<b>Complex Systems Seminar</b><br>Authority, Trust and Influence: The Complex Network of Social Media<br><b>Speaker: Bill Rand (University of Maryland Smith School of Business)</br></b>

Speaker: Bill Rand (University of Maryland Smith School of Business)

The dramatic feature of social media is that it gives everyone a voice; anyone can speak out and express their opinion to a crowd of followers with little or no cost or effort, which creates a loud and potentially overwhelming marketplace of ideas. Given this egalitarian competition, how do users of social media identify authorities in this crowded space? Who do they trust to provide them with the information and the recommendations that they want? Which tastemakers have the greatest influence on social media users? Using agent-based modeling, machine learning and network analysis we begin to examine and shed light on these questions and develop a deeper understanding of the complex system of social media.