%0 Journal Article
%@ 1539-3755
%A Capocci, Andrea
%A Servedio, Vito D. P.
%A Colaiori, Francesca
%A Buriol, Luciana
%A Donato, Debora
%A Leonardi, Stefano
%A Caldarelli, Guido
%D 2006
%F eprints:1109
%I American Physical Society
%J Physical Review E
%K PACS: 89.75.Hc; 89.75.Da; 89.75.Fb
%N 3
%T Preferential attachment in the growth of social networks: the internet encyclopedia Wikipedia
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1109/
%V 74
%X We present an analysis of the statistical properties and growth of the free on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia. By describing topics by vertices and hyperlinks between them as edges, we can represent this encyclopedia as a directed graph. The topological properties of this graph are in close analogy with those of the World Wide Web, despite the very different growth mechanism. In particular, we measure a scale-invariant distribution of the in and out degree and we are able to reproduce these features by means of a simple statistical model. As a major consequence, Wikipedia growth can be described by local rules such as the preferential attachment mechanism, though users, who are responsible of its evolution, can act globally on the network.
%Z © 2006 American Physical Society