The Influence of Distance, Time, and Communication Network Structures on the Choice of Communication Partners

This paper introduces a new model framework that can help to understand communication stream dynamics that depend on structures in different networks. It is related to the framework of stochastic actor-oriented models for panel data (SAOM). As an exemplary case study, the dynamic communication patterns of parts of the MIT Reality Mining data set are analyzed. It is shown that the patterns of phone calls are significantly influenced by spatial distance, time effects and different communication network structures.