Eur. Phys. J. B 83, 525-529 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2011-20478-1

Regular Article

Virtual communities? The Middle East revolutions at the Guardian forum: Comment Is Free

¹ Sandtable Ltd., 20-22 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4EB, UK
² MES Group, The London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK

^a e-mail: berni-kujawski@gmail.com

Received: 15 June 2011
Received in final form: 11 September 2011
Published online: 24 October 2011

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of virtual community formation in an online social network under a rapid increase of activity of members and newcomers. The evolution is studied of the activity of online users at the Guardian – Comment Is Free forum – covering topics related to the Middle East turmoil during the period of 1st of January 2010 to the 28th of March 2011. Despite a threefold upsurge of forum users and the formation of a giant component, the main network characteristics, i.e. degree and weight distribution and clustering coefficient, remained almost unchanged.