Berlin 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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AKSOE: Arbeitskreis Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
AKSOE 5: Social-, Information-, and Production Networks I
AKSOE 5.2: Vortrag
Montag, 25. Februar 2008, 16:30–17:00, EW 203
Transient innovations - the case of blog hypes — Werner Ebeling1, •Andrea Scharnhorst2, and Mike Thelwall3 — 1Humboldt University Berlin, Germany — 2VKS-KNAW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands — 3University of Wolverhampton, UK
What triggers sudden bursts in public debates on specific topics, such as the recent hype on bird flu, blog discussions about bomb attacks, or the on-going debate on climate changes? How do mathematical approaches from physics contribute to a better understanding of complex communication pattern? In this paper, we look into 'hype phenomena' in on-line communication. We investigate to what extent increasing activity (visible in rapid growth) is related to structural changes in a system. We take as an example hype phenomena in blogs. We present a model based on different types of bloggers to explain hypes as a result of their non-linear interaction. In particular, we introduce the notion of 'transient innovations'. We place 'transient innovations' in a taxonomy of 'innovations' using concepts of complex dynamic systems as trajectories, attractor space. We discuss 'transient innovations' as temporary, but instable changes. The paper is part of the EU-funded research project Critical Events in Evolving Networks, CREEN (www.creen.org) that brings together theoretical physicists, information scientists, and social scientists in their shared effort to study the complex dynamics of the public communication of science and technology, as well as sudden developments within the sciences.