Data Collection
Data was collected for ~3 days, May 10, 1:00pm through May 13, 1:00pm. Data was sampled using the Twitter Search API once every 15 minutes, 96 samples per day, 288 total samples, 28443 total tweets, and 21190 unique users. Each sample requested the maximum number of tweets allowed for free which is 100 tweets. Some samples fell short of this maximum (see figure for Tweet Counts Per Sample). Tweet data was saved as text files in json format.
Time vs. Top Tweeters
Download ANTz visualization of time vs. top tweeters for Windows.
Download iPython Notebook to create ANTz visualization.
This tweet distribution is more homogeneous than the others. There is a gap of ~45 minutes from May 11, 23:58pm to May 12, 00:42pm. There is also a burst of original tweets during a ~2 hour period from 9pm to 11pm on May 12.
There were 21190 unique users. A prominent demarcation line can be observed where the follower counts appear to drop to zero. This line marks the top 3400th tweeter, approximately.
Tweet Count Per Sample
Distinct User Names Per Sample
Unique Tweets Per Sample
Follower Count Variation
Follower counts are typically greater for more frequent tweeters and also typically increase with time, thus leading to the appearance of growth towards a corner. Follower counts appear to drop to zero at a specific demarcation line just above center, at a value approximately for the 3400th top tweeter.
Decreases in follower counts occur far less frequently than increases.
