Harvesting with SONAR: the value of aggregating social network information

ABSTRACT

Web 2.0 gives people a substantial role in content and metadata creation. New interpersonal connections are formed and existing connections become evident through Web 2.0 services. This newly created social network (SN) spans across multiple services and aggregating it could bring great value. In this work we present SONAR, an API for gathering and sharing SN information. We give a detailed description of SONAR, demonstrate its potential value through user scenarios, and show results from experiments we conducted with a SONAR-based social networking application. These suggest that aggregating SN information across diverse data sources enriches the SN picture and makes it more complete and useful for the end user.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Computer-supported cooperative work

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
aggregation, sn, sna, social network analysis, social networks