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 1399693
%A Prieto, Beatriz
%A Tricas, Fernando
%A Merelo, Juan J.
%A Mora, Antonio
%A Prieto, Alberto
%C London, UK, UK
%D 2008
%I Academic Press Ltd.
%J J. Netw. Comput. Appl.
%K visualization social-network-analysis research evolution science
%N 4
%P 677--698
%R http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003
%T Visualizing the evolution of a web-based social network
%U http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1399643.1399693&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=12337301&CFTOKEN=51287037
%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{1399693,
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 = {2009-02-09T19:11:33.000+0100},
address = {London, UK, UK},
author = {Prieto, Beatriz and Tricas, Fernando and Merelo, Juan J. and Mora, Antonio and Prieto, Alberto},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2b70a796ab505ebd87518d360e73a8ff4/anneba},
description = {Visualizing the evolution of a web-based social network},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2007.11.003},
interhash = {7c90bb5f6c78787210943772411527d4},
intrahash = {b70a796ab505ebd87518d360e73a8ff4},
issn = {1084-8045},
journal = {J. Netw. Comput. Appl.},
keywords = {visualization social-network-analysis research evolution science},
number = 4,
pages = {677--698},
publisher = {Academic Press Ltd.},
timestamp = {2009-02-09T19:11:33.000+0100},
title = {Visualizing the evolution of a web-based social network},
url = {http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1399643.1399693&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=12337301&CFTOKEN=51287037},
volume = 31,
year = 2008
}