Events Calendar

AI SEMINAR

Speaker: Peter Fennell, Postdoc at Univ. of Limerick, Ireland

Talk Title: Information diffusion on Twitter: a hazard rates approach

Series: AI Seminar

Abstract: Online social networks provide a digital footprint of the manner in which people interact in their everyday lives. Information diffuses through online social networks as a result of users creating and sharing information, and such diffusions are highly complex because of the nature of individuals and because of the structure of the network that connects them.

In this talk, I will discuss an approach to understanding information diffusion on online social networks, with specific reference to a case study on Twitter. Here, we use hazard rates to quantify how individuals respond to information, and show the non-linear nature of the response of individuals to multiple signals from their peers. Such hazard rates can be implemented in mathematical frameworks for understanding and predictive purposes, allowing us to analyze the information diffusion and its dependence on the structure of the online social network. I will discuss the importance of empirical observations of large social network datasets in constructing mathematical models of information diffusion, and the necessity of such realistic models for both prediction and analysis.


Biography: Peter Fennell is a postdoctoral researcher in the Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics in the University of Limerick, Ireland. Peter's research focuses on diffusive processes on complex networks, and in using probabilistic frameworks to understand such processes and their interplay with the network through which they spread. Recently, Peter has been awarded a James S. McDonnell postdoctoral fellowship to further his research in the area of information diffusion on online social networks. This project will combine extensive empirical examinations of online social networks along with mathematical modeling to gain an understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind information diffusion

Host: Kristina Lerman

Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=336e5bb472104d289de47f5e8ef7331c1d

Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - 1135 - 11th fl Large CR

WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=336e5bb472104d289de47f5e8ef7331c1d

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Alma Nava / Information Sciences Institute