Decentralised Social Computing

Dr. Bo Yuan

Abstract: All the mainstream online social networking (OSN) service providers have a cloud-based infrastructure that is designed with a logically centralized architecture controlled by a single authority, i.e., the OSN service provider. With massive user data controlled by the provider, users are susceptible to loss of control over ownership of their data and privacy, and users may receive false social information due to deceptive advertisements and unfair censorship. This talk mainly concentrates on the design of the architecture for decentralized OSN (DOSN) which is created through participation by a set of autonomous OSN users collaborating with each other without a centralized repository. The social data are stored in local devices and controlled by end-users rather than OSN providers. The talk also covers how we solve challenges in DOSN by creating efficient communication protocols and information dissemination strategies to harness the resources in millions of end devices without losing user’s data privacy.

Speaker Bio: Dr Bo Yuan is a lecturer in Computer Science and the academic lead of Autonomous System Hub at the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, UK. His research is at the forefront of fields in distributed networks, and artificial intelligence, specifically in the context of designing data-intensive applications and scalable intelligent systems. His research interests include Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Social Computing, Edge Intelligence, Distributed and Decentralised Networks, and Big Data Analytics.

Lecture Review:

Dr. Bo Yuan first introduced and explained that De Centralization is a form of social relations and content generation formed during the development of the Internet, and is a new network content production process relative to "centralization". Then he explained the computer algorithm of decentralized computing around the theme, and cited code cases to analyze and illustrate the characteristics and advantages of decentralized computing.