Abstract
Apples, porcupines, and the most obscure Bob Dylan song--is every topic a few
clicks from Philosophy? Within Wikipedia, the surprising answer is yes: nearly
all paths lead to Philosophy. Wikipedia is the largest, most meticulously
indexed collection of human knowledge ever amassed. More than information about
a topic, Wikipedia is a web of naturally emerging relationships. By following
the first link in each article, we algorithmically construct a directed network
of all 4.7 million articles: Wikipedia's First Link Network. Here, we study the
English edition of Wikipedia's First Link Network for insight into how the many
articles on inventions, places, people, objects, and events are related and
organized. By traversing every path, we measure the accumulation of first
links, path lengths, groups of path-connected articles, cycles, and the
influence each article exerts in shaping the network. We find scale-free
distributions describe path length, accumulation, and influence. Far from
dispersed, first links disproportionately accumulate at a few articles--flowing
from specific to general and culminating around fundamental notions such as
Community, State, and Science. Philosophy directs more paths than any other
article by two orders of magnitude. We also observe a gravitation towards
topical articles such as Health Care and Fossil Fuel. These findings enrich our
view of the connections and structure of Wikipedia's ever growing store of
knowledge.
Description
[1605.00309] Connecting every bit of knowledge: The structure of Wikipedia's First Link Network
Links and resources
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community