to dedication- and constraint-based models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper first explores the factors that affect the use of social networks to enhance teaching and learning experiences among students and lecturers, using structured questionnaires prepared based on the Push–Pull–Mooring framework. A total of 455 students and lecturers from higher learning institutions in Malaysia participated in this study. Multiple linear regressions revealed five factors: E-Learning Perception, Academic Reasons, Ease of Use, Convenience and Social Networking to be positively associated with Teaching and Learning Benefits obtained from the use of social networks. These factors were then used to develop Book2U – a social e-learning tool which integrates the popular features of social networks. User testing revealed Book2U was well received by the majority of the respondents. It is believed that teaching and learning activities in educational sectors can be improved by using social network and e-learning-integrated tools, such as Book2U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web applications for social networks with similar objectives are now being used on the web by thousands of people. Concepts such as 'scraps', 'virtual friends', 'communities' and 'groups' are increasingly common among users of these applications. Nowadays, people use social networks as a medium to replicate on the web the kind of social activities they would carry out in the real world. However, in real life, people do not just interact with people, they also interact with refrigerators, microwaves, TVs, cars, cell phones, and the like. But in spite of it all, applications for social networks on the web have yet to successfully reproduce this kind of relationship. And so, this article will present an architecture and prototype for the integration of physical devices through the web of things in a social network, where users and devices interact in a similar fashion to how users interact in social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media communication is characterized by reduced anonymity and off-to-online social interactions. These characteristics require scholars to revisit social influence mechanisms online. The current study builds on social influence literature to explore social network and gender effects on online behavior. Findings from a quasi-experiment suggest that both network-related variables and gender are significantly associated with online behavior. Perceived social environment, measured by personal network exposure rate, is more significant than objective reality, measured by frequency of received social messages, in determining behavior. We discuss the implications of social contagion effects on web-based strategic communication—including advertising, political campaigns, and social mobilization. Data limitations and the difficulty of measuring social network influence via social media are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analyzed a discrete sample of the most frequent contributors to the journal El professional information (EPI) for the period 2009-2013. We studied the presence of these authors in social networks and the impact of their EPI publications indexed in Web of Science using different altmetrics. The results showed that 77% had a public profile on Google Scholar Profiles and 70% had an account on both LinkedIn and Mendeley. This platform has served as the tool with higher statistics and obtained the highest correlation with the number of citations in Web of Science (0.516). Other networks were Twitter (55%) and Slideshare (47%); despite its lower presence in the sample, Slideshare offers users higher visibility, receiving the highest number of user hits. We also present detailed altmetrics for 47 EPI authors, ending with a reflection on the difficulty of analysing altmetrics at author level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the analysis of the role that social networks play in civic, social mobilization and solidarity of Spanish young people, considering whether social networks are responsible for active social commitment offline or if they just intensify an existing or previous tendency towards social participation. This research was undertaken by online questionnaire --Likert scale and multiple choice questions-- in collaboration with the Spanish social network Tuenti where more than 1,300 young people took part. The results show significant percentages of participation exclusively online although there were more than 80% of young people, in a way or another, involved in actions to which they were called by social networks. The study analyzes the forms of participation in solidarity actions and the influence of factors such as geographical, social or emotional proximity to causes on the degree of participation online and offline. The article shows that social networks have changed the meaning of participation. They are encouraging young people who were mobilized only in social networks, to take action, so it proposes in its conclusions the need to overcome the dichotomy that opposes online and offline activism and passivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study investigates how group awareness support and argumentation scripts influence learning in social networking sites like Facebook, which may be conducive to informal learning, but often lacks argumentative quality. Supporting participants' group awareness about the visibility of the arguments they construct and about prospective future debate with peers in order to promote argument quality may be particularly suited for learning in Social Networking Sites. Additional argumentation scripts may directly foster argumentative knowledge construction. In a 2 × 2 study (N = 81), we isolated and investigated the effects of group awareness support and argumentation scripts during individual preparation in a Facebook app on domain and argumentative knowledge. Our results reveal that group awareness support of upcoming argumentative processes can be counterproductive for learning in Social Networking Sites. Argumentation scripts in Facebook may remedy possible negative effects of such awareness. Process analysis showed that group awareness support promotes individual argument elaboration but reduces broad analysis of the domain. