Information and Knowledge Management in Networks
The formation of preferences in networks depends on the way information is structured and exchanged in
networks [4]. Many researchers have been focused in networks with the use of computational methods [5-19].
The structure of networks as well as their influence is directly related to the political knowledge that exists in
networks. Political knowledge focuses on political information that is produced, consumed, circulated in the
network and derives from different kind of sources. The information is assessed for its quality, reliability and
validity [4]. The members of the network manage the political information and give it relative importance
forming with that way the political knowledge of the network [4]. The way people in networks interact with
information is a process uncontrollable and unconscious [4] that just happens as they participate in a network.
Most of the times the access in the information is mediated [3]. That means that a member or some members
undertake the reproduction and the diffusion of the information. The research in networks faces many challenges.
One of these challenges is to understand the connection among knowledge and influence at the formation of
preferences [3]. Laumann and Cuttman [20] described the personal and friendly networks as important structural
formations for the development and the diffusion of the information. Troldahl and Van Dam [21] inaugurated the
notion of knowledge diffusion.