Understanding Online Social Networking Services

Since there have been a number of online social networking services (SNS), we have been experiencing new social phenomena around us. Traditional social network analysis methods [Gan and Zhu 2007, Jung 2010] might have difficulties efficiently understanding the large-scale social data from such SNS [Jung 2012]. Moreover, as the area of social networks is a highly cross-disciplinary one, we aim to foster and develop sustainable collaborations between This will provide an opportunity to push further the discussion regarding the potential of social networks and their applications across these communities. Due to their scale, complexity and dynamics, these networks are extremely difficult to analyze in terms of traditional social network analysis methods. On the other hand, the data about human communication, common activities and collaboration simultaneously provide new opportunities for new applications [Jung 2008b, Jung 2008a]. Thus, this special issue is focused on an analysis of these large-scale social structures and what is more important to identify the areas where social network analysis can be applied and provide the knowledge that is not accessible for other types of analysis. Additionally, applications of social networks analysis can be investigated either from a static or dynamic perspective. We seek for business and industrial applications of social network analysis that help to solve real-world problems. The area of social networks analysis and its applications bring together researchers and practitioners from different fields and the main goal of this special issue is to provide an opportunity to share visions, research achievements and solutions as well as to establish worldwide cooperative research and development. At the same time, we want to provide a platform