Abstract
This study analyzes friendships in online social networks involving geographic distance with a geo-referenced Twitter dataset, which provides the exact distance between corresponding users. We start by introducing a strong definition of "friend" on Twitter, requiring bidirectional communication. Next, by utilizing geo-tagged mentions delivered by users to determine their locations, we introduce a two-stage distance estimation algorithm. As our main contribution, our study provides the following newly-discovered friendship degree related to the issue of space: The number of friends according to distance follows a double power-law (i.e., a double Pareto law) distribution, indicating that the probability of befriending a particular Twitter user is significantly reduced beyond a certain geographic distance between users, termed the separation point. Our analysis provides much more fine-grained social ties in space, compared to the conventional results showing a homogeneous power-law with distance.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 23rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2015 |
Editors | Yan Huang, Mohamed Ali, Jagan Sankaranarayanan, Matthias Renz, Michael Gertz |
Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450339674 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 Nov 3 |
Event | 23rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2015 - Seattle, United States Duration: 2015 Nov 3 → 2015 Nov 6 |
Publication series
Name | GIS: Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems |
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Volume | 03-06-November-2015 |
Conference
Conference | 23rd ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2015 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Seattle |
Period | 15/11/3 → 15/11/6 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 ACM.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Earth-Surface Processes
- Computer Science Applications
- Modelling and Simulation
- Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
- Information Systems