arXiv subjects

Taha Yasseri

Publications and source records attributed to Taha Yasseri.

78 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Opinions, Conflicts and Consensus: Modeling Social Dynamics in a Collaborative Environment

Information-communication technology promotes collaborative environments like Wikipedia where, however, controversiality and conflicts can appear. To describe the rise, persistence, and resolution of such conflicts we devise an extended opinion dynamics model where agents with different opinions perform a single task to make a consensual product. As a function of the convergence parameter describing the influence of the product on the agents, the model shows spontaneous symmetry breaking of the final consensus opinion represented by the medium. In the case when agents are replaced with new ones at a certain rate, a transition from mainly consensus to a perpetual conflict occurs, which is in qualitative agreement with the scenarios observed in Wikipedia.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2012

A practical approach to language complexity: a Wikipedia case study

In this paper we present statistical analysis of English texts from Wikipedia. We try to address the issue of language complexity empirically by comparing the simple English Wikipedia (Simple) to comparable samples of the main English Wikipedia (Main). Simple is supposed to use a more simplified language with a limited vocabulary, and editors are explicitly requested to follow this guideline, yet in practice the vocabulary richness of both samples are at the same level. Detailed analysis of longer units (n-grams of words and part of speech tags) shows that the language of Simple is less complex than that of Main primarily due to the use of shorter sentences, as opposed to drastically simplified syntax or vocabulary. Comparing the two language varieties by the Gunning readability index supports this conclusion. We also report on the topical dependence of language complexity, e.g. that the language is more advanced in conceptual articles compared to person-based (biographical) and object-based articles. Finally, we investigate the relation between conflict and language complexity by analyzing the content of the talk pages associated to controversial and peacefully developing articles, concluding that controversy has the effect of reducing language complexity.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2012

Dynamics of conflicts in Wikipedia

In this work we study the dynamical features of editorial wars in Wikipedia (WP). Based on our previously established algorithm, we build up samples of controversial and peaceful articles and analyze the temporal characteristics of the activity in these samples. On short time scales, we show that there is a clear correspondence between conflict and burstiness of activity patterns, and that memory effects play an important role in controversies. On long time scales, we identify three distinct developmental patterns for the overall behavior of the articles. We are able to distinguish cases eventually leading to consensus from those cases where a compromise is far from achievable. Finally, we analyze discussion networks and conclude that edit wars are mainly fought by few editors only.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2012

Edit wars in Wikipedia

We present a new, efficient method for automatically detecting severe conflicts `edit wars' in Wikipedia and evaluate this method on six different language WPs. We discuss how the number of edits, reverts, the length of discussions, the burstiness of edits and reverts deviate in such pages from those following the general workflow, and argue that earlier work has significantly over-estimated the contentiousness of the Wikipedia editing process.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2011

Circadian patterns of Wikipedia editorial activity: A demographic analysis

Wikipedia (WP) as a collaborative, dynamical system of humans is an appropriate subject of social studies. Each single action of the members of this society, i.e. editors, is well recorded and accessible. Using the cumulative data of 34 Wikipedias in different languages, we try to characterize and find the universalities and differences in temporal activity patterns of editors. Based on this data, we estimate the geographical distribution of editors for each WP in the globe. Furthermore we also clarify the differences among different groups of WPs, which originate in the variance of cultural and social features of the communities of editors.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2011

A Monte Carlo study of surface sputtering by dual and rotated ion beams

Several, recently proposed methods of surface manufacturing based on ion beam sputtering, which involve dual beam setups, sequential application of ion beams from different directions, or sample rotation, are studied with the method of kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of ion beam erosion and surface diffusion. In this work, we only consider erosion dominated situations. The results are discussed by comparing them to a number of theoretical propositions and to experimental findings. Two ion-beams aligned opposite to each other produce stationary, symmetric ripples. Two ion beams crossing at right angle will produce square patterns only, if they are exactly balanced. In all other cases of crossed beams, ripple patterns are created, and their orientations are shown to be predictable from linear continuum theory. In sequential ion beam sputtering we find a very rapid destruction of structures created from the previous beam direction after a rotation step, which leads to a transient decrease of overall roughness. Superpositions of patterns from several rotation steps are difficult to obtain, as they exist only in very short time windows. In setups with a single beam directed towards a rotating sample, we find a non-monotonic dependence of roughness on rotation frequency, with a very pronounced minimum appearing at the frequency scale set by the relaxation of prestructures observed in sequential ion beam setups. Furthermore we find that the logarithm of the height of structures decreases proportional to the inverse frequency.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