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Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining pp 1–8Cite as

Actionable Information in Social Networks, Diffusion of

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Synonyms

Information propagation; Large-scale network; Social relationships

Glossary

Diffusion:

Spread of an idea, product, or behavior in a social system

Social Ties:

Connections between individuals on which information is passed

Definition

Information diffusion is the process whereby information spreads through a social system through interactions among its members. Actionable information refers to information that requires the individual members to make a decision or perform an action.

Introduction

Diffusion can be described as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers 1995). The innovations can be ideas, products, or behaviors but in general can refer to anything that is perceived as new or novel by the individuals of the social system. The innovations spread from originating sources to prospective users and individuals. Diffusion theories and models are used to describe how these...

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Actionable Information in Social Networks, Diffusion of, Fig. 1

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-09-2-0053 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and by the Department of Homeland Security through the Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis Center of Excellence at Rutgers University. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or the US Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Cindy Hui & William A. Wallace

  2. Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA

    Malik Magdon-Ismail & Mark Goldberg

Authors
  1. Cindy Hui
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  2. William A. Wallace
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  3. Malik Magdon-Ismail
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  4. Mark Goldberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cindy Hui .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Reda Alhajj

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Jon Rokne

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Hui, C., Wallace, W.A., Magdon-Ismail, M., Goldberg, M. (2018). Actionable Information in Social Networks, Diffusion of. In: Alhajj, R., Rokne, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7131-2_286

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