Investigating an online social network using spatial interaction models
Physics and Society
2010-11-18 v3
Abstract
Using a spatial interaction modeling approach, we investigate the German collegiate social network site StudiVZ. We focus on identifying factors that foster strong inter-institutional linkages, testing whether the acquaintanceship rate between institutions of higher education is related to various geographic and institutional attributes. We find that acquaintanceship is most significantly related to geographic separation: measuring distance with automobile travel time, acquaintanceship drops by 91% for each additional 100 minutes. Institution type and the former East-West German divide are also related to this rate with statistical significance.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0911.1229,
title = {Investigating an online social network using spatial interaction models},
author = {Conrad Lee and Thomas Scherngell and Michael J. Barber},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0911.1229},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
12 pages, 1 table, significant revisions from v1, minor corrections and improvements from v2