"Anamia" social networks and online privacy: our presentations at Sunbelt XXXII

18Mar12

This is a joint post with Antonio A. Casilli —as often happens!

So, here we are in the (intermittently) sunny state of California for Sunbelt XXXII, the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) annual conference. This year the venue is Redondo Beach and the highlights are both old and new stars of social network analysis:  David Krackhardt, Tom Valente, Emmanuel Lazega, Anuška Ferligoj, Ron Burt, Bernie Hogan, Carter Butts, Christina Prell, etc.

Here are our presentations, both delivered on Sunday, 18th March 2012.

1) Connectedness and support in online “ana-mia” social networks

This paper, co-authored with Antonio A. Casilli, Lise Mounier and Sylvan Lemaire, is about our ongoing research on anamia (anorexic and bulimic) websites. Sometimes improperly stygmatized as ‘pro-ana’, these online forums, blogs and groups rally ED-sufferers seeking for mutual help. Our social network approach aims to describe the potential for socialization and social cohesion of these anamia websites, as well as to assess their role with regard to healthcare professionals. (The research project ANAMIA is funded by the French Agency for National Research (ANR) under grant agreement n. ANR-09-ALIA-001.)

2) Simulating online privacy: ethno-computational insights

This paper is co-authored with Antonio A. Casilli. Building on a online ethnographic fieldwork, we create an agent-based simulation to evaluate how the trend to disclose personal informations in social media is compatible with the urge to protect users privacy. We discover that, in highly connected and culturally diverse environments such as Facebook, privacy decreases and increases cyclically. (The research project THEOP is funded by the Fondation CIGREF – ISD programme 2011).

Filed under: Agent-based models, Social networks   |  2 Comments
Tags: Agent-based models, Dr Antonio A. Casilli, Eating behaviors, Eating disorders, Network Analysis, Pro-ana and pro-mia websites, Social simulation, Web, Web-based social networks