Social networks: Analysis for integrated social profiles

Abstract

In recent years, the diffusion of online social networks has been facilitated by the introduction of Web 2.0 which, while enabling users to retrieve information on the web, also contributes to the creation of others. The great success obtained by some of them, has contributed to the dissemination of a large number of “content aggregators”, applications that enable users to see, in real-time, social updates coming from different social networks to which they are subscribed, providing them with the possibility to interact with others as if they were actually connected to the social website. Although there are many applications of this type, none of them can visualize integrated statistics related to a set of social profiles provided by the user. The main aims of this work are the study of the reputation problem within social networks, the definition of analysis metrics and models, and the creation of web applications through which registered users may not only view social updates in real-time, but also daily collected statistical data, related to all their social profiles. In particular, a page has been created containing a general overview related to the user selected, resuming all his/her quantitative information collected, as well as, providing “visibility” and “productivity” indicators, and the possibility of visualizing temporal diagrams about his/her social activity carried out on different social networks. This paper begins by providing a background of online social networks. It then goes on to outline the main contribution provided through the realization of the project, describing how the analysis of the data provided by the different social network APIs has been conduced, presenting also the key features of the web application created. Finally, it provides some conclusions about the project, evaluating the results obtained and suggesting some interesting developments that could be done in the future.