Social Media Network Data Mining and Optimization

The importance of social relationships in the lives of the poor has been consistently documented. Poor individuals rely on members of their social networks to help them meet basic needs through the provision of food, shelter and money. Social relationships are also a focus of community interventions that aim to improve conditions in poor communities. This includes building relations among individuals so they can organize to act collectively or to produce needed goods and services for the community.

We are collaborating with social work researchers to develop software tools that collect data about organizations both from offline documents and from social media, such as Facebook or Twitter. These tools would then analyze the text and the social media network structure, provide feedback to the participating organizations on the status of the network, and provide decision support to social workers for improving collaborations between non-profit organizations.

Collaborators

Students

Former Students