Research Article

The Spread of Information in Virtual Communities

Table 5

Meaning of features.

Network layerFeature nameSymbolMeaning

FIIDegreeThe number of neighbours of node i
Weighted degreeThe sum of the weights of all edges containing node i
EccentricityThe maximum distance from node i to any other node
Closeness centralityThe reciprocal of the sum of the shortest distances from node i to all other nodes
Harmonic closeness centralityThe number of pairs of distinct nodes j; k both different from node i for which the shortest path between j and k passes through node i
Betweenness centralityThe number of pairs of distinct nodes j; k both different from node i for which the shortest path between j and k passes through node i
Hub scoreLet be the adjacency matrix of the network. The hub score of node i is the i th component of the eigenvector corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue of
Authority scoreIt equals to the weighted sum of its neighbours’ hub score. That is,
Local clustering coefficientIt is given by the proportion of links between the vertices within node i’s neighbourhood divided by the number of links that could possibly exist between them
Eigen centrality1The same as hub score except for we use the matrix adjacency matrix a instead of here

FRIIndegreeThe number of number of edges ending at node i
OutdegreeThe number of number of edges starting at node i
Weighted indegreeThe sum of the weight of all edges ending at node i
Weighted outdegreeThe number of number of edges ending at node i
EccentricitySame as
Closeness centralitySame as
Harmonic closeness centralitySame as
Betweenness centralitySame as
Hub scoreSame as
Authority scoreSame as
Page rank coefficientAn algorithm introduced by Google to rank web pages. It does so by estimating the probability that a person randomly clicking on links will arrive at the given page
Local clustering coefficientIt is given by the proportion of links between the vertices within node’s neighbourhood divided by the number of links that could possibly exist between them