Virtual Social Networks Online and Mobile Systems

Abstract

Location-based applications are one of the most anticipated new segments of the mobile industry. These new applications are enabled by GPS-equipped phones (e.g., emergency applications, buddy finders, games, location-based advertising, etc.). These services are designed to give consumers instant access to personalized, local content of their immediate location. Some applications couple LBS with notification services, automatically alerting users when they are close to a pre-selected destination. With the advances in the Internet and communications/mobile technology, it became vital to analyze the effect of such technologies on human communications. This work studies how humans can construct social networks as a method for group communications using the available technologies. We constructed and analyzed a friends network using different parameters. The parameters that were calculated to analyze the network are the distribution sequence, characteristic path length, clustering coefficient and centrality measures. In addition, we built a PDA application that implements the concept of LBS using two system modules. In the first module, we have developed an application for entertainment purpose; an application program which enables end users to send their birth year and get their horoscope in return. The second part of the project was, to build an application, which helps people to stay in touch with their friends and family members (Find Friend). It helps users to find which of their buddies are within the same area they are in.