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper attempts to present a review of Facebook group pages as an educational tool for language learning. One of the primary needs of foreign language learners is to gain the opportunity to use the target language outside the classroom practice. Social media communication provides occasions for learners to receive input and produce output while engaging in negotiation of meaning. In line with this point, teachers can instigate class group pages in the social media in an attempt to provide a space for practice and communication free of the traditional pedagogic concerns of a typical classroom. The distinctive discursive behaviour of Facebook group pages helps one to achieve that attempt. In light of these views, the researcher, in this study, formed a group page to understand the dynamics of social media environment as a supporting tool for language classrooms. This paper addresses various features which make social media a unique place to contribute to the sense of class community and collaboration outside the classroom. The face-to face classroom is a controlled communication event, that is, teachers and students are required to be in the classroom at the same time but a teacher's use of Facebook is an attempt to communicate with students outside of that controlled environment where teachers can meet students in their territory. When compared to its disadvantages, the advantages of setting a class group page on the social media outweigh. Students can feel motivated to contribute to an online community if they subsequently receive support or help. It also leads students to feel that they are being supported by a whole portion of their class community and promotes students' desire to maintain a valued relationship with others. Students continue developing and strengthening relationships with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information sharing between online users has altered the way we seek and find information. Users have at their disposal a wide range of tools for exchanging opinions and engaging in discussions. This creates a vast amount of information and the need for a more strict structure and semantics in order to take full advantage of the information and automatically extract useful conclusions to support decision-making. In this paper we describe a framework, based on computational argumentation, for modeling and analysing social discussions, and demonstrate a question-and-answer web application, based on this framework, offering debating infrastructure for opinion exchanges between users and providing support for extracting intelligent answers to user-posed questions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose – It has been suggested that the future success of non-profit organizations lies in ensuring the sustainable involvement of the Millennial generation through social network sites. Facebook is a social media (SM) network that creates new research contexts and methodologies in service management. Organizations must now engage in learning how customer-with-customer interactions in SM could work best for them. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the factors influencing Millennials support for social causes through their autonomous engagement in the public environment of SM. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted two studies of events for social causes (breast cancer and youth homelessness). In each, two Facebook event pages appealing to others-benefits and self-benefits were designed. Participants were randomly assigned the task of examining the appeal pages online. The dependent variables were two sets of intentions in support of the cause (online and offline). The effectiveness of an others-benefit vs a self-benefit Facebook appeal, the influence of empathetic identification with these causes and the direct and mediating effects of autonomous motivation was studied. Findings – The studies provide consistent evidence that, to gain Millennial's support for social causes through SM, it is better to appeal mainly to the benefits others derive than to benefits to the self. Autonomous motivation is a strong predictor of supportive intentions and it also significantly mediates the positive influence of empathetic identification with a cause. Self-reported behavioral data following the youth homelessness event provided empirical evidence that the supportive intentions data were valid predictors of actual behaviors. Originality/value – The paper used innovative experimental and correlational research methodologies to address Millennial's social behaviors within a SM context. The paper also introduced self-determination theory of motivation to this literature. From a practical standpoint, Millennials readily engage in impression management. Therefore, their supportive activities should be publicly lauded. Managers should also identify those Millennials who already empathize with the cause and facilitate their ability to influence other members in their networks. SM are changing at a fast pace and managers should employ Millennials in developing pertinent strategies and practices to keep pace. Taking advantage of marketing “with” Millennials can facilitate the development of new approaches for creating and supporting cause events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulations of use of social networks, as one of the key components in these networks, serve an important role in controlling the flow of traffic. The study of the harmonization of these terms and regulations can be a significant step to avoid congestion and (Users') rejection in the network. Harmonization of traffic control regulations (TCR) among social networks is one of the best solutions to establish consequent traffic flow out of the network. Depending on the conditions, harmonization can be done in different ways. This article examines the direct pass and indirect pass methods. Node phase differences are key elements for harmonization of social networks considered in this review. To calculate the optimal phasing and appropriate phase difference, first the status of a user in the two social network samples has been analyzed using Gephi software, and then the results have been simulated by charting. In this article, the harmonization of traffic control regulations (TCR) was done based on evaluation of the TCR performance through determining the appropriate phase differences and reference rule and calculating the measurement of Latency (LT) in the main network port. This latency was calculated as the difference of the expected time and real time of connection or login to the network in simulated conditions. The achieved results indicate that in unsaturated conditions using indirect pass method and in saturated conditions, due to rejection of user and inability of network TCR, using indirect pass method is the best choice for harmonization of the TCR among social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the increase of social networks usage, especially Facebook between Iranian users, this research aims to investigate the effect of absorption on continuous usage. 