Groups are a good way to connect to other residents that have a common interest, to manage land or to control land access and capabilities. It is one of the more important community building features of Second Life.
The list of groups of a resident reflects his interests and activities in Second Life. Often residents subscribe to many groups with similar interests. This behaviour makes it possible to create a social network of groups.
We have looked at the relation between groups by counting the number of common members of groups. If a large proportion of the members of two groups are the same we consider the groups to be highly related. After determining the relationship between many groups we created a network that shows how groups are related.
You can use this information to find out which Socialverse Appgroups might be of interest to you. If you are a member of a group on sailing in SL, you can find out which other groups the group members are subscribed to. If you are Italian and already subscribed to a group for Italians, you can find out which other groups might also interest you.
The relationship between two groups is given by the thickness of the line, while the number of members in a group determines the size of the coloured node. The type of groups, if it was possible to identify it automatically, is shown by its colour. Possible types are Business and Economy, Entertainment, Companies, Recreation, Regions, …
We have not scanned groups smaller than 5 members and have not included relationships based on less than 5 common members. At this moment (June 2011), we have not scanned all second life groups. So far, only 20-30% of all SL groups are checked and their relationships were calculated. Note that to determine the relationship of 100,000 groups you have to make 100,000 * 100,000 = 10 billion comparisons. Today we have discovered more than 300,000 groups. We started this analysis the beginning of the Socialverse year and hope to have more than 80% covered by the end of this year. If somebody has some huge (free) processing power at his disposal, please contact us.
You find the Social Network of Second Life Groups at http://www.metaverse-business.com/sna3.php. You can enter the name of a group to see the network or click on a group (node) to see how that group is connected. A list is also shown with the relationship (strength) of the 30 most connected groups. Clicking on a group name in this list also shows the network of the selected group.
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