An article “The weakness of tie strength” in the current issue of Social Networks unpacked three elements related to the strength of ties: capacity, frequency, and redundancy. The case with an email network shows that the three elements are not highly correlated and are likely to reflect different dimensions of ties. This multidimensional view may explain some unexpected empirical findings. For example, Garg and Telang (forthcoming in Management Science) found that strong ties in online social networks play a significant role in job search and weak ties are ineffective. Weak ties may generate some job information, but only strong ties lead to actions such as referrals.

Some facts first:

• It’s the most wide-open Senate and Governor election in a decade;
• Young people (Facebook user base) are more Democratic but less likely to get out to vote;
• There is a strong social influence and peer pressure in social networks.

Tomorrow, Facebook’s high-profile button that proclaims “I’m Voting” or “I’m a Voter” will remind its 150 million users to get out and vote. This may be a deciding factor in the close race. Moreover, what is hidden is that Facebook also takes this as an experiment to study how to affect users’ voting behavior. In the future, social media could offer political campaign services besides traditional marketing and advertising businesses.

More information at http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/can-voting-facebook-button-improve-voter-turnout

After Apple’s celebrity photo leaks, now it comes to everyone. CNN Money reported that numerous third-party apps like SaveSnap, SnapBox and SnapSpy offer to save incoming photos. And some of them got hacked. We are back to the square one of network security: usability vs. privacy.

How to protect personal communication in an open network environment? Snapchat’s business model has a big challenge.

Moreover, Snapchat Stories has been introduced last week.

Scarborough consumer data suggests that the way you use the Internet reflects your political preference and likelihood of voting. Their chart shows some interesting patterns: people tracking sports and financial information are more likely to vote Republican; people listening to music or looking for a job are more likely to vote Democratic. However, as we all do in academia, if we consider the traditional factors, i.e.age and income, these may be all back to the basics. Read more on Washington Post at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/05/13/what-your-internet-use-says-about-your-politics/

A short answer: less than $4/month. Data brokering is a multibillion dollar industry to collect, analyze and sell your personal information. Would you rather sell it by yourself? Tom Brewster @ BBC put his information on EBay including “one month’s worth of browsing history, posts from Facebook and Twitter accounts, three email addresses in frequent use and 10 photos.” It is a no-go. Only 31 viewers in 7 days. Later, he did manage to sell his data from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to DataCoup for $4 a month. It’s an interesting experiment on the data privacy issue. Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140509-how-much-is-your-facebook-worth