An interesting research project taking shape in the Honeybee Network involves the analysis of information flows from the Honeybee Network’s social media pages such as Facebook and other social networks.  We intend to understand the dynamics of information flow in the online space. That way, we can identify members of our extended network who are crucial for sharing our ideas and innovations. Through these critical actors, maximum diffusion of information about innovations can happen online.

Critical actors in a network spread the information to other actors in their vicinity or act like “bridges” to make information flow uninterrupted across vertical hops. We also aim to identify actors leading to a high number of shares with actors living in other cities and countries than their own. Many parameters are used to measure these characteristics. These correspond to metrics generated by software applications such as NodeXL which can generate graphic illustrations of social network activities such as the one above.

For this study we have analysed three cases: Rozadeen’s Pressure Cooker Espresso Coffee Maker, Kanak Das’ Bicycle and Mansukhbhai Prajapati’s Mitticool. We have studied the network of shares in these three cases and identified the key “pollinators” and “bridges”.

The Pressure Cooker Espresso Coffee Maker formed an interesting case. A picture of the Coffee Maker was widely shared on Facebook. The source of the picture was a person not directly involved with the HoneyBee Network who had stumbled upon the Coffee Maker. With his post he generated more than 900 shares in the Facebook community of which about 220 were publicly visible. Analysis of the visible shares revealed a complex graph which had a deep path of single shared branches (see illustration). At deeper layers these sprouted into a highly diverse sub-network. By comparing this case with the other cases we could form some preliminary hypotheses about information diffusion through social media. Our findings will be published in a forthcoming paper.

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For further information regarding this project contact Chinmay Somani and Chintan Vinod Shinde at chintanne@gmail.com