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A random walk through the Bebo network

Stephen Hardiman ,  Stefan Hutzler ,  Peter Richmond 

Trinity College, Deptartment of Physics, College Green, Dublin Dublin 2, Ireland

Abstract

We examine the characteristics of a real world social network by taking a random walk through the pages of an online social networking website (Bebo, a website popular in Ireland, similar to its more international counterpart, facebook). By examining the statistics of degree and first passage time of walks which return to the initial vertex, we can estimate characteristics of the network such as degree distribution and clustering as well as estimate the overall size of the social network. Our estimate compares well with
figures published in the technical press and media.

 

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Presentation: Oral at International Conference on Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents 2008, by Peter Richmond
See On-line Journal of International Conference on Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents 2008

Submitted: 2008-03-14 17:43
Revised:   2009-06-07 00:48