Title: The structure of the Georgian blogosphere and its implications for information diffusion

Authors: Zakaria Babutsidze; Tengiz Lomitashvili; Koba Turmanidze

Addresses: OFCE Sciences Po, 250 Rue Albert Einstein, 06560 Valbonne, France; SKEMA Business School, 60 Rue Dostoievski, 06902 Sophia Antipolis, France; Center for Social Sciences, 3 Chavchavadze Avenue, 0179 Tbilisi, Georgia ' Center for Social Sciences, 3 Chavchavadze Avenue, 0179 Tbilisi, Georgia ' Center for Social Sciences, 3 Chavchavadze Avenue, 0179 Tbilisi, Georgia; Caucasus Research Resource Center, 16 Zandukeli Street, 0108 Tbilisi, Georgia

Abstract: We present the first study on the Georgian blogosphere. The complete dataset on Georgian bloggers is collected and analysed using social network analysis tools. We identify the network's core-periphery structure. The results indicate that, after excluding unimportant peripheral blogs that do not actively participate in the system, the Georgian blogosphere is compact. The core of the system cannot be partitioned into communities by any observable characteristics. Therefore, we perform a community detection exercise. We identify two large communities and analyse their behaviour, internal architecture and inter-community interactions.

Keywords: blogosphere; social network analysis; SNA; online communities; virtual communities; web based communities; centrality; Georgia; blogs; weblogs; community detection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNM.2013.059070

International Journal of Social Network Mining, 2013 Vol.1 No.3/4, pp.280 - 297

Received: 25 Sep 2012
Accepted: 26 Feb 2013

Published online: 02 Jul 2014 *

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