Abstract
We propose a growing network model for a community with a group structure. The community consists of individual members and groups, gatherings of members. The community grows as a new member is introduced by an existing member at each time step. The new member then creates a new group or joins one of the groups of the introducer. We investigate the emerging community structure analytically and numerically. The group size distribution shows a power-law distribution for a variety of growth rules, while the activity distribution follows an exponential or a power law depending on the details of the growth rule. We also present an analysis of empirical data from online communities the "Groups" in http://www.yahoo.com and the "Cafe" in http://www.daum.net, which show a power-law distribution for a wide range of group sizes.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 036131 |
Journal | Physical Review E |
Volume | 71 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2005 |