Rethinking centrality: the role of dynamical processes in social network analysis

DOI10.3934/DCDSB.2014.19.1355MaRDI QIDQ478270zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Rumi Ghosh, Kristina Lerman

Publication date 3 December 2014

Published in Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems. Series B (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1209.4616

zbMATH Keywords

centralityepidemicsinfluencerandom walkssocial mediasocial network analysis

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of dynamical systems (37N99) Applications of statistics to social sciences (62P25) Graph theory (including graph drawing) in computer science (68R10) Social networks; opinion dynamics (91D30)

Abstract: Many popular measures used in social network analysis, including centrality, are based on the random walk. The random walk is a model of a stochastic process where a node interacts with one other node at a time. However, the random walk may not be appropriate for modeling social phenomena, including epidemics and information diffusion, in which one node may interact with many others at the same time, for example, by broadcasting the virus or information to its neighbors. To produce meaningful results, social network analysis algorithms have to take into account the nature of interactions between the nodes. In this paper we classify dynamical processes as conservative and non-conservative and relate them to well-known measures of centrality used in network analysis: PageRank and Alpha-Centrality. We demonstrate, by ranking users in online social networks used for broadcasting information, that non-conservative Alpha-Centrality generally leads to a better agreement with an empirical ranking scheme than the conservative PageRank.

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Cites work

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• Dynamical Processes on Complex Networks
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1058056 (Why is no real title available?)
• RANDOM WALKS ON DIRECTED NETWORKS: THE CASE OF PAGERANK
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Cited in

(12)

• Outer synchronization of delayed coupled systems on networks without strong connectedness: a hierarchical method
• Random walks and diffusion on networks
• Searchability of central nodes in networks
• A simple centrality index for scientific social recognition
• Extending the Adapted PageRank Algorithm centrality model for urban street networks using non-local random walks
• A novel method of generating tunable network topologies for social simulation
• A dynamical systems view of network centrality
• Eigenvector-based centrality measures for temporal networks
• Branching processes reveal influential nodes in social networks
• Non-conservative diffusion and its application to social network analysis
• Threshold protocol game on graphs with magic square-generalization labelings
• Preface to special issue on ``Mathematics of Social Systems

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