Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5.2
A retweet network containing nodes from the topics “#zuccotti” (Light) and “#nypd”
(Dark)
Adding context to the network:
The network in Fig.
5.2
describes the
relationship between nodes, but does not provide sufficient. Here, Tweets can help
in further investigation of the role of the user in the event. They can also be used
to identify parts of the network, which were instrumental in propagating relevant
information. This is relevant in applications such as marketing, where a customer
would be interested in maximizing the spread of a message at minimum cost.
Figure
5.3
shows the information panel created when the largest node in Fig.
5.2
is clicked. The panel shows the users who retweeted his Tweet. Each unique retweet
is identified by a color and the aggregation of the number of retweets for each unique
Tweet is presented in the form of a pie chart on the bottom of the panel highlighting
the most retweeted Tweets.
5.1.2
Friend-Follower Networks
A friend-follower network consists of users as nodes and the edges describe
who follows whom
. Each user on Twitter is able to create two types of explicit
relationships with another Twitter user. Suppose we have two users: Alice and Bob.
If Alice starts following Bob, then we say that Alice is a “follower” of Bob. Here, the
decision to initiate the connection is made by Alice. Bob is known as the “friend”
of Alice.
The friends and followers of a user can be extracted directly using the Twitter
REST APIs discussed in Chap.
2
. Applying the force-directed layout would separate
the connected component from the rest of the group.
