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SUMMARY:Information Spreading in Social Networks - Flavio Chierichetti
DTSTART:20120522T123000Z
DTEND:20120522T133000Z
UID:TALK38220@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Microsoft Research Cambridge Talks Admins
DESCRIPTION:The spread of information\, memes\, and news through social ne
 tworks is becoming pivotal for society today. Significant resources are be
 ing invested in online marketing\, which thanks to the growth of online so
 cial networks can now potentially target hundreds of millions of people. S
 till\, our knowledge of the basic mechanisms governing the spread of infor
 mation is very limited. In this talk\, we will discuss some of the work we
  have been doing in this area.\n\nFirst\, we will present a result that al
 lows us to express the time needed for information to spread in terms of a
  network parameter known as conductance. Our result here can be viewed as 
 providing a way to quantify the effect of Granovetter's "weak ties" in fac
 ilitating the diffusion of information. Second\, we will consider the rela
 ted problem of inferring properties of a social network using a limited se
 t of information traces that traversed it. We will show some theoretical r
 esults\, together with the predictions they entail on a chain-letter data 
 set that circulated extensively in the last decade.\n\n(Joint work with Si
 lvio Lattanzi and Alessandro Panconesi\, and with David Liben-Nowell and J
 on Kleinberg.)\n
LOCATION:Cambrigde Computer Lab\, Lecture Theatre 1
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