Paper abstract: We introduce a new diffusion property to characterize different models of social networks; the “Degree
of Diffusion a ”. The degree of diffusion a introduced in this work is a totally new parameter. It
relates the ratio of adopters over the non-adopters to the penetration depth in a diffusion process over a
social network. It predicts the future possible adopters within any diffusion process. Each social network
model is found to have a different diffusion characteristic value: Random a =148, Small-World
a =4.56 and Scale-Free a =1.50. A case study of a Real Social Network (Virtual Friendship Network)
is found to have a value of a =29.58 which characterizes the network to be between Random and a
Small-World network models
Keywords:
Diffusion, Social Network, Adoption rate, Penetration depth, Bimodal map
