Author: John Lalor, Assistant Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, University of Notre Dame

When bots – automated agents that perform tasks on behalf of humans – become more active in online communities, it has profound effects on how humans interact with each other on those platforms. Bots designed to help users see more content increase the number of people users connect with but also decrease the interactions between people. In online communities, replies, likes and comments between users form a network of interactions. Analysis of these social networks shows patterns, such as who is connecting and who is popular or important in the community. My colleagues Nicholas Berente and Hani Safadi and I…