Author: Yong Tian Chen

In the lecture, we have learned about PageRank which first been introduced to the public in an academic paper by two graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It is an algorithm that ranks the search results. I am wondering after so many years that page rank is not only that popular, can we used it in other fields to predict something interesting? By looking at the blog written by Jessica Leber about “How Google’s PageRank Quantifies Things (Like History’s Best Tennis Player) Beyond The Web”.

In the blog, Leber had mentioned that PageRank can be used in a different area, it is like Google had invented a lens and with so many different combinations of lenses, you can have a chance to look at all kinds of different systems. David Gleich, which is one researcher who is trying to use the Page rank algorithm in other fields had found out the PageRank system can be used when there involved graphs that represent relationships or flow between a set of objects in math ideas. For example, using Page rank can answer the question “What are the most important books?”

Another interesting example would be an endless debate between sports fans which is “Who’s the best team or player in a given sport in history?” The fan all have their own point of view about how their team or players are the best, with a list of evidence they try to convince others. However, there is one paper that uses PageRank to look at all pro tennis matches since 1968 and concluded a result that Jimmy Connors is the best tennis player. The same technique and algorithm could be used in the NFL, NBA, UEFA to find out their GOAT(Greatest Of All Time) player.

By concluding the blog of Jessica Leber with the lecture we have, it is clear that the technique we learn also implied to the real world and it could also help us to easily find and predict the most important or influence point for a specific graph. Which could also be some important people of one specific field.

References:

Leber, J. (2014, August 19). How Google’s PageRank Quantifies Things (Like History’s Best Tennis Player) Beyond The Web. Retrieved November 06, 2020, from https://www.fastcompany.com/3034193/how-googles-pagerank-quantifyies-things-like-historys-best-tennis-player-beyond-the-web

In the lecture, we have learned about Finding Network Communities. I am wondering, what does the real world find their network communities and social bubble, and in which way will they break through their communities and get connect with others. By looking at the blog written by Andrew Lamb about “How to find communities online using social network analysis”.

In the blog, Lamb had listed a famous example create by Lada Adamic’s analysis of US political bloggers during 2004. Lada concludes that the graph clearly shows Blue node (Democrat) only has very little communication with the Red node (Republican). Due to the bloggers’ political habit, they only have a very small chance to be friends with another party. However, this is not all of the social networks that look like the above one has such a sharply divided image.

Most visualizations created by any social media application did not have a clear border but will group people by their interests and concerns (Lamb, 2013). The one in the middle of the graph tends to be the people who have more power over the flow of information. In the blog, Lamb had given an example of how to reach to Econsultancy network on Twitter. He defined as finding the people who had high centrality or betweenness as the first step. It is very interesting that this theorem is exactly the same as Graph Partitioning as we discuss in class whereby find the bridge with the highest betweenness will divide the graph evenly. On the social web, it also means making friends with people who have the largest connection will also give you the ability to reach out to everyone on the web.

By concluding the blog of Andrew Lamb with the lecture material we have, it is clear that the technique we learn also implied to the real-world social network and it could also help us to easily find the online community with proper analysis technology and terminology we learn in this class.

Reference:

Lamb, Andrew. How to Find Communities Online Using Social Network Analysis. 4 Nov. 2013, econsultancy.com/how-to-find-communities-online-using-social-network-analysis/.