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From seconds to months: an overview of multi-scale dynamics of mobile telephone calls

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Abstract

Big Data on electronic records of social interactions allow approaching human behaviour and sociality from a quantitative point of view with unforeseen statistical power. Mobile telephone Call Detail Records (CDRs), automatically collected by telecom operators for billing purposes, have proven especially fruitful for understanding one-to-one communication patterns as well as the dynamics of social networks that are reflected in such patterns. We present an overview of empirical results on the multi-scale dynamics of social dynamics and networks inferred from mobile telephone calls. We begin with the shortest timescales and fastest dynamics, such as burstiness of call sequences between individuals, and “zoom out” towards longer temporal and larger structural scales, from temporal motifs formed by correlated calls between multiple individuals to long-term dynamics of social groups. We conclude this overview with a future outlook.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Aalto University School of Science, P.O. Box 15400, 00076, Aalto, Finland

    Jari Saramäki

  2. Departamento de Matemáticas & GISC, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain

    Esteban Moro

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  1. Jari Saramäki
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  2. Esteban Moro
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Correspondence to Jari Saramäki.

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Saramäki, J., Moro, E. From seconds to months: an overview of multi-scale dynamics of mobile telephone calls. Eur. Phys. J. B 88, 164 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60106-6

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