Stumbl: Using Facebook to collect rich datasets for opportunistic networking research

• Authors: T. Hossmann;F. Legendre;G. Nomikos;T. Spyropoulos
• Venue: WOWMOM '11 Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks
• Year: 2011

Opportunistic networks use human mobility and consequent wireless contacts between mobile devices to disseminate data in a peer-to-peer manner. Designing appropriate algorithms and protocols for such networks is challenging as it requires understanding patterns of (1) mobility (who meets whom), (2) social relations (who knows whom) and (3), communication (who communicates with whom). To date, apart from few small test setups, there are no operational opportunistic networks where measurements could reveal the complex correlation of these features of human relationships. Hence, opportunistic networking research is largely based on insights from measurements of either contacts, social networks, or communication, but not all three combined. In this paper we report an experiment called Stumbl, as a step towards collecting rich datasets comprising social, mobility and communication ties. Stumbl is a Facebook application that provides participating users with a user-friendly interface to report their daily face-to-face meetings with other Facebook friends. It also logs user interactions on Facebook (e.g. comments, wall posts, likes). This way the contact graph, social graph, and activity graphs for the same set of users could be compared and analyzed. We report here preliminary results and analyses of a first experiment we have performed.