On the efficiency of social recommender networks

Felix Ming Fai Wong, Zhenming Liu, Mung Chiang
2015 2015 IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)  
We study a fundamental question that arises in social recommender systems: whether it is possible to simultaneously maximize (a) an individual's benefit from using a social network and (b) the efficiency of the network in disseminating information. To tackle this question, our study consists of three components. First, we introduce a stylized stochastic model for recommendation diffusion. Such a model allows us to highlight the connection between user experience at the individual level, and
more » ... ork efficiency at the macroscopic level. We also propose a set of metrics for quantifying both user experience and network efficiency. Second, based on these metrics, we extensively study the tradeoff between the two factors in a Yelp dataset, concluding that Yelp's social network is surprisingly efficient, though not optimal. Finally, we design a friend recommendation and news feed curation algorithm that can simultaneously address individuals' need to connect to high quality friends, and service providers' need to maximize network efficiency in information propagation.
doi:10.1109/infocom.2015.7218619 dblp:conf/infocom/WongLC15 fatcat:zxr5i7wkmzeg7naak4636xmysq