• Dino Pedreschi Università di Pisa, Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Lab pedre [at] di [dot] unipi [dot] it

• Exam dates: 10 June h 14:00 - 26 June h 09:00 - 11 July h 09.00. In these dates a calendar of oral examinations will be set. Exams will take place in Pedreschi's office.
• Monday 27 May 2013, Sala Seminari Ovest - PhD Workshop on Social network analysis: talks from PhD students attending the course
• New schedule: Mondays 16:00-18:00 Aula C - Thursdays 11:00-13:00 Aula N1
• We need to reschedule the Friday 9:00-11:00 class. Please select your preferences at the following Doodle poll. Deadline: Monday, March 4, 2013, before the 16:00 lecture.
• First lecture of 2013 edition: Friday, March 1st, 2013, h 9:00-11:00 aula N1

• Monday, h 16:00 - 18:00, Aula C
• Thursday, h 11:00 - 13:00, Aula N1

Over the past decade there has been a growing public fascination with the complex “connectedness” of modern society. This connectedness is found in many contexts: in the rapid growth of the Internet and the Web, in the ease with which global communication now takes place, and in the ability of news and information as well as epidemics and financial crises to spread around the world with surprising speed and intensity. These are phenomena that involve networks and the aggregate behavior of groups of people; they are based on the links that connect us and the ways in which each of our decisions can have subtle consequences for the outcomes of everyone else.

This short course is an introduction to the analysis of complex networks, with a special focus on social networks and the Web - its structure and function, and how it can be exploited to search for information. Drawing on ideas from computing and information science, applied mathematics, economics and sociology, the course describes the emerging field of study that is growing at the interface of all these areas, addressing fundamental questions about how the social, economic, and technological worlds are connected.

1) Graph theory and social networks

• Graphs
• Social, information, biological and technological networks
• Strong and weak ties
• Networks in their surrounding context

2) The World Wide Web

• The structure of the Web
• Link analysis and Web search
• Web mining e sponsored search markets

3) Network dynamics

• Information cascades
• Power laws and rich-get-richer phenomena
• The small-world phenomenon
• Epidemics

• Slides (see Calendar).

• David Easley, Jon Kleinberg: Networks, Crowds, and Markets. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/

• Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Network Science Book Project (2013, ongoing) http://barabasilab.neu.edu/networksciencebook/

Reading:

• M. E. J. Newman: The structure and function of complex networks, SIAM Review, Vol. 45, p. 167-256, 2003. (download pdf)

• A.-L. Barabasi. Linked. PLUME, Penguin Group, 2002.

• Duncan J. Watts. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. Norton, New York, 2003.

• Anand Rajaraman, Jeffrey D. Ullman, Mining of Massive Datasets. http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/pub/book.pdf

Course on Network Science held by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi at Northeastern University, Boston, MA: link

• Form a group of 3\4 individuals
• Choose a network from those listed in link
• Choose a second network from those listed in link
• Send a mail to pedre@di.unipi.it, giulio.rossetti@isti.cnr.it, lpappalardo@di.unipi.it and specify the students composing the group and the networks you have chosen (with subject [WMR], deadline 18 Apr 2013) .
• Prepare a pdf document of max 3 pages (figures excluded) in which you present your analysis of the networks.
• Send the document produced by mail to pedre@di.unipi.it, giulio.rossetti@isti.cnr.it, lpappalardo@di.unipi.it (with subject [WMR-MidTerm]). Deadline 5 May 2013
• Mid Term results: download pdf

The project consists of two parts:

• Data Collection, in which students reconstruct their individual multidimensional networks. Guideline for Data Collection can be found here: Data Collection guideline
• End of the data collection: 12 May 2013
• Final Term: Description, Data and Code can be found at: link
• Oral exams: 10 June, 26 June, 11 July (the Final Term survey must be submitted at least 3 days before the chosen date).

• Edizione 2011-2012 Web Mining and Social Network Analysis 2011-2012
• Edizione 2010-2011 Web Mining ed Analisi delle Reti Sociali 2010 - 2011
• Edizione 2008-2009 Web Mining ed Analisi delle Reti Sociali 2008-2009