Effective Edge-Based Approach for Promoting the Spreading of Information

Real–world systems, ranging from social to infrastructural, can be abstracted into complex networks. Promoting the spreading of some typical information (for instance, the commercial message, vaccination guidance, innovation, and political movement) on these networked systems can bring benefits to all aspects of society. In this study, we propose an effective edge-based approach for promoting the spreading of information on complex networks. Specifically, we first quantify the potential influence that the addition of each latent edge (that is, edges that do not exist before) could cause to the information spreading dynamics. Then, we strategically add the latent edges to the original networks according to the potential influence of each latent edge. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of our strategy and demonstrate that our strategy outperforms several static strategies, namely, adding the latent edges between nodes with the largest degree or eigenvector centrality. This study provides an effective way to promote the spreading of information by modifying the network structure slightly and helps in understanding what a better network structure for the spreading dynamics is. Besides, the theoretical framework established in this study provides inspirations for the further investigations of edge–based promoting strategies for other spreading dynamics.