eprintid: 3570
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/35/70
datestamp: 2016-10-06 10:13:39
lastmod: 2016-10-06 10:13:39
status_changed: 2016-10-06 10:13:39
type: book_section
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: De Nicola, Rocco
creators_name: Maggi, Alessandro
creators_name: Petrocchi, Marinella
creators_name: Spognardi, Angelo
creators_name: Tiezzi, Francesco
creators_id: r.denicola@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: Twitlang(er): Interactions Modeling Language (and Interpreter) for Twitter
ispublished: pub
subjects: QA76
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
note: SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-84944553650; WOS Accession Number: WOS:000365046400023
abstract: Online social networks are widespread means to enact interactive collaboration among people by, e.g., planning events, diffusing information, and enabling discussions. Twitter provides one of the most illustrative example of how people can effectively interact without resorting to traditional communication media. For example, the platform has acted as a unique medium for reliable communication in emergency or for organising cooperative mass actions. This use of Twitter in a cooperative, possibly critical, setting calls for a more precise awareness of the dynamics regulating message spreading. To this aim, in this paper, we propose Twitlang, a formal language to model interactions among Twitter accounts. The operational semantics associated to the language allows users to clearly and precisely determine the effects of actions performed by Twitter accounts, such as post, retweet, reply-to or delete tweets. The language is implemented in the form of a Maude interpreter, Twitlanger, which takes a language term as an input and, automatically or interactively, explores the computations arising from the term. By relying on this interpreter, automatic verification of communication properties of Twitter accounts can be carried out via the analysis tools provided by the Maude framework. We illustrate the benefits of our executable formalisation by means of few simple, yet typical, examples of Twitter interactions, whose effects are somehow subtle.
date: 2015
date_type: published
series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
number: 9276
publisher: Springer
pagerange: 327-343
id_number: doi:10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_23
refereed: TRUE
isbn: 978-3-319-22969-0
issn: 0302-9743
book_title: Software Engineering and Formal Methods. 13th International Conference, SEFM 2015, York, UK, September 7-11, 2015. Proceedings
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22969-0_23
projects: European project IP 257414 ASCENS
projects: European project IP STReP 600708 QUANTICOL
projects: Italian PRIN 2010LHT4KM CINA
citation:   De Nicola, Rocco and Maggi, Alessandro and Petrocchi, Marinella and Spognardi, Angelo and Tiezzi, Francesco  Twitlang(er): Interactions Modeling Language (and Interpreter) for Twitter.   In:  Software Engineering and Formal Methods. 13th International Conference, SEFM 2015, York, UK, September 7-11, 2015. Proceedings.   Lecture Notes in Computer Science  (9276).  Springer, pp. 327-343.  ISBN 978-3-319-22969-0      (2015)