Social networks: looking ahead.

ABSTRACTBy now, online social networks have become an indispensable part of both online and offline lives of human beings. A large fraction of time spent online by a user is directly influence by the social networks to which he/she belongs. This calls for a deeper examination of social networks as large-scale dynamic objects that foster efficient person-person interaction. The goal of our panel is to discuss social networks from various research angles. In particular, we plan to focus on the following broad research-related topics: large scale data mining, algorithmic questions, sociological aspects, privacy, web search, etc. We will also discuss the business and societal impacts of social networks. Each of these topics has generated a lot of research in recent years and while taking stock of what has been done, we will also be discussing the directions in which these topics are headed, from both science and society points of view. Our panel will consist of eminent researchers, who have worked/been working on an eclectic and diverse mix of problems in social networks