Message from SNAA 2014 program chairs

Social networks have been investigated for many years but until recently the scope of the analyses was limited due to the small size of the available data samples, usually collected through questionnaires and interviews. As a consequence there were no or limited efficiency requirements for the analysis methods. Nowadays vast amounts of data about people and their interactions can be gathered using computer systems, coming from technological-based services such as Online Social Networking Sites, telecommunication services and emails. As a consequence, we are able to extract and analyse social networks consisting of millions of nodes and connections. Due to scale, complexity and dynamicity, these networks are extremely difficult to study using traditional social network analysis methods not optimised in terms of performance. At the same time, data about human communication, common activities and collaboration provide new opportunities for innovative applications.