Approach to Studying Information Dissemination in Social Networks with Simulation Tools

To understand information dissemination researchers must combine different methods. The lack of social network research tools combining different analysis methods is a problem for users. An approach to studying social networks based on using simulation system TriadNS is proposed in paper. The important characteristics of social networks and the metrics that allow you to evaluate them are discussed. Information dissemination models are described. The paper provides a description of simulation tools to explore both structural characteristics and dynamic behavior of social networks, to study not only virtual networks, but also real ones. The results of calculating and visualizing different metrics and executing simulation experiments are demonstrated.