1. Linking People ThroughPhysical Proximity in aConferenceAlvin
Chin, Bin Xu, Hao Wang and XiaWangMobile Social Experiences TeamNRC
Growth Economies LabModeling Social Media workshop 2012Nokia
Research Center
2. Outline Motivation and research problem Contributions
Physical proximity and social linking in a conference Find &
Connect Network properties Relationship between physical proximity
and social linking in Find & Connect Conclusions and future
workNokia Research Center2 Company Confidential
3. Motivation How do I know this friend? Why should I add
him/her?Nokia Research Center3 Company Confidential
4. People connect with each other becauseof Social selection
Homophily and similarities (McPherson et al, 2001; Guy et al, 2010)
Social influence Joining an online community (Backstrom et al,
2006) Consumer desires, behaviours and technology adoption (Vannoy
et al, 2010)Nokia Research Center4 Company Confidential
5. Proximity Using location and human mobility for friendship
(Cho et al, 2011) Encounters to determine who to add as friend
(Aka- Aki; Quercia and Capra, 2009) Introduce people and infer ones
social network (Eagle and Pentland, 2005) Enhancing social
interactions at conferences (Barrat et al, 2010)Nokia Research
Center5 Company Confidential
6. Research problem Can physical proximity affect people to
make connections and link to each other? Hypothesis 1: more
physical interactions will result in an increased probability for a
person to add another as a social connection (social selection)
Hypothesis 2: establishing these connections will result in an
increased number of physical proximities between each other (social
influence)Nokia Research Center6 Company Confidential
7. Offline Improves Friend RecommendationXu et al. Using
Physical Context in a Mobile Social Networking Application for
Improving FriendRecommendations, 1st International Workshop on
Sensing, Networking and Computing onSmartphones, In Proc. of CPSCom
2011, 2011 Nokia Research Center 7 Company Confidential
8. Contributions Examine the relationship between physical
proximity and online social connections in an indoor environment
for a conferenceNokia Research Center8 Company Confidential
9. Similar work Conferator (Atzmueller et al, 2011) Live Social
Semantics (Barrat et al, 2010) IntelliBadge (Cox et al, 2003)Nokia
Research Center9 Company Confidential
10. Find & Connect Find people, rooms, sessions, papers in
a conference Connect people together through social linking using
physical proximity and homophilyNokia Research Center10 Company
Confidential
11. Recording physical proximityNokia Research Center11 Company
Confidential
12. Social linking in a conference Friend Following Exchange
contactsNokia Research Center12 Company Confidential
13. Find attendees on a map @ UIC 2010 Chang et al, Enhancing
the Experience and Efficiency at a Conference with Mobile Social
Networking: Case Study with Find & Connect, In Proc. of
HumanCom 2011, 2011Nokia Research Center13 Company
Confidential
14. Connect @UIC with others from feeds andmessages Chang et
al, Enhancing the Experience and Efficiency at a Conference with
Mobile Social Networking: Case Study with Find & Connect, In
Proc. of HumanCom 2011, 2011Nokia Research Center14 Company
Confidential
15. Find & Connect @ GCJKXu, B. et al, Physical Proximity
and Online User Behavior in an Indoor Mobile Social
NetworkingApplication", In Proc. of the 4th IEEE International
Conference on Cyber, Physical and SocialComputing (CPSCom 2011),
Dalian, China, 1-10. Nokia Research Center 15 Company
Confidential
16. Network propertiesNokia Research Center16 Company
Confidential
17. Proximity vs. social linking networks Proximity encounters
form a highly tight and dense network compared with social linking
networks Follow social influence theory of 3 degrees of separation
(Cacioppo et al, 2009)Nokia Research Center17 Company
Confidential
18. Offline encounters influences onlineconnection @ UICNokia
Research Center18 Company Confidential
19. Offline encounters influences onlineconnection @ GCJKNokia
Research Center19 Company Confidential
20. Average encounter frequency occur inbursts @ UICNokia
Research Center20 Company Confidential
21. Average encounter frequency @ GCJKNokia Research Center21
Company Confidential
22. How physical proximity affects social linking More than 2
hours before social linking social selection is weak At most 2
hours before social linking sharp rise in encounters, social
selection becoming strong 2 hours after social linking social
influence dominates Eventually proximity encounters flattens
outNokia Research Center22 Company Confidential
23. Conclusions Hypothesis 1 on social selection not supported
Hypothesis 2 on social influence supported Contact and encounter
networks follow social influence theory of 3 degrees of separation
Cacioppo, J.T., Fowler, J.H., and Christakis, N.A. Alone in the
crowd: the structure and spread of loneliness in a large social
network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 6
(2009), 977.Nokia Research Center23 Company Confidential
24. Future work Collect longitudinal data for longer period of
time Study transitions from online and offline and vice versa to
create user behaviour model Create algorithm to mine encounters to
identify groups that indicate activity-based social networks
(ephemeral social networks)Nokia Research Center24 Company
Confidential
25. Alvin Chin Nokia Research Center, Beijing
[email protected] http://research.nokia.com/people/alvin_chin
Facebook: Alvin Chin ([email protected]) LinkedIn:
[email protected] Twitter: gadgetman4u Sina Weibo:
http://weibo.com/2106762242 (gadgetman) Foursquare: Alvin Chin
([email protected]) Google+: [email protected]
Research Center25 Company Confidential