From MIT Technology Review. Nobody has figured out how to spot the most influential spreaders of information in a real-world network. Now that looks set to change with important implications, not least for the superspreaders themselves. Who are the most influential spreaders of information on a network? That’s a question that marketers, bloggers, news services and even governments would like answered. Not least because the answer could provide ways to promote products quickly, to boost the popularity of political parties above their rivals and to seed the rapid spread of news and opinions. The question of how to find the superspreaders remains open. That looks set to change thanks to the work of our group after performing the first study of superspreaders on real networks. See paper in Scientific Reports 4, 5547 (2014). PublishedPDF version. PDF version in arxiv.org.
