Feb. 10 – A reliable mechanism to identify the most influential Twitter users on specific topics is finally here, thanks to an all-Italian research by the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The study captured the attention of the international community and was selected as Best paper finalist at the IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference in Las Vegas. The award went to Marco Furini (from the Department of Communication and Economics) and Manuela Montangero (from the department of Physical Sciences, Computing and Mathematics), to whom we owe the creation of a mechanism that accurately identifies influential Twitter users for a given topic. If a few years ago research studies looked simply to the number of followers to understand how a user could be influential in a particular field, now it is understood that this metric could be easily deceived by the use of softwares that generate a high number of “false” followers. “There are different intelligence scenarios that can benefit from the mechanism – explain the two researchers – for example, identifying a user in a position to influence the performance of a product or service can be crucial for the development or consolidation of an enterprise; to determine how a user can influence critical thinking of a community can be important at the political-social level; to recognize an influential employee can be of great help within business organization. We were pleasantly surprised – continue Furini and Mantangero – as the feedback we received during the selection process was very positive, but we didn’t expect to be considered among the best three research papers of the entire conference. This is a conference held in January each year since 2004 in quasi-simultaneously with the CES in Las Vegas, the most important exhibition of consumer electronics in the world. The topics covered can be seen as the scientific part of what is behind the technology of tomorrow. We consider this award as a starting point for further research, because we feel there is much more to explore in the design and development of analytical methods in the social sector.” (PO / Gil)
