Method and apparatus for joint analysis of social and content networks

A computer program product in a computer readable medium for analyzing integrated social and content networks, the computer program product comprising:

• first instructions for specifying a social network comprising multiple user nodes, at least some of the user nodes being joined to one another by one or more internal links;
• second instructions for specifying a content network comprising multiple content nodes, wherein at least some of said content nodes comprise multimedia content;
• third instructions for analyzing data elements associated with respective nodes of said user and content networks, in order to identify a set of nodes comprising at least first and second user nodes and first and second content nodes, wherein two of said nodes comprise end nodes;
• fourth instructions for further analyzing said data elements to identify at least three commonality links that collectively join all the nodes of said set together, into a structure that defines a loop extending between said end nodes;
• and
• fifth instructions for determining whether a further link is a valid commonality link, wherein said further link is initially inferred to extend between said two end nodes of said set, and to cooperatively join with said at least three identified commonality links to form a closed loop.

An apparatus for analyzing integrated social and content networks comprising:

• a component for specifying a social network comprising multiple user nodes, at least some of the user nodes being joined to one another by one or more internal links;
• a component for specifying a content network comprising multiple content nodes, wherein at least some of said content nodes comprise multimedia content;
• a component for analyzing data elements associated with respective nodes of said user and content networks, in order to identify a set of nodes comprising at least first and second user nodes and first and second content nodes, wherein two of said nodes comprise end nodes;
• a component for further analyzing said data elements to identify at least three commonality links that collectively join all the nodes of said set together, into a structure that defines an open loop extending between said end nodes;
• and
• a component for determining whether a further link is a valid commonality link, wherein said further link is initially inferred to extend between said two end nodes of said set, and to cooperatively join with said at least three identified commonality links to form a closed loop.