Networks are used to represent the structure of complex systems, including the Internet or social networks, but often these descriptions are biased or incomplete. Now, researchers at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) have shown that it’s possible to extract automatically the hierarchical structure of networks. The researchers say their results ’suggest that hierarchy is a central organizing principle of complex networks, capable of offering insight into many network phenomena.’ They also think that their algorithms can be applied to almost every kind of networks, from biochemical networks (protein interaction networks, metabolic networks or genetic regulatory networks) to communities in social networks. But read more…
Networks are used to represent the structure of complex systems, including the Internet or social networks, but often these descriptions are biased or incomplete. Now, researchers at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) have shown that it’s possible to extract automatically the hierarchical structure of networks. The researchers say their results ’suggest that hierarchy is a [...]
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@ 04:28
When I think of my social networks (of the nonprofessional variety), they are not hierarchical at all. It’s more like a concentric web with different people at different levels of closeness (horizontal, not vertical). Hierarchy implies a differential level of power and authority and, at least among my friends and associates, a focus on that will soon get you booted or placed on the periphery (distant edge) of a social network.