Is there any software or tool that can simulate the spread of information (diffusion) in a social network (Twitter)? [closed]

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What I'm looking for is a way to show graphically, how diffusion would take place in a certain network of Twitter users when some of the users Tweet about a hashtag or link.

Answer 1

Simulating and visualizing the diffusion of information would be two different tasks, probably best handled by different tools. If you use R, you could try the following packages:

• For simulation, EpiModel
• For visualization, ndtv

Those can handle dynamic network data and track - or model - the dissemination process.

In terms of visualizing the spread of information, Gephi (gephi.org) is another option. You would have to add a dynamic node attribute to the data with a value of, say, 0 during the time period before the node gets "infected" (tweets the link/hashtag) - and 1 after. Gephi's timeline would let you visualize your Twitter network over time. You can use "Auto apply" for node color based on the dynamic attribute mentioned above. When a user tweets out the information, the node in the Gephi visualization will change color. This way you can show the diffusion process over time.