Network Analysis of Semantic Connections in Heterogeneous Social Spaces

The traditional idea of a social network as a set of individuals and relationships is deficient in that it does not consider the shared objects which bring people together. By taking into account the role of external objects in social relations, we can glean a more thorough understanding of the factors which influence the formation of interpersonal links. We investigate an object-centred social network extracted from the Semantic Web. We analyse the patterns of connectivity that exist among objects and people, and examine the role of objects in creating social ties.