Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 3
Information Diffusion and Dissipative Effect
on Social Networks
Yuya Dan
3.1
Introduction
Social network analysis (Newman et al.
2006
) has become quite important because
we can not only visualize the structure of online social networks but also perform a
large-scale computation of the phenomena. It has become normal in recent years to
apply the theory of social network analysis to IT enabled Services (ITeS). In this
chapter, we investigate the process of information diffusion and dissipative effect
on social networks through computer simulation (Albert and Barabasi
2002
).
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enables users to share a
variety of information or knowledge anywhere and anytime via the Internet.
Internet-based social networks, such as Bulletin Board System (BBS), Social
Networking Service (SNS), Blogosphere, have in recent years become widely
used as repositories of personal information. They have transformed the means of
information storage, media, and access (Vazquez et al.
2002
).
The speed of information diffusion has become so rapid that we can send
messages to others in several seconds compared to several days or even weeks in
past. Nowadays we can know events and incidents without resorting to mass media
such as Television (TV), radio, newspapers, magazines, and so on. Moreover, people
can not only receive but submit an article to share information on social networks.
On the other hand, we are faced by certain difficulties in the confidentiality of
sensitive information, which could become widely accessible through using the
Internet. Once such information diffuses on the Internet, all users can potentially
learn of the information anywhere and anytime.
Social network analysis has become an important research topic in mathematical
analysis and modeling for its application for social media marketing (Dellarocas
