Mechanisms of self-organized criticality in social processes of knowledge creation

Bosiljka Tadić, Marija Mitrović Dankulov, and Roderick Melnik
Phys. Rev. E 96, 032307 – Published 5 September 2017

Abstract

In online social dynamics, a robust scale invariance appears as a key feature of collaborative efforts that lead to new social value. The underlying empirical data thus offers a unique opportunity to study the origin of self-organized criticality (SOC) in social systems. In contrast to physical systems in the laboratory, various human attributes of the actors play an essential role in the process along with the contents (cognitive, emotional) of the communicated artifacts. As a prototypical example, we consider the social endeavor of knowledge creation via Questions and Answers (Q&A). Using a large empirical data set from one of such Q&A sites and theoretical modeling, we reveal fundamental characteristics of SOC by investigating the temporal correlations at all scales and the role of cognitive contents to the avalanches of the knowledge-creation process. Our analysis shows that the universal social dynamics with power-law inhomogeneities of the actions and delay times provides the primary mechanism for self-tuning towards the critical state; it leads to the long-range correlations and the event clustering in response to the external driving by the arrival of new users. In addition, the involved cognitive contents (systematically annotated in the data and observed in the model) exert important constraints that identify unique classes of the knowledge-creation avalanches. Specifically, besides determining a fine structure of the developing knowledge networks, they affect the values of scaling exponents and the geometry of large avalanches and shape the multifractal spectrum. Furthermore, we find that the level of the activity of the communities that share the knowledge correlates with the fluctuations of the innovation rate, implying that the increase of innovation may serve as the active principle of self-organization. To identify relevant parameters and unravel the role of the network evolution underlying the process in the social system under consideration, we compare the social avalanches to the avalanche sequences occurring in the field-driven physical model of disordered solids, where the factors contributing to the collective dynamics are better understood.

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  • Received 17 May 2017
  • Revised 4 August 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.96.032307

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

NetworksStatistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Bosiljka Tadić1, Marija Mitrović Dankulov2, and Roderick Melnik3

  • 1Department of Theoretical Physics, Jožef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2Scientific Computing Laboratory, Center for the Study of Complex Systems, Institute of Physics Belgrade, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11080 Belgrade, Serbia
  • 3MS2Discovery Interdisciplinary Research Institute, M2NeT Laboratory and Department of Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 3 — September 2017

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