406 questionnaires were gathered from Facebook users and data were analyzed using PLS software. Results showed that cognitive absorption has a positive impact on satisfaction, ease of use and usefulness. Usefulness and users' satisfaction leads to real use. Although, satisfaction and intention to use affect the continuous usage of Facebook, but usefulness and ease of use have no effect on continuous usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of a broader research of the author's Master's Thesis and describes dynamics and values that constitute Rio na Rua's ("Rio on the street") network on Facebook. The page covers frequent popular riots in Rio de Janeiro, since june 2013. Through the description of the constitution and maintenance of the network created by Rio na Rua, we seek to demonstrate that users interaction on the platform is not just a consumption activity of the service offered by Facebook. It also creates a network within the network ecossystem of the platform. Therefore, the interaction is a semiotic and productive work as it is an essencial task on producing signs which are sold by Facebook as keywords to advertisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networking sites (SNSs) and virtual communities (VCs) are popular online social media having similarities and differences. The paper investigated the difference in motivations and in the relationships from motivations to continuance intention between active users of SNSs and VCs. The results show that while connecting with old friends, meeting new people, seeking information, seeking entertainment, and seeking social support are significant motivations of both communities’ active users, active users of SNSs rate higher motivation to connect with old friends than VCs; seeking information and social support motivations have the same effect on the continuance intention of the both communities’ active users through attitude; connecting with old friends and meeting new people motivations have obvious different effects on continuance intention through attitude between the two communities’ active users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this work we present an in-depth analysis of the user behaviors on different Social Sharing systems. We consider three popular platforms, Flickr, Delicious and StumbleUpon, and, by combining techniques from social network analysis with techniques from semantic analysis, we characterize the tagging behavior as well as the tendency to create friendship relationships of the users of these platforms. The aim of our investigation is to see if (and how) the features and goals of a given Social Sharing system reflect on the behavior of its users and, moreover, if there exists a correlation between the social and tagging behavior of the users. We report our findings in terms of the characteristics of user profiles according to three different dimensions: (i) intensity of user activities, (ii) tag-based characteristics of user profiles, and (iii) semantic characteristics of user profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the explosion of social networking and the information sharing among their users, the interest in analyzing social networks has increased over the recent years. Two general interests in this kind of studies are community detection and visualization. In the first case, most of the classic algorithms for community detection use only the structural information to identify groups, that is, how clusters are formed according to the topology of the relationships. However, these methods do not take into account any semantic information which could guide the clustering process, and which may add elements to conduct further analyses. In the second case most of the layout algorithms for clustered graphs have been designed to differentiate the groups within the graph, but they are not designed to analyze the interactions between such groups. Identifying these interactions gives an insight into the way different communities exchange messages or information, and allows the social network researcher to identify key actors, roles, and paths from one community to another. This article presents a novel model to use, in a conjoint way, the semantic information from the social network and its structural information to, first, find structurally and semantically related groups of nodes, and second, a layout algorithm for clustered graphs which divides the nodes into two types, one for nodes with edges connecting other communities and another with nodes connecting nodes only within their own community. With this division the visualization tool focuses on the connections between groups facilitating deep studies of augmented social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online social networking sites have become increasingly popular over the last few years. As a result, new interdisciplinary research directions have emerged in which social network analysis methods are applied to networks containing hundreds of millions of users. Unfortunately, links between individuals may be missing either due to an imperfect acquirement process or because they are not yet reflected in the online network (i.e., friends in the real world did not form a virtual connection). The primary bottleneck in link prediction techniques is extracting the structural features required for classifying links. In this article, we propose a set of simple, easy-to-compute structural features that can be analyzed to identify missing links. We show that by using simple structural features, a machine learning classifier can successfully identify missing links, even when applied to a predicament of classifying links between individuals with at least one common friend. We also present a method for calculating the amount of data needed in order to build more accurate classifiers. The new Friends