Defining a Universal Actor Content-Element Model for Exploring Social and Information Networks Considering the Temporal Dynamic

The emergence of the social Web offers new opportunities for scientists to explore open virtual communities. Various approaches have appeared in terms of statistical evaluation, descriptive studies and network analyses, which pursue an enhanced understanding of existing mechanisms developing from the interplay of technical and social infrastructures. Unfortunately, at the moment, all these approaches are separate and no integrated approach exists. This gap is filled by our proposal of a concept which is composed of a universal description model, temporal network definitions, and a measurement system. The approach addresses the necessary interpretation of social Web communities as dynamic systems. In addition to the explicated models, a software tool is briefly introduced employing the specified models. Furthermore, a scenario is used where an extract from the Wikipedia database shows the practical application of the software.