Maximizing influence via link prediction in evolving networks

Influence Maximization (IM), targeting the optimal selection of $k$ seed nodes to maximize potential information dissemination in prospectively social networks, garners pivotal interest in diverse realms like viral marketing and political discourse dissemination. Despite receiving substantial scholarly attention, prevailing research predominantly addresses the IM problem within the confines of existing networks, thereby neglecting the dynamic evolutionary character of social networks. An inevitable requisite arises to explore the IM problem in social networks of future contexts, which is imperative for certain application scenarios. In this light, we introduce a novel problem, Influence Maximization in Future Networks (IMFN), aimed at resolving the IM problem within an anticipated future network framework. We establish that the IMFN problem is NP-hard and advocate a prospective solution framework, employing judiciously selected link prediction methods to forecast the future network, and subsequently applying a greedy algorithm to select the $k$ most influential nodes. Moreover, we present SCOL (Sketch-based Cost-effective lazy forward selection algorithm Optimized with Labeling technique), a well-designed algorithm to accelerate the query of our IMFN problem. Extensive experimental results, rooted in five real-world datasets, are provided, affirming the efficacy and efficiency of the proffered solution and algorithms.