Towards A Redefinition of Time in Information Networks?

Sébastien Heymann (1) , Bénédicte Le Grand (2)

1 ComplexNetworks
2 CRI - Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Paris 1

How should we characterize the dynamics of the Web? Whereas network maps have contributed to a redefinition of distances and space in information networks, current studies still use a traditional time unit -the second- to understand the temporality of the Web. This unit leads to the observation of exogenous phenomena like day-night patterns. In order to capture the intrinsic dynamics of the network, we introduce an innovative -yet simple- concept of time which relies on the measure of changes in the network space. We demonstrate its practical interest on the evolution of the Github social network.

Mots clés: Time; dynamics; measurement; complex networks; social network; sliding window

Domaines: Web

Sébastien Heymann, Bénédicte Le Grand. Towards A Redefinition of Time in Information Networks?. WebSci 2013 - 5th Annual ACM Web Science Conference, May 2013, Paris, France. pp.158-161, ⟨10.1145/2464464.2464498⟩. ⟨hal-00828705⟩