Identifying influential spreaders in complex networks(arxiv.org)
arxiv.org
Identifying influential spreaders in complex networks
http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.5285
"we show that, in contrast to common belief, the most influential spreaders in a social network do not correspond to the best connected people or to the most central people (high betweenness centrality). Instead, we find: (i) The most efficient spreaders are those located within the core of the network as identified by the k-shell decomposition analysis. (ii) When multiple spreaders are considered simultaneously, the distance between them becomes the crucial parameter that determines the extend of the spreading."
2 comments
I've always thought something like this would be a great business model for networks like Foursquare. Don't give a free beer to the mayor - he's going to come to your bar anyway. Give a free beer to the person who, when she visits, ends up drawing in five of her friends.