MODM: multi-objective diffusion model for dynamic social networks using evolutionary algorithm

A lot of research efforts have been made to model the diffusion process in social networks that varies from adoption of products in marketing strategies to disease and virus spread. Previously, a diffusion process is usually considered as a single-objective optimization problem, in which different heuristics or approximate algorithms are applied to optimize an objective of spreading single piece of information that captures the notion of diffusion. However, in real social networks individuals simultaneously receive several pieces of information during their communication. Single-objective solutions are inadequate for collective spread of several information pieces. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a Multi-Objective Diffusion Model (MODM) that allows the modeling of complex and nonlinear phenomena of multiple types of information exchange, and calculate the information worth of each individual from different aspects of information spread such as score, influence and diversity. We design evolutionary algorithm to achieve the multi-objectives in single diffusion process. Through extensive experiments on a real world data set, we have observed that MODM leads to a richer and more realistic class of diffusion model compared to a single objective. This signifies the correlation between the importance of each individual and his information processing capability. Our results indicate that some individuals in the network are naturally and significantly better connected in terms of receiving information irrespective of the starting position of the diffusion process.