Speaker
Ms
Fariba Karimi
(IceLab, Umeå University)
Description
We investigate an online community where there are two modes
of communication. Either a user can reply to others in a
public forum in such a way that we see who comments on whom;
or they can send e-mail-like direct messages. In this data
we investigate network structures (such as
degree-distributions and assortativity), temporal structures
such as response-, interevent times and activity levels.
Furthermore, we measure combined structures from the
different communication channels relating to structural-balance
theory. Among other things, we find that in private
communication, people keep feeling obliged to reply longer
than in public discussions. We also observe a weak
anti-correlation between activity levels in public and
private communication respectively, suggesting that
different personality types drive the large-scale structural
evolution. We relate our findings to theories of social
organization and human dynamics.
