Gephi grah and Social Influence

I have created the simplest Gephi graph of the Facebook Group “Seneca SoMe 13-14” created by Irfan Siddique. The group consist of 14 members (nodes) (Avoided labeling).

This Gephi graph consist of few nodes (members), thus it can not reflect the true essence of network effect but simple enough to understand the basic effect of “Network Effect” or “Metcalfe’s Law” that states that if all the members (nodes) are interconnected then the total number of edges would be define by ∑n=n(n-1)/2. In this scenario total edges are 52. But if all the connections would have been interconnected than 91 edges would have been developed. It has not happened. So, does it fail the social effect. No. Here, we can see that two members are being left out, and are connected through only Irfan. This fulfills the true definition of “Social Capital” that indirectly states that it is not neccessary to be connected to every individual out there in order to be part of the social world. Though, it also reflects prefential treatment towards few members and the formation of more distinguished groups. It also reflects the true personality of every member. It can help researchers to understand the tastes, preferences, psychological impacts and various other human conditions to develop better marketing stratgies and thus reach-out. (Metcalfe’s Law)

Here the example I have used consist of only 14 members, and still lot of information can be derived on every individual. Now, I would like you guys to feel when the network is as big as on Facebook, and the type of information that can be derived using it. In future, Supercomputers can break it into such enormous information that right now we can not even comprehend the change it can bring to our society through its utilization.

Long live our privacy and equality. It seems that such marketing will widen the differences in the future.

-Nimish Maheshwari

Work Cited:

“Metcalfe’s Law.” Metcalfe’s Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.