Interlinkage and the spread of information
Interlinkage and relations between objects in LBSN can be considered as an additional, fifth facet. Relationships on LBSN are the cause of many privacy concerns, because they can be used to combine information in ways other than originally anticipated by the user.
A specific example for a relationship is the spread of information, an important characteristic of LBSM, frequently evaluated in visual analytics. The spread of information occurs when reactions become the referent event for other reactions.
Three groups of relationships are considered.
(1) Internal Relationships
There exist direct references between different objects of the LBSN structure, such as the user-id linking several posts to the same user, but also more complex relationships such as many-to-many.
(2) Cross-social media relationships
Relationships are considered that link entities between two different Origins (e.g. different LBSN).
(3) Link between social media and external sources
Implicit and explicit references may be found that link social media and external sources (explicit VGI, e.g. Wikipedia, OSM).
See other examples of interlinkage can be found in the the RAW structure definition.
Examples for internal relationships currently defined in the SQL Raw Database:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| _user_connectsto_user | A user that is connected to user y (e.g. this user x is the follower of user y). Being connected to someone (e.g. following someone) is only a mutual relationship if both users connect to each other (in this case, they become friends). |
| _user_memberof_group | A group where user x is member of. Membership requires active participation/ explicit sign-up (e.g. being a member of a list on Twitter). |
| _user_follows_group | A group that user x follows. Following a group does not require active participation (e.g. being subscribed to a list on Twitter). |
| _user_mentions_user | A user y that was mentioned by user x (e.g. @-Mentions in posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.). |
| _post_taggedwith_term | A term that is assigned as a (hash-)tag to post x. |
Examples for cross-relationships currently defined in the SQL Raw Database:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| __users_shareidentity | Related users with different origin_id (e.g. this user with origin_id x is the same as user with origin_id y). One user can be active on multiple origin IDs (e.g. retweet Instagram posts). |
| __posts_shareidentity | The same post with different origin_id (e.g. this post with origin_id x is the same as post with origin_id y). One user can publish a post on multiple origin IDs (e.g. automatically retweet Instagram posts). |
| __places_shareidentity | The same place with different origin_id (e.g. this place with origin_id x is the same as place with origin_id y). One place can exist on multiple origin IDs, with different ids. |
Examples for external relationships currently defined in the SQL Raw Database:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
| ___place_match_osm | A matching entity on OpenStreetmap (e.g. this user-contributed place from social media matches a polygon or point volunteered on OpenStreetMap). |
Note
Relationships are considered experimental and open to significant development in the current implementation of the lbsnstructure specification. We have defined a base list of example relationships in the corresponding SQL Raw Database that may serve as a template.