measure and Same community features we developed are shown to be good predictors for missing links. An evaluation experiment was performed on ten large social networks datasets: Academia.edu, DBLP, Facebook, Flickr, Flixster, Google+, Gowalla, TheMarker, Twitter, and YouTube. Our methods can provide social network site operators with the capability of helping users to find known, offline contacts and to discover new friends online. They may also be used for exposing hidden links in online social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of studies have been conducted over a long period of time to better understand how people adopt new products and/or ideas. With recent advancement in social network technologies such as Facebook and Twitter, the interest in better understanding the role of social network effect or social influence on the adoption of an idea has again been brought to the forefront. In this study, we examine the propagation of ideas through a social network and we introduce two network propagation rules to explain the idea propagation under social influence. We then apply the rules to different network models, which include a large-world network, a small-world network, a random network, and local neighbor networks such as a path, a star, and their variations. In terms of social network in our study, we say that if a person has adopted an idea, then the person is infected by the idea. So the main interest of our study is to find the minimum number of initially infected individuals (i.e., early adopters of an idea) to effectively infect the rest of the social network. Furthermore, we give examples of real-world situations in management and the spread of violence, where the proposed propagation analysis can be applied. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, Vol. 63(2), 160-169 2014 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Digital technologies are increasingly directed at improved monitoring, management and treatment of mental health. However, their potential contribution to social networks and self- management support for people diagnosed with a serious mental illness has rarely been considered. This review and meta-synthesis aimed to examine the processes of engagement and perceived relevance and appropriateness of telehealth interventions for people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The review addresses three key questions. How is the use of digital communications technologies framed in the professional psychiatric literature? How might the recognised benefits of telehealth translate to people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia? What is the user perspective concerning Internet information and communication technologies? Methods A critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) of published findings from quantitative and qualitative studies of telehealth interventions for people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Results Most studies were of an exploratory nature. The professional discourse about the use of different technologies was overlain by concerns with surveillance and control, focusing on the Internet as a potential site of risk and danger. The critical synthesis of findings showed that the key focus of the available studies was on the delivery of existing traditional approaches (e.g. improving medications adherence, provision of medical information about the condition, symptom monitoring and cognitive behavioural therapy). Even though it was clear that the Internet has considerable potential in terms of accessing and utilising lay support, the potential of communication technologies in mobilising of resources for personal self-management or peer support was a relatively absent or hidden a focus of the available studies. Conclusions Based on an interpretive synthesis of available studies, people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychosis use the Internet primarily for the purposes of disclosure and information gathering. Empowerment, regulation and surveillance emerged as the key dimensions of engagement (or not) with telehealth interventions. The findings suggest that telehealth interventions are disproportionately used by particular patient groups (e.g.women, people who are employed). Further research needs to ascertain the mechanisms by which telehealth interventions may be potentially beneficial or harmful for engagement and management to people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyzes the power of the Internet and social networks in the Arab uprisings. We are interested in learning about the contribution of communication technology in low advanced societies in conflict situations and the value of the network as a link between young people who supported the changes from abroad and those who were directly involved in protests. On the importance of technology as a virtual communication tool we have conducted a series of online interviews with 30 young people from Tunisia, Egypt and Libya living in Barcelona, Madrid and Santiago de Compostela during the development of the conflicts and who were involved in the Arab Spring though the network. The research findings in this study prove that virtual support for uprisings were not based on coordinated actions, and that it was simply a confluence of similar acts coinciding in time and on the same platforms. The Internet and social networks served as elements for supporting the process and as a counter-balance to official censorship and to government-supportive media, and were useful for overcoming the isolation of Arab society, in order to make the conflicts visible and to attract relevant support from abroad. But it also showed that the network had constraints in the face of the consolidated propaganda infrastructure which existed in each country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to study in depth the changes taking place in the habits of adolescents using online communication, particularly due to the dramatic arrival of social networks in their daily lives, and the sociocultural implications of these processes. The research methodology focuses on a self-administered questionnaire applied nationally. Based on the results of a survey of a representative national sample of 2,077 adolescents (12 to 17-year-olds), this study has sought to update the information about online practices among Spanish adolescents, specifically with regard to the remarkable development