5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: dividing the first original value by the representative maximum value |x j 1 | for the first attribute j 1 at the computing device to form a first scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 for a corresponding first edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 1 ; dividing the second original value x i 1 ,j 2 by the representative maximum value |x j 2 | for the second attribute j 2 at the computing device to form a second scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 for a corresponding second edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 2 ; multiplying the first weighting factor ∝ i 1 ,j 1 for the first edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 1 by the first scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 at the computing device to form a first tie attribute component ∝ 1 {acute over (x)} 1 ; multiplying the second weighting factor ∝ i 1 ,j 2 for the second edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 2 by the second scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 2 at the computing device to form a second tie attribute component ∝ 2 {acute over (x)} 2 ; summing the first tie attribute component ∝ 1 {acute over (x)} 1 and the second tie attribute component ∝ 2 {acute over (x)} 2 at the computing device to obtain a raw composite tie metric S i 1 for the first edge i 1 ; and deriving a normalized composite tie metric F(S i 1 ) for the first edge i 1 at the computing device based at least in part on an exponential function of the raw composite tie metric S i 1 .
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: dividing the first original value by the representative maximum value |x j 1 | for the first attribute j 1 at the computing device to form a first scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 for a corresponding first edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 1 ; dividing the second original value x i 1 ,j 2 by the representative maximum value |x j 2 | for the second attribute j 2 at the computing device to form a second scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 for a corresponding second edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 2 ; multiplying the first weighting factor ∝ i 1 ,j 1 for the first edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 1 by the first scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 1 at the computing device to form a first tie attribute component ∝ 1 {acute over (x)} 1 ; multiplying the second weighting factor ∝ i 1 ,j 2 for the second edge-attribute pair i 1 ,j 2 by the second scaled value {acute over (x)} i 1 ,j 2 at the computing device to form a second tie attribute component ∝ 2 {acute over (x)} 2 ; summing the first tie attribute component ∝ 1 {acute over (x)} 1 and the second tie attribute component ∝ 2 {acute over (x)} 2 at the computing device to obtain a raw composite tie metric S i 1 for the first edge i 1 ; and deriving a normalized composite tie metric F(S i 1 ) for the first edge i 1 at the computing device based at least in part on an exponential function of the raw composite tie metric S i 1 . 8. The method of claim 5 wherein the normalized composite tie metric F(S i 1 ) for the first edge i 1 is based at least in part on the expression: F ⁡ ( S i ) = 1 - exp ⁡ ( - S i ɛ 2 ) where ε is a constant that controls saturation of the normalized composite tie metric F(S i ) in conjunction with the raw composite tie metric S i .