Zipf’s power law is a ubiquitous empirical regularity found in many systems, thought to result from proportional growth. Here, we establish empirically the usually assumed ingredients of stochastic growth models that have been previously conjectured to be at the origin of Zipf’s law. We use exceptionally detailed data on the evolution of open source software projects in Linux distributions, which offer a remarkable example of a growing complex self-organizing adaptive system, exhibiting Zipf’s law over four full decades.
Description
Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 218701 (2008) - Empirical Tests of Zipf's Law Mechanism in Open Source Linux Distribution
%0 Journal Article
%1 maillart2008
%A Maillart, T.
%A Sornette, D.
%A Spaeth, S.
%A von Krogh, G.
%D 2008
%I American Physical Society
%J Phys. Rev. Lett.
%K linux mybook sourcecode zipf
%N 21
%P 218701
%R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.218701
%T Empirical Tests of Zipf's Law Mechanism in Open Source Linux Distribution
%U https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.218701
%V 101
%X Zipf’s power law is a ubiquitous empirical regularity found in many systems, thought to result from proportional growth. Here, we establish empirically the usually assumed ingredients of stochastic growth models that have been previously conjectured to be at the origin of Zipf’s law. We use exceptionally detailed data on the evolution of open source software projects in Linux distributions, which offer a remarkable example of a growing complex self-organizing adaptive system, exhibiting Zipf’s law over four full decades.
@article{maillart2008,
abstract = {Zipf’s power law is a ubiquitous empirical regularity found in many systems, thought to result from proportional growth. Here, we establish empirically the usually assumed ingredients of stochastic growth models that have been previously conjectured to be at the origin of Zipf’s law. We use exceptionally detailed data on the evolution of open source software projects in Linux distributions, which offer a remarkable example of a growing complex self-organizing adaptive system, exhibiting Zipf’s law over four full decades.},
added-at = {2017-12-04T18:37:31.000+0100},
author = {Maillart, T. and Sornette, D. and Spaeth, S. and von Krogh, G.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/28eb2ee775cd4e54557c94b541f478ca4/vitelot},
description = {Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 218701 (2008) - Empirical Tests of Zipf's Law Mechanism in Open Source Linux Distribution},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.218701},
interhash = {e2083fdcdd23ca6f2655521cb7f09881},
intrahash = {8eb2ee775cd4e54557c94b541f478ca4},
journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
keywords = {linux mybook sourcecode zipf},
month = nov,
number = 21,
numpages = {4},
pages = 218701,
publisher = {American Physical Society},
timestamp = {2017-12-04T18:37:31.000+0100},
title = {Empirical Tests of Zipf's Law Mechanism in Open Source Linux Distribution},
url = {https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.218701},
volume = 101,
year = 2008
}