Modeling – Diffusion of Social Media in Social Networks: Envisioning Crises and Political Issues

Pre-conference Workshop (March 12) at International Conference on Location-based Social Media Data

March 13-14, 2015, Athens, Georgia, USA

http://research.franklin.uga.edu/iclsm/content/pre-conference-workshops

New insight into the dynamics of social systems can not only help to verify the existing social behavioral theories but also contribute to problem solving in the range of areas vital for the current mobile and data-rich age. Growing evidence has witnessed the interconnected spatial patterns and relationships between cyberspace and our real world. A large number of socioeconomic and human behavior datasets can be easily collected using mobile technology and social media platforms. Coupling spatial and behavioral science research can provide effective and efficient ways to visualize and analyze these big data collected for social behavioral research. A Pre-conference Workshop (March 12) around the theme of Spatiotemporal Modeling and Analytic Tools for Geo-targeted Social Media Data will be organized at International Conference on Location-based Social Media Data (March 13-14, 2015, Athens, Georgia, USA).

This workshop will focus on the introduction of several research tools for spatiotemporal modeling and analytics of geo-targeted social media data, such as information diffusion modeling over time and space, the connection between online activities and real world human behaviors, and new knowledge discovery tools or machine learning functions. This workshop is one of the outreach activities for the NSF-IBSS (Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Science Research) project, entitled “IBSS: Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Dynamics across Social Media and Social Networks” (2014-2018, Award # 1416509).

This workshop plans to focus on the development of methods on this collaborative, interdisciplinary frontier. Sample topics include:

Interactions between Activities in Physical and Virtual Spaces
Social Network Analysis
Social Media Analytics
Space-time Data Models for Studying Human Dynamics
Spatial Agent-Based Models of Human-Environment Interactions
Uncovering Human Dynamics Hidden in Different Kinds of Tracking Data
Visualization and Computation of Big Event Data
Digital Divide and Sampling Issue in Human Dynamics Research
Spatiotemporal Diffusion of Innovation and Ideas

Email Xinyue Ye (xye5@kent.edu) or Ming-Hsiang Tsou (mtsou@mail.sdsu.edu) the paper or abstract to be included in our workshop. Following the peer-review process, highest quality research papers will be considered for publication in a special issue and possibly an edited book.

Important Dates

Dec. 20, 2014: Full papers due
Jan. 15, 2015: Extended abstracts due
Jan. 30, 2015: Notification of paper acceptance
Mar. 12, 2015: Workshop
Mar. 13-14, 2015: Conference

Organizers

Xinyue Ye (xye5@kent.edu)

Computational Social Science Lab
& Department of Geography,
Kent State University

Ming-Hsiang Tsou (mtsou@mail.sdsu.edu)

Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age
& Department of Geography,
San Diego State University

Welcome to our new website for the NSF-IBSS project: Spatiotemporal Modeling of Human Dynamics Across Social Media and Social Networks. Specifically, the goals of this project are to:

Build an interdisciplinary research framework for studying human dynamics and information diffusion from a spatiotemporal modeling perspective,
Validate and improve the Multilevel Model of Meme Diffusion (M3D) communication theory for online human communications across social media and social networks,
Analyze the dynamic changes of spatiotemporal patterns with two scenarios of human dynamics (disaster warnings/alerts and referendum/propositions of controversial social topics) using computational predictive methods and agent-based modeling (ABM) approaches, and
Develop effective and accessible data processing, visualization, and analytical tools for social scientists to study human dynamics and information diffusion by combining high performance computing, Web geographic information system tools, agent-based modeling, and open source software.

One key contribution of this project is to build a prototype for the San Diego Office of Emergency Services (OES) social media outreach platform, which may be applicable for other U.S. cities in the future. The design of the prototype is to facilitate rapid dissemination of official alerts and warnings notifications from OES during disaster events via multiple social media channels to targeted population (typically in certain area). The platform can identify and recruit top 1,000 social media volunteers based on their social network influence factors and help government agencies communicate more effectively to the public and be better prepared for both natural disasters and human-made crises. This project will foster the integration of research and education in multiple disciplines, including geography, linguistics, computer science, social science, and communication. The project website will be used to publicize our research findings to the general public and create a discussion forum to involve multidisciplinary researchers. Three summer specialist meetings will be organized to facilitate future multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers in the new research field of human dynamics.

Ming

(Principal Investigator)