Special Session - Understanding Smart Environments through the Social Networks


Special Session - Understanding Smart Environments through the Social Networks

In recent years, the widespread diffusion of social networks not only has enabled people to new forms of interaction within virtual communities, but it has also created a new paradigm for sharing information in a pervasive way. Nowadays, the vast majority of the 3 billion active social media users access the network via mobile devices. One of the interesting consequences is that they represent one of the most valuable sources of information in order to get a meaningful understanding of the events all over the world. On the other hand, the availability of sensors capable of measuring almost any physical quantity makes it increasingly easier to realize the concept of a smart environment, as in the case of smart cities. In this scenario, analysing the contents shared through the social networks represents an effective way to be aware of relevant phenomena concerning cities and their citizens. Here, the social media users can be regarded as human sensors producing real-time data that can be exploited to support critical tasks, e.g., urban security monitoring, mobility management, early warning of environmental disasters, and to allow the administration to timely take the proper countermeasures.

This special session aims at getting together original contributions regarding different aspects of social networks analysis in the context of smart environments. Suitable papers should address the definition of novel data analysis algorithms, the design of innovative architectures, the proposal of original frameworks supporting new applications and services that can cause relevant improvements in the direction of smart environments understanding. Besides these objectives, relevant contributions could focus on related matters such as social network security, trust, and privacy.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Machine learning and data mining in social networks
  • Social network applications and services for innovative smart environments;
  • Security, trust and reputation in social networks;
  • Information propagation;
  • Topics, trends, and knowledge discovery;
  • Social network simulation and modelling;
  • Large-scale data representation for social network analysis;
  • Big data and social media;
  • Collaborative social systems;
  • Impact of social networking on smart communities and environments

 

Session co-chairs:
Marco Morana, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy - marco.morana@unipa.it
Francesco Restuccia, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA - f.restuccia@northeastern.edu

 

Important Dates