A very theoretical but interesting paper to read on the navigational aspects of social networks is the 2003 paper from Aaron Clauset and (now Dr) Cristopher Moore, written in their time at the Computer Science Department of the University of New Mexico. It's only a couple of pages and it can be downloaded here.
When they discuss rewiring in a social network they come to these conclusions:
This process has a naturalinterpretation: the topology of a social network is constantly being modified by its members, who update their personal connections as they explore and navigate the network. If a member becomes frustrated because the journey to a destination takes too long, they can be expected to change their connections to make similar journeys more quickly in the future.
It would be an interesting paper or study to follow up on their suggestions:
Our discussion contemplates a “social space” consisting of a finite-dimensional lattice, an obviously poor model for the complex social spaces we routinely navigate. An interesting study would be an analogous rewiring process for networks whose underlying structure is hierarchical, involves multiple group affiliations or is otherwise structured, as in the peer-to-peer network Freenet with the modifications described in.
Chris Moore is now a doctor at the Complexity Research of that same univerisity. Other papers that he wrote that people interested in social networks, complexity and communities of practice may wish to have a look at, are:
- Finding community structure in very large networks (PDF)
- Finding local community structure in networks (PDF)
I have added these three documents to my library, they're definitely "good to keep".
This happened at 8:14:17 AM or
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