Patent ID: 8635281

Claim:
A method, comprising: constructing an online author network, wherein constructing the online author network comprises selecting a set of source nodes (S), a set of outlink targets (T), and a set of edges (E) between S and T defined by the at least one selected type of hyperlink from S to T during a specified time period; deriving a set of nodes, T′, by normalizing nodes in T; transforming the online author network into a matrix of source nodes in S linked to targets in T′; partitioning the online author network into at least one set of source nodes with a similar linking history to form an attentive cluster and at least one set of outlink targets with a similar citation profile to form an outlink bundle; generating a graphical representation of attentive clusters and/or outlink bundles in the network to enable interpretation of network features and behavior and calculation of comparative statistical measures across the attentive clusters and outlink bundles, wherein at least one element of the graphical representation depicts a measure of an extent of a type of activity within the network; and measuring frequencies of links between attentive clusters and outlink bundles enabling identification and measurement of large-scale regularities in the distribution of attention by online authors across sources of information.