Stochastic sharing calculus for reasoning about social networks

Abstract

Abstract We study the dynamics of information sharing in web-based social networks and analyse in a stochastic manner some aspects of this phenomenon. We define the stochastic sharing calculus by considering probabilistic factors and stochastic evolutions that could be analysed statistically. A rate-based operational semantics allows specific observations and results regarding sharing in web-based social networks. To reason about the dynamics of the social networks, we verify statistically various aspects of information sharing expressed in CTL by employing an existing statistical model checker (after a translation of our processes into stochastic automata). Some queries related to the stochastic behaviours in social networks are illustrated by a running example.