Weblogs are dynamic websites updated via easy-to-use content management systems and organized as a set of chronologically ordered stories, frequently built around a link or including links to other weblogs. Since they are managed by individuals, their links tend to mirror or, in some cases, establish new types of social relations, thereby creating a social network. Studying the evolution of this network allows the discovery of emerging social structures and their growth trends. In this paper, we demonstrate the advantages of using the self-organizing maps (SOM) to visualize the evolution of a social network formed by a set of blogs, from their beginning to their current state. By observing the position a weblog is mapped to, it is easy to see what communities it belongs to nowadays, and how and when it became a part of those communities. The proposed procedure gives some insight on how communities are formed and have evolved. In this study, we apply this method to Blogalia, a blog-hosting site from which we have obtained a complete set of data and, by using SOM projections, we have drawn some conclusions on what drives the evolution of its implicit social network.
%0 Journal Article
%1 PrietoTricasMereloMoraPriero08
%A Prieto, B.
%A Tricas, F.
%A Merelo, J.
%A Mora, A.
%A Prieto, A.
%D 2008
%J Journal of Network and Computer Applications
%K autor, citeulike evolution, kohonen, nuestro, som, visualization, weblogs
%N 4
%P 677--698
%R 10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003
%T Visualizing the evolution of a web-based social network
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003
%V 31
%X Weblogs are dynamic websites updated via easy-to-use content management systems and organized as a set of chronologically ordered stories, frequently built around a link or including links to other weblogs. Since they are managed by individuals, their links tend to mirror or, in some cases, establish new types of social relations, thereby creating a social network. Studying the evolution of this network allows the discovery of emerging social structures and their growth trends. In this paper, we demonstrate the advantages of using the self-organizing maps (SOM) to visualize the evolution of a social network formed by a set of blogs, from their beginning to their current state. By observing the position a weblog is mapped to, it is easy to see what communities it belongs to nowadays, and how and when it became a part of those communities. The proposed procedure gives some insight on how communities are formed and have evolved. In this study, we apply this method to Blogalia, a blog-hosting site from which we have obtained a complete set of data and, by using SOM projections, we have drawn some conclusions on what drives the evolution of its implicit social network.
@article{PrietoTricasMereloMoraPriero08,
abstract = {{Weblogs are dynamic websites updated via easy-to-use content management systems and organized as a set of chronologically ordered stories, frequently built around a link or including links to other weblogs. Since they are managed by individuals, their links tend to mirror or, in some cases, establish new types of social relations, thereby creating a social network. Studying the evolution of this network allows the discovery of emerging social structures and their growth trends. In this paper, we demonstrate the advantages of using the self-organizing maps (SOM) to visualize the evolution of a social network formed by a set of blogs, from their beginning to their current state. By observing the position a weblog is mapped to, it is easy to see what communities it belongs to nowadays, and how and when it became a part of those communities. The proposed procedure gives some insight on how communities are formed and have evolved. In this study, we apply this method to Blogalia, a blog-hosting site from which we have obtained a complete set of data and, by using SOM projections, we have drawn some conclusions on what drives the evolution of its implicit social network.}},
added-at = {2017-09-08T10:52:59.000+0200},
author = {Prieto, B. and Tricas, F. and Merelo, J. and Mora, A. and Prieto, A.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2a6c685aa6f116e49282564cc40430e28/fernand0},
citeulike-article-id = {2245746},
citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003},
citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WKB-4R466K0-1/2/b82f2f04e7b8d40a21cf8522efe284d5},
doi = {10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003},
interhash = {7c90bb5f6c78787210943772411527d4},
intrahash = {a6c685aa6f116e49282564cc40430e28},
issn = {10848045},
journal = {Journal of Network and Computer Applications},
keywords = {autor, citeulike evolution, kohonen, nuestro, som, visualization, weblogs},
month = nov,
number = 4,
pages = {677--698},
posted-at = {2011-03-04 11:12:08},
priority = {5},
timestamp = {2017-09-08T10:53:23.000+0200},
title = {{Visualizing the evolution of a web-based social network}},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003},
volume = 31,
year = 2008
}