Network Communities

[James Brody]

"Abstract. We survey some of the concepts, methods, and applications of community detection, which has become an increasingly important area of network science. To help ease newcomers into the field, we provide a guide to available methodology and open problems, and discuss why scientists from diverse backgrounds are interested in these problems. As a running theme, we emphasize the connections of community detection to problems in statistical physics and computational optimization."

Also worth a thought:
"Agents in such networked systems play the role of the particles in traditional statistical mechanics that we all know and (presumably) love..." Porter, Onnela, & Mucha 2009

"Presumably" hell! Nonshared environment? Certainly! And a splendid example of the sync that occurs between similar entities, in this case, the mind of a scientist and that of what he studies.

A good introduction to an important topic...

JimB

Twenty-seven pages more at http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0902/0902.3788v1.pdf

References:
Porter MA, Onnela J-K, & Mucha P (2009) Communities in Networks. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0902/0902.3788v1.pdf
Strogatz, S. (2003) Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. NY: Hyperion.
Brody J (2008) Rebellion: Physics to Personal Will. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse.(Esp. Chapters 2, 3, & 5)

[ToddStark]

Thanks for posting this. Structural patterns are very useful but only part of the larger concept of network communities. They don't neccessarily map onto people the way we would tend to assume from them. At the very end, the authors bring up this important distinction between seeking structural communities and seeking functional communities, which often requires additional information about the nodes. It complicates the model, but makes it more realistic in more cases.

[ToddStark]

Article questions whether online social networks are expanding our circle of friends. Concludes that the "Dunbar circle" remains at its evolved size but that we also broadcast ourselves to a wider circle now.

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13176775

Put differently, people who are members of online social networks are not so much “networking” as they are “broadcasting their lives to an outer tier of acquaintances who aren’t necessarily inside the Dunbar circle,” says Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a polling organisation. Humans may be advertising themselves more efficiently. But they still have the same small circles of intimacy as ever.