On the value of weak ties for modeling interventions in online health communities

摘要

Online pro-health social networks have grown in the past decade. This position paper argues for the need of prescriptive research that would enable models of online interventions capable of assessing the effects imposed on social networks from the outside, e.g., by a strategic decision-maker (supervisor) possessing the full knowledge of the network dynamics. The paper explains the importance of explicit modeling of weak, acquaintance-type ties for this purpose.