[论文解读] Social Interaction in Flickr: Mechanisms and Role in Link Formation.

Karthik Gopalakrishnan, Arun Pandey+1 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 30, 2015

Complex Network Analysis Techniques参考文献 9被引用 1

一句话总结

本研究将Flickr建模为一个双层时间多层网络，以探究社交互动（特别是点赞）如何驱动链接形成。研究发现，点赞行为遵循优先连接机制，超过50%的点赞在10天内得到回应，且回应速度因点赞类型而异，其中关注者会通过在收到点赞后建立新的关注链接来填补多层三角形。

ABSTRACT

Online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are among the most popular sites on the Web, providing platforms for sharing information and interacting with a large number of people. The different ways for users to interact, such as liking, retweeting and favoriting user-generated content, are among the defining and extremely popular features of these sites. While empirical studies have been done to learn about the network growth processes in these sites, few studies have focused on social interaction behaviour and the effect of social interaction on network growth. In this paper, we analyze large-scale data collected from the Flickr social network to learn about individual favoriting behaviour and examine the occurrence of link formation after a favorite is created. We do this using a systematic formulation of Flickr as a two-layer temporal multiplex network: the first layer describes the follow relationship between users and the second layer describes the social interaction between users in the form of favorite markings to photos uploaded by them. Our investigation reveals that (a) favoriting is well-described by preferential attachment, (b) over 50% of favorites are reciprocated within 10 days if at all they are reciprocated, (c) different kinds of favorites differ in how fast they are reciprocated, and (d) after a favorite is created, multiplex triangles are closed by the creation of follow links by the favoriter's followers to the favorite receiver.

研究动机与目标

• 理解诸如点赞等社交互动如何影响在线社交网络中的网络增长。
• 研究Flickr上点赞行为的时序互惠动态。
• 探究点赞如何触发用户相互联系人之间的新关注链接形成。
• 将Flickr建模为双层时间多层网络，以捕捉关注关系与社交互动事件。

提出的方法

• 将Flickr建模为双层时间多层网络：一层用于关注关系，另一层用于点赞互动。
• 采用系统化方法追踪点赞与关注链接创建事件的时间与顺序。
• 应用优先连接模型分析点赞行为模式。
• 通过计算点赞与其对应回复点赞之间的时间差来测量互惠延迟。
• 通过追踪点赞创建后，点赞者关注者是否随后关注被点赞者，来分析多层三角形的闭合。
• 按类型对点赞进行分类，以比较不同互动类型之间的互惠速度。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 Flickr上的点赞行为是否遵循优先连接机制？
• RQ2 点赞的平均互惠时间是多少？其在不同点赞类型之间有何差异？
• RQ3 在收到点赞后，点赞者的关注者在多大程度上会与被点赞者建立新的关注链接？
• RQ4 通过点赞进行的社交互动在多大程度上促进了网络中新关注链接的形成？

主要发现

• Flickr上的点赞行为很好地符合优先连接机制，表明受欢迎用户会获得更多的点赞。
• 如果发生互惠，超过50%的点赞在10天内得到回应。
• 不同类型的点赞表现出不同的互惠速度，部分形式的互惠显著快于其他形式。
• 在点赞创建后，点赞者的关注者更有可能关注被点赞者，表明多层三角形已被闭合。
• 点赞的创建显著提高了网络中原本未连接的用户之间形成新关注链接的可能性。
• 点赞及其互惠的时序动态表明，社交互动是网络扩展的催化剂。