Co-presence Communities: Using pervasive computing to support weak social networks

Lawrence, Jamie, Payne, Terry R. and De Roure, David (2006) Co-presence Communities: Using pervasive computing to support weak social networks. 4th International Workshop on Distributed and Mobile Collaboration, Manchester.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Although the strongest social relationships feature most prominently in our lives, we also maintain a multitude of much weaker connections: the distant colleagues that we share a coffee with in the afternoon; the waitress at a our regular sandwich bar; or the ‘familiar stranger’ we meet each morning on the way to work. These are all examples of weak relationships which have a strong spatial-temporal component but with few support systems available. This paper explores the idea of ‘Co-presence Communities’ - a probabilistic definition of groups that are regularly collocated together - and how they might be used to support weak social networks. An algorithm is presented for mining the Copresence Community definitions from data collected by Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones. Finally, an example application is introduced which utilises these communities for disseminating information.

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