Rethinking Social Networks

How can we use this idea to think about the evolution of social networks over time, and how they are influenced.?   We talked the implications of networks with SFI very early on, and did substantial experiments as a result.

Rethinking Social Networks 
Carnegie Mellon University   By Daniel Carroll

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have developed a way to show how social networks change and develop over time. The core of the Weighted Betweenness Preferential Attachment (WBPA) model focuses on the notion of "node betweenness," a quality of being between communities, while previous models have centered on the amount of connections that an individual has. The researchers found node betweenness is actually a greater attractor and driver for the formation of social ties than node degree or other measures of centrality. Instead of examining only the amount of connections a single node has, WBPA places more emphasis on community formation and the quality of node connections. CMU's Radu Marculescu says, "The new model builds on the idea that humans are better at observing qualitative aspects than quantitative ones, which is why people typically favor investing in fewer qualitative social ties rather than numerous lower quality ties."  ... "