of social networks. Similarly, the behavior of both regular users of social networks and of non-regular users has been compared, with the aim of detecting the influence of social network use on general online life, and we have considered the following variables: gender, age, funding type of the educational establishment and social class. Among the main conclusions of the study, we emphasize a more intensive use of the Internet as regards time and activities by those who are more frequent users of social networks, and especially the activities they carry out to keep in touch and share content with their equals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the «black holes» of academic research in Communication is the shallowness of reflections on the classic origins of Communication, its aims and points of entry. In this respect, the study of communicative processes on the Internet becomes particularly relevant (specifically the social networks processes) when observed from the classic rhetorical perspective. We focus on the use of persuasion strategies (ethos, pathos, logos) as well as the abundant use of rhetorical figures. Such parameters, along with the resources that emergent technologies offer, unleash creativity and afford humanist aspects to network communication. These give on-line platforms an extremely persuasive strength. Thus, we may speak of the network user of the 21st century as the new «Rhetorician». Our research on Facebook addresses the presence of rhetoric in online social network communication: the user of these platforms applies communicative strategies described by the Rhetoricians dating back to Greco-Roman antiquity. The methodology in this work (the study of three typified cases and the content analysis of conversations generated on Facebook walls) allows us to intertwine rhetoric and communication today, mediated by the emergence of online networks. We propose the retrieval of certain parameters of deep, critical thought to the benefit of a more human communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Highlights: [•] We looked at people’s use of Facebook to seek health-related social support. [•] Overall, about 40% had sought health-related support from others on Facebook. [•] People with health concerns had sought support from others on Facebook more often. [•] Emotional support was perceived more often than other supports on Facebook. [•] Emotional support was positively related to health self-efficacy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT Licensing is the defining characteristic of open source software (OSS) and often has tremendous impact on the success of OSS projects. However, OSS licenses are very different from those for proprietary software, and our understanding of the choice of OSS licenses is very limited. In this study, we explore this important decision from a learning perspective. We build collaboration networks and trace paths through which potential learning and knowledge flow across projects using a dataset derived from SourceForge. We identify that both experiential learning and vicarious learning have significant influence on OSS license choice. We provide reasons why experiential learning and vicarious learning affect decision-making regarding OSS license choice, and explore important contingencies under which the two modes of learning are more effective. We find that leadership roles on prior projects and similarities between projects significantly moderate these two modes of learning, respectively. More importantly, we argue and empirically illustrate that experiential learning is more effective than vicarious learning in influencing OSS license choice. Our research sheds new light on our understanding of license choice for OSS projects and provides practical guidelines for future OSS development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the drivers of the emergence of opinion leaders in a networked community where users establish links to others, indicating their "trust" for the link receiver's opinion. This leads to the formation of a network, with high in-degree individuals being the opinion leaders. We use a dyad-level proportional hazard model with time-varying covariates to model the growth of this network. To estimate our model, we use Weighted Exogenous Sampling with Bayesian Inference, a methodology that we develop for fast estimation of dyadic models on large network data sets. We find that, in the Epinions network, both the widely studied "preferential attachment" effect based on the existing number of inlinks (i.e., a network-based property of a node) and the number and quality of reviews written (i.e., an intrinsic property of a node) are significant drivers of new incoming trust links to a reviewer (i.e., inlinks to a node). Interestingly, we find that time is an important moderator of these effects-intrinsic node characteristics are a stronger short-term driver of additional inlinks, whereas the preferential attachment effect has a smaller impact but it persists for a longer time. Our novel insights have important managerial implications for the design of online review communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whanaungatanga (attaining and maintaining relationships) as a concept is a customary Mōori practice enabling kin to strengthen relationships and ties between one another and entrench responsibilities as whōnau (family). Increased use of Internet and social networking sites (SNSs) by Mōori is providing alternative methods for forging and maintaining relationships making this process more accessible for kin and those who do not have genealogical connections but are linked through a common purpose to share, engage and interact with each other. Whanaungatanga is thereby shifting in its sphere of application from physical to virtual spaces, in ways that influence the dynamics, relevance and impacts of its practice. This paper discusses the concept of whanaungatanga from both customary and contemporary perspectives providing analyses into how relationships are attained and maintained through SNSs. Data findings showed that the virtual form of whanaungatanga (that which remained rooted in the underlying principles of face-to-face whanaungatanga) enabled Mōori to (re)connect to existing and new family members, friends, marae (main gathering places), hapũ (sub-tribes) and iwi (tribes) in less formal ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]