Swarthmore College Department of Computer Science

Talk by Jennifer Golbeck of University of Maryland, College Park

Computing with Social Trust: Web Algorithms, Social Networks, and Recommendations
Wednesday, March 18 2009
4:30 pm Koshland INSC, Hilles 109 Haverford College

Abstract: Web-based social networks provide a wealth of publicly accessible information about people and their relationships. The trust between people in these is particularly interesting because it can be used to improve the way users access and interact with information especially user-generated content on the web. In this talk, I will present research on the two most important problems in this space. First, I will discuss methods for computing trust between people online, relying on graph algorithms and statistical analysis of user behavior and interaction. Then, I will show how these results can be used in applications where users interact with web-based information. In particular, we will look at recommender systems and see when and how trust can improve the quality of the results.

This talk is presented by the FLICS Program: Fantastic Lectures in Computer Science, jointly hosted by: Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, and Villanova University.