Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 6 January 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5757, pp. 88 - 90
DOI: 10.1126/science.1116869
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Empirical Analysis of an Evolving Social Network

Gueorgi Kossinets1* and Duncan J. Watts1,2*

Social networks evolve over time, driven by the shared activities and affiliations of their members, by similarity of individuals' attributes, and by the closure of short network cycles. We analyzed a dynamic social network comprising 43,553 students, faculty, and staff at a large university, in which interactions between individuals are inferred from time-stamped e-mail headers recorded over one academic year and are matched with affiliations and attributes. We found that network evolution is dominated by a combination of effects arising from network topology itself and the organizational structure in which the network is embedded. In the absence of global perturbations, average network properties appear to approach an equilibrium state, whereas individual properties are unstable.

1 Department of Sociology and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, MC 3355, New York, NY 10027, USA.
2 Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gk297{at}columbia.edu (G.K.); djw24{at}columbia.edu (D.J.W.)

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Unlocking the Influence of Leadership Network Structures on Team Conflict and Viability.
P. Balkundi, Z. Barsness, and J. H. Michael (2009)
Small Group Research 40, 301-322
   Abstract »    PDF »
Spatial and Social Networks in Organizational Innovation.
J. D. Wineman, F. W. Kabo, and G. F. Davis (2009)
Environment and Behavior 41, 427-442
   Abstract »    PDF »
Representing the UK's cattle herd as static and dynamic networks.
M. C Vernon and M. J Keeling (2009)
Proc R Soc B 276, 469-476
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study.
J. H Fowler and N. A Christakis (2008)
BMJ 337, a2338
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Factors Related to Willingness to Help Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence.
M. L. Beeble, L. A. Post, D. Bybee, and C. M. Sullivan (2008)
J Interpers Violence 23, 1713-1729
   Abstract »    PDF »
Culture and Education.
M. L. Stevens (2008)
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 619, 97-113
   Abstract »    PDF »
Heterogeneity and Network Structure in the Dynamics of Diffusion: Comparing Agent-Based and Differential Equation Models.
H. Rahmandad and J. Sterman (2008)
Management Science 54, 998-1014
   Abstract »    PDF »
Relating Diarrheal Disease to Social Networks and the Geographic Configuration of Communities in Rural Ecuador.
S. J. Bates, J. Trostle, W. T. Cevallos, A. Hubbard, and J. N. S. Eisenberg (2007)
Am. J. Epidemiol. 166, 1088-1095
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Predicting fate from early connectivity in a social network.
D. B. McDonald (2007)
PNAS 104, 10910-10914
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)