How social networking evolves

Here is a great paper posted on arxiv.org by Haibo Hu and Xiaofan Wang, from the Complex Networks and Control Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai China discussing the evolution of Online Social Networks.

They based their study on on the internet community, Wealink, "one of the largest OSNs in China at present" and have some very interesting findings.

One of which is a clear definition of the three stages of social networking: "an initial upward trend leading to a peak, followed by a decline, and the final gradual steady increase".

They say that:

"A possible reason is that right after the establishment of the OSN, there was an initial excitement among a few enthusiasts who joined the network and frantically invited many of their friends to join; this gives rise to the first stage that culminates in a peak. The second stage corresponds to a natural dying-out of this euphoria and this leads to the decline. Finally the network appears to arrive at equilibrium and its density seems to converge to constant.-- the initial excitement period characterised by high number of friends."

Definitely worth a read.

Thanks to Glennz Tees for the image. Wicked idea