Local Experts Finding using User Comments in Location-based Social Networks

The opinions of local experts in the location-based social network are of great significance to the collection and dissemination of local information. In this paper, we investigated in-depth how the user comments can be used to identify the local expert over social networks. We first illustrate the existences of potential local experts in a social network using a scored model by considering the personal profiles, comments, friend relationship, and location preferences. Then, a multi-dimensional model is proposed to evaluate the local expert candidates and a local expert discovery algorithm is proposed to identify local experts. Meanwhile, a scoring algorithm is proposed to train the weights in the model. Finally, an expert recommendation list can be given based on the score ranks of the candidates. Experimental results demonstrate that effectiveness of proposed model and algorithms. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Cao, J et al (2019) Local Experts Finding using User Comments in Location-based Social Networks, Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. Which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/21613915. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions