ICES: Large: Meme Diffusion Through Mass Social Media

该项目旨在建立在线信息传播的模型，并从经验上区分驱动模因传播的机制模型。我们将探讨为什么有些想法会引起病毒式爆炸，而另一些则会很快被遗忘。我们的分析超越了应用流行病扩散过程的传统方法，并将重点放在级联大小分布和流行时间序列上，以便对驱动信息在线扩散的代理和过程进行建模，包括：用户及其主题兴趣，用户注意力的竞争以及信息的实际年龄。我们的项目的完成将导致对信息流的更好理解，并有助于阐明隐藏在各种人类动态和组织之下的复杂机制。分析将包括通过收集和分析大量公共微博数据流来研究大型社交媒体中的模因扩散。该项目将使研究界和公众都受益匪浅。我们的数据将通过api提供，包括模因传播网络的信息、统计数据以及相关的用户和内容特征。我们开发的开源平台将向公众开放，并将扩展到更多的研究领域，因为更多的人类活动将在网上复制。此外，我们将创建一个向公众开放的网络服务，用于监控趋势、突发事件和可疑的模因。这项服务可以减少虚假和误导性思想的传播，发现仇恨言论和颠覆性宣传，并有助于维护公开辩论。

The project is aimed at modeling the diffusion of information online and empirically discriminating among models of mechanisms driving the spread of memes. We explore why some ideas cause viral explosions while others are quickly forgotten. Our analysis goes beyond the traditional approach of applied epidemic diffusion processes and focuses on cascade size distributions and popularity time series in order to model the agents and processes driving the online diffusion of information, including: users and their topical interests, competition for user attention, and the chronological age of information. Completion of our project will result in a better understanding of information flow and could assist in elucidating the complex mechanisms that underlie a variety of human dynamics and organizations. The analysis will involve studying meme diffusion in large-scale social media by collecting and analyzing massive streams of public micro-blogging data.The project stands to benefit both the research community and the public significantly. Our data will be made available via APIs and include information on meme propagation networks, statistical data, and relevant user and content features. The open-source platform we develop will be made publicly available and will be extensible to ever more research areas as a greater preponderance of human activities are replicated online. Additionally, we will create a web service open to the public for monitoring trends, bursts, and suspicious memes. This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.