ITR: The Structure and Dynamics of Electronic Social Networks

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This project describes network patterns among email users in the United States, identifying how electronic relations form and the implications of such relations for behavior. In the first of three stages, the project identifies the global features of electronic communication networks by identifying sets of people linked through email exchange. This sample provides the information needed to identify network features such as social distance, social cohesion, small-world properties, social balance, and segregation. Stage two examines the dynamic details of electronic networks by collecting in-depth information about online activity, social behaviors, and demographic characteristics over a year for a sample of the original study population. Using these data, researchers can model the stability of online relationships and the effect of network position on social behaviors. The third stage of the project re-contacts members of the original sample a year later. Data from this stage allows researchers to develop network-contextual models of social behavior that situate individual behavior within both local and global network contexts. The three stages of this project provide social network researchers and information technology specialists with an unprecedented ability to model network effects on social behavior and patterns of social relations in the rapidly changing electronic social context.