Publication

Wired to connect: analyzing human communication and information sharing behavior during extreme events

Aug. 24, 2014

Groups

Aleissa, Faisal, et al. "Wired to connect: analyzing human communication and information sharing behavior during extreme events." Proceedings of the 2014 KDD Workshop on Learning about Emergencies from Social Information (KDD-LESI 2014). 2014.

Abstract

In this work, we study the communication dynamics and information propagation of real-world events through the contact networks of mobile phone users. Previous studies have shown that these ‘bread-crumbs’ of digital traces can act as in situ sensors for human behavior, allowing for quantifying social actions and conducting social studies at an unprecedented scale. However, most work in utilizing these proxies has focused on the study of human dynamics under regular and stationary situations, with little research on the quantitative understanding of human behavior under extreme events. In this work, we examine three events with different size and geographical scope and show that (i) human communications are both temporally and spatially localized during such events; and (ii) various types of events produce a distinct human communications signature both on a temporal and a spatial scale.

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