Clique Comparison and Homophily Detection in Telecom Social Networks

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is based on graph theory and is used for identification of the structure, behavioral patterns and social connectivity of entities. In this paper, SNA is used in the telecom industry in terms of a call detail record referring to phone call data separated into two groups, i.e., domicile network and virtual operator network data. Emphasis was placed on community detection. Comparison was made among communities detected in domicile and virtual operator networks. Results show that in contrast to domicile network, the number of cliques in the virtual operator network is larger. Also, homophily was detected between domicile network and virtual operator network users

Are All Successful Communities Alike? Characterizing and Predicting the Success of Online Communities

The proliferation of online communities has created exciting opportunities to study the mechanisms that explain group success. While a growing body of research investigates community success through a single measure -- typically, the number of members -- we argue that there are multiple ways of measuring success. Here, we present a systematic study to understand the relations between these success definitions and test how well they can be predicted based on community properties and behaviors from the earliest period of a community's lifetime. We identify four success measures that are desirable for most communities: (i) growth in the number of members; (ii) retention of members; (iii) long term survival of the community; and (iv) volume of activities within the community. Surprisingly, we find that our measures do not exhibit very high correlations, suggesting that they capture different types of success. Additionally, we find that different success measures are predicted by different attributes of online communities, suggesting that success can be achieved through different behaviors. Our work sheds light on the basic understanding of what success represents in online communities and what predicts it. Our results suggest that success is multi-faceted and cannot be measured nor predicted by a single measurement. This insight has practical implications for the creation of new online communities and the design of platforms that facilitate such communities.Comment: To appear at The Web Conference 201

Modeling Attrition in Organizations from Email Communication

Abstract—Modeling people’s online behavior in relation to their real-world social context is an interesting and important research problem. In this paper, we present our preliminary study of attrition behavior in real-world organizations based on two online datasets: a dataset from a small startup (40+ users) and a dataset from one large US company (3600+ users). The small startup dataset is collected using our privacy-preserving data logging tool, which removes personal identifiable information from content data and extracts only aggregated statistics such as word frequency counts and sentiment features. The privacy-preserving measures have enabled us to recruit participants to support this study. Correlation analysis over the startup dataset has shown that statistically there is often a change point in people’s online behavior, and data exhibits weak trends that may be manifestation of real-world attrition. Same findings are also verified in the large company dataset. Furthermore, we have trained a classifier to predict real-world attrition with a moderate accuracy of 60-65 % on the large company dataset. Given the incompleteness and noisy nature of data, the accuracy is encouraging. I

Network effects on Entrepreneurial Processes: Start-ups in the Dutch ICT Industry 1990-2000

The value of networks as an integral part of the explanation of entrepreneurial success is widely acknowledged. It is unclear, however, in what way certain networks influence the success of start-up companies. The question of this paper is: 'in what way does the entrepreneur's network contribute to the success of his start-up.' The network is important because it may contribute to three entrepreneurial processes, i.e. the ability of the entrepreneur to discover opportunities, to get resources, and to gain legitimacy. The networks of 30 ICT start-ups in the Netherlands were (re)constructed on the basis of in-depth interviews with the founders and desk research. A distinction was made between three types of initial network conditions. First, the more or less independent start-ups; secondly, spin-offs from established companies and lastly, start-ups in incubators. On the basis of the variations in the structure of the network and the type of relations we draw conclusions concerning the contribution of a particular network configuration to the ability of the start-up to survive and to grow

Institutional entrepreneurship and social innovation at the base of the pyramid: the case of M-Pesa in Kenya

This paper explores the agency of multinational corporations that perform social innovation under conditions of institutional complexity and resource constraints. Insights are drawn from a case study of Vodafone Group Plc and Safaricom Kenya Ltd that engaged in mobile money innovation in Kenya. The paper identifies three types of institutional voids that entrepreneurs can exploit to implement a social innovation: market, policy and social voids. Legitimating the social innovation involves appealing to the instrumental needs of target users, early and sustained engagement with policy-makers and redefining meanings of both incumbent and new technologies. The paper argues that spanning institutional voids – which provide entrepreneurial opportunities – also provide contingent legitimation narratives that can be targeted at different audiences. By mobilising insights from institutional theory, this paper provides a fresh perspective of social innovation in a base of the pyramid context

Privacy Paradox 2.0

As a starting point, this essay offers six basic propositions. First, the \u27privacy paradox\u27 refers to inconsistencies between individuals\u27 [asserted] intentions to disclose personal information and [individuals\u27] actual ... disclosure behaviors. Put simply, we indicate-at a granular level-specific items of personal information that we will not disclose, but we then give away that same data with what appears to be little regard for the risks of doing so and for little in return. Second, the privacy paradox is a wellestablished concept in many fields of the social sciences, even though the precise contours and causes of the paradox are quite controversial. Third, broadly speaking, legal scholarship has failed to adequately consider either the various conceptions of the privacy paradox set forth in other fields of scholarship or the import of these conceptions to what may be intended or perceived as more normative legal works. Fourth, this failure creates a significant gap in what might be termed relevance, credibility, or practical effect, marginalizing the impact of legal scholarship in the formation of privacy policy. Fifth, this space in the sphere of influence elevates the role of fields that are traditionally less concerned with the core privacy values of personhood, autonomy, and control-inter alia, economics, contract law, marketing theory, and computer science. Sixth, the emergence of social network sites both alters the conditions of the privacy paradox and intensifies the rate and depth of uncontrolled disclosure, further marginalizing legal scholarship that fails to seriously consider the role of the law in privacy policy. Focusing on this final point, the goal of this essay is to describe both the current market in personal information and the privacy paradox as a product of market distortion. Part I identifies two unique phenomena that modify the conditions of the privacy paradox by creating new and powerful distortions in the market, thereby intensifying the rate and depth of personal data disclosure. The first is a transformation in social organization, which drives individuals to join social network sites and to disclose a great deal of personal information on those networks. The second is an alteration of the basic structure of the information exchange agreement that permits social networking sites to recede into the background as third-party beneficiaries to the social exchange of personal information. Part II addresses the necessity to account for the effect of these phenomena in the formation of privacy policies by briefly addressing various proposals for regulating the collection, storage, use, and transfer of personal information. This section argues that many of these proposals are misguided, either because they under-protect personal information by failing to adequately address the problems of valuation and consent or because they overprotect personal information by failing to adequately preserve functionality in socially valuable communications platforms. Part III attempts to briefly conceptualize the broad outline of a more workable solution that, rather than reforming the current notice-and-choice system of privacy protection, is guided by user expectations in imposing minimal restraints on the margins of data collection, storage, use, and transfer practices. Although a solution would impose certain boundaries on the scope of consent, significant space would remain for the negotiation and development of social norms around privacy practices

The Web at 25 in the U.S.: Digital Life in 2025

This report is part of an effort by the Pew Research Center's Internet Project in association with Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center to look at the future of the Internet, the Web, and other digital activities. This is the first of eight reports based on a canvassing of hundreds of experts about the future of such things as privacy, cybersecurity, the "Internet of things," and net neutrality. In this case we asked experts to make their own predictions about the state of digital life by the year 2025. We will also explore some of the economic change driven by the spectacular progress that made digital tools faster and cheaper. And we will report on whether Americans feel the explosion of digital information coursing through their lives has helped them be better informed and make better decisions