Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection

Purpose – Projecting the population distribution in geographical regions is important for many applications such as launching marketing campaigns or enhancing the public safety in certain densely populated areas. Conventional studies require the collection of people’s trajectory data through offline...

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Main Authors: Yuanxing Zhang, Zhuqi Li, Kaigui Bian, Yichong Bai, Zhi Yang, Xiaoming Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tsinghua University Press 2017-09-01
Series:International Journal of Crowd Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJCS-08-2017-0008
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author Yuanxing Zhang
Zhuqi Li
Kaigui Bian
Yichong Bai
Zhi Yang
Xiaoming Li
author_facet Yuanxing Zhang
Zhuqi Li
Kaigui Bian
Yichong Bai
Zhi Yang
Xiaoming Li
author_sort Yuanxing Zhang
collection DOAJ
description Purpose – Projecting the population distribution in geographical regions is important for many applications such as launching marketing campaigns or enhancing the public safety in certain densely populated areas. Conventional studies require the collection of people’s trajectory data through offline means, which is limited in terms of cost and data availability. The wide use of online social network (OSN) apps over smartphones has provided the opportunities of devising a lightweight approach of conducting the study using the online data of smartphone apps. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between the online social networks and the offline communities, as well as to project the population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in the online social networks. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors propose the concept of geo-homophily in OSNs to determine how much the data of an OSN can help project the population distribution in a given division of geographical regions. Specifically, the authors establish a three-layered theoretic framework that first maps the online message diffusion among friends in the OSN to the offline population distribution over a given division of regions via a Dirichlet process and then projects the floating population across the regions. Findings – By experiments over large-scale OSN data sets, the authors show that the proposed prediction models have a high prediction accuracy in characterizing the process of how the population distribution forms and how the floating population changes over time. Originality/value – This paper tries to project population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in OSNs.
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spelling doaj.art-53bcffa02c2143938248d6aae701f8252022-12-22T04:33:53ZengTsinghua University PressInternational Journal of Crowd Science2398-72942017-09-011324926910.1108/IJCS-08-2017-0008600855Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projectionYuanxing Zhang0Zhuqi Li1Kaigui Bian2Yichong Bai3Zhi Yang4Xiaoming Li5EECS, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaDepartment of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USASchool of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaShenzhen Maxwell Data Tech Inc, Ltd, Shenzhen, ChinaSchool of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaSchool of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, ChinaPurpose – Projecting the population distribution in geographical regions is important for many applications such as launching marketing campaigns or enhancing the public safety in certain densely populated areas. Conventional studies require the collection of people’s trajectory data through offline means, which is limited in terms of cost and data availability. The wide use of online social network (OSN) apps over smartphones has provided the opportunities of devising a lightweight approach of conducting the study using the online data of smartphone apps. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between the online social networks and the offline communities, as well as to project the population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in the online social networks. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, the authors propose the concept of geo-homophily in OSNs to determine how much the data of an OSN can help project the population distribution in a given division of geographical regions. Specifically, the authors establish a three-layered theoretic framework that first maps the online message diffusion among friends in the OSN to the offline population distribution over a given division of regions via a Dirichlet process and then projects the floating population across the regions. Findings – By experiments over large-scale OSN data sets, the authors show that the proposed prediction models have a high prediction accuracy in characterizing the process of how the population distribution forms and how the floating population changes over time. Originality/value – This paper tries to project population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in OSNs.https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJCS-08-2017-0008Dirichlet processGeo-homophilyPopulation distribution
spellingShingle Yuanxing Zhang
Zhuqi Li
Kaigui Bian
Yichong Bai
Zhi Yang
Xiaoming Li
Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
International Journal of Crowd Science
Dirichlet process
Geo-homophily
Population distribution
title Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
title_full Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
title_fullStr Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
title_full_unstemmed Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
title_short Modeling geo-homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
title_sort modeling geo homopholy in online social networks for population distribution projection
topic Dirichlet process
Geo-homophily
Population distribution
url https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IJCS-08-2017-0008
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AT kaiguibian modelinggeohomopholyinonlinesocialnetworksforpopulationdistributionprojection
AT yichongbai modelinggeohomopholyinonlinesocialnetworksforpopulationdistributionprojection
AT zhiyang modelinggeohomopholyinonlinesocialnetworksforpopulationdistributionprojection
AT xiaomingli modelinggeohomopholyinonlinesocialnetworksforpopulationdistributionprojection