Are all Social Networks Structurally Similar? A Comparative Study using Network Statistics and Metrics

Aneeq Hashmi (1) , Faraz Zaidi (2) , Arnaud Sallaberry (3, 4) , Tariq Mehmood (1)

1 NUCES | FAST Karachi - Foundation for Advancement of Science and Technology
2 PAF-KIET - PAF Karachi Institute of Economics and Technology
3 TATOO - Fouille de données environnementales
4 UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3

The modern age has seen an exponential growth of social network data available on the web. Analysis of these networks reveal important structural information about these networks in particular and about our societies in general. More often than not, analysis of these networks is concerned in identifying similarities among social networks and how they are different from other networks such as protein interaction networks, computer networks and food web. In this paper, our objective is to perform a critical analysis of different social networks using structural metrics in an effort to highlight their similarities and differences. We use five different social network datasets which are contextually and semantically different from each other. We then analyze these networks using a number of different network statistics and metrics. Our results show that although these social networks have been constructed from different contexts, they are structurally similar. We also review the snowball sampling method and show its vulnerability against different network metrics.

Mots clés: Social Networks; Comparative Analysis; Small World Networks; Scale Free Networks

Domaines: Web; Informatique et théorie des jeux [cs.GT]

Aneeq Hashmi, Faraz Zaidi, Arnaud Sallaberry, Tariq Mehmood. Are all Social Networks Structurally Similar? A Comparative Study using Network Statistics and Metrics. ASONAM 2012, Aug 2012, Istanbul, Turkey. pp.1-8. ⟨hal-00877867⟩