Digital Communities (WT 2017/2018)

Welcome to the course Digital Communities (winter term 2017/2018)

• The lecture starts on Wednesday, Oct. 18^th, 2017 at 10:15 o'clock in room BH-N 334
• Accompanying material such as research papers, homework, links and presentation slides will be available via the following ISIS forum:
  • https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=11822 [1]

The module starts with an introduction to the fundamentals of digital communities and an overview of related concepts. The first part of the lecture is dedicated to the topic of networks and graph theory, followed by social networks and social network analysis and related applications. After that, additional concepts that are relevant to digital communities are presented, specifically recommender systems, which are discussed both at the mathematical and application-oriented level. The module concludes with an overview and discussion of the latest trends and developments in digital communities.

The topics of this module are taught in a classical lecture, which also envisages a related discussion between students and lecturer. Selected topics are further covered in an exercise course with frequent assignments. Each assignment contains several problems, which are to be solved by the students. During practical lessons, the solutions are then presented and discussed.

Students who have successfully finished this module have an overview of current and future concepts for digital communities. They have developed an understanding of the principles of graph theory and social network analysis, and have learned about the concepts of recommender systems, including content-based and collaborative filtering methods.

Master students of

• Computer Science (Informatik) / Kommunikationsbasierte Systeme
• Computer Engineering (Technische Informatik) / Informationssysteme
• Innovation in Information and Communication Technology

• An oral exam will be offered during the week of February 19th - 23th, 2018.
• This module is limited to 50 participants.
• The registration process for the exams will be announced during the first lecture.

• Dr. Peter Ruppel

Accompanying material such as research papers, homework, links and presentation slides are available via the following ISIS forum:

• https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=11822 [3]

• Maarten van Steen: Graph Theory and Complex Networks, 2010
• David Easley und Jon Kleinberg: Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World, Cambridge University Press, 2010
• Mark Newman: Networks - An Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2010
• Stanley Wassermann and Katherine Faust: Social Network Analysis, Cambridge University Press, 2009
• Charu C. Aggarwal: Recommender Systems, The Textbook, Springer, 2016
• Dietmar Jannach et al.: Recommender Systems - An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2011

Further material such as articles and papers will be made available during the semester.

Besides the teaching books mentioned above, the interested reader might also be interested in the following books, which introduce social networks in a very vivid and engaging manner:

• Duncan J. Watts: Six Degrees, W. W. Norton, 2003
• Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler: Connected, Harper Press, 2011
• Paul Adams: Grouped, New Riders, 2012