Abstract
In this paper we model user behaviour in Twitter to capture the emergence of trending topics. For this purpose, we first extensively analyse tweet datasets of several different events. In particular, for these datasets, we construct and investigate the retweet graphs. We find that the retweet graph for a trending topic has a relatively dense largest connected component (LCC). Next, based on the insights obtained from the analyses of the datasets, we design a mathematical model that describes the evolution of a retweet graph by three main parameters. We then quantify, analytically and by simulation, the influence of the model parameters on the basic characteristics of the retweet graph, such as the density of edges and the size and density of the LCC. Finally, we put the model in practice, estimate its parameters and compare the resulting behavior of the model to our datasets.
The work of Nelly Litvak is partially supported the EU-FET Open grant NADINE (288956).
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ten Thij, M., Ouboter, T., Worm, D., Litvak, N., van den Berg, H., Bhulai, S. (2014). Modelling of Trends in Twitter Using Retweet Graph Dynamics. In: Bonato, A., Graham, F., Prałat, P. (eds) Algorithms and Models for the Web Graph. WAW 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8882. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13123-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13123-8_11
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