Evolutionary Modeling of a Blog Network

title = "Evolutionary Modeling of a Blog Network",

author = "Telmo Menezes",

pages = "908--915",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation",

year = "2011",

editor = "Alice E. Smith",

month = "5-8 " # jun,

address = "New Orleans, USA",

organization = "IEEE Computational Intelligence Society",

publisher = "IEEE Press",

ISBN = "0-7803-8515-2",

keywords = "genetic algorithms, genetic programming, Classification, clustering, data analysis and data mining, Coevolution and collective behaviour",

DOI = "

doi:10.1109/CEC.2011.5949715",

abstract = "A common approach to produce theory to explain the genesis and dynamics of complex networks is to create multi-agent simulations that output networks with similar characteristics to the ones derived from real data. For example, a well know explanation for the power law degree distributions found in blog (and other) networks is the agent-level endogenous mechanism of preferential attachment. However, once simplifying assumptions are dropped, finding lower level behaviours that explain global network features can become difficult. One case, explored in this paper, is that of modelling a blog network generated by human agents with heterogeneous behaviours and a priori diversity. We propose an approach based on an hybrid strategy, combining a generic behavioural template created by a human designer with a set of programs evolved using genetic programming. We present experimental results that illustrate how this approach can be successfully used to discover a set of non-trivial agent-level behaviours that generate a network that fits observed data. We then use the model to make successful testable predictions about the real data. We analyse the diversity of behaviours found in the evolved model by clustering the agents according to the execution paths their programs take during the simulation. We show that these clusters map to different behaviours, giving credence to the need for exogenous, in addition to the more conventional endogenous explanations, for the dynamics of blog networks.",

notes = "CEC2011 sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society, and previously sponsored by the EPS and the IET.",