The Dynamics of Information-Driven Coordination Phenomena: A Transfer Entropy Analysis

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Penn collection
Departmental Papers (ASC)
Degree type
Discipline
Subject
collective phenomena
transfer entropy
dynamical transitions
Communication
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Funder
Grant number
License
Copyright date
Distributor
Related resources
Author
Borge-Holthoefer, Javier
Perra, Nicola
Goncalves, Bruno
Arenas, Alex
Moreno, Yamir
Vespignani, Alessandro
Contributor
Abstract

Data from social media provide unprecedented opportunities to investigate the processes that govern the dynamics of collective social phenomena. We consider an information theoretical approach to define and measure the temporal and structural signatures typical of collective social events as they arise and gain prominence. We use the symbolic transfer entropy analysis of microblogging time series to extract directed networks of influence among geolocalized subunits in social systems. This methodology captures the emergence of system-level dynamics close to the onset of socially relevant collective phenomena. The framework is validated against a detailed empirical analysis of five case studies. In particular, we identify a change in the characteristic time scale of the information transfer that flags the onset of information-driven collective phenomena. Furthermore, our approach identifies an order-disorder transition in the directed network of influence between social subunits. In the absence of clear exogenous driving, social collective phenomena can be represented as endogenously driven structural transitions of the information transfer network. This study provides results that can help define models and predictive algorithms for the analysis of societal events based on open source data.

Advisor
Date Range for Data Collection (Start Date)
Date Range for Data Collection (End Date)
Digital Object Identifier
Series name and number
Publication date
2016-04-01
Journal title
Science Advances
Volume number
Issue number
Publisher
Publisher DOI
Journal Issue
Comments
Borge-Holthoefer, J., Perra, N., Gonçalves, B., González-Bailón, S., Arenas, A., Moreno, Y., Vespignani, A., (2016) “The dynamic of information-driven coordination phenomena: a transfer entropy analysis”. Science Advances, 2(4). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501158
Recommended citation
Collection