A Domain Specific Language Approach for Agent-Based Social Network Modeling

Abstract

Although in the past twenty years agent-based modeling has been widely adopted as a research tool in the fields of social and political sciences, there is lack of software instruments specifically created for social network simulations. Restricting the field of interest specifically to social network models and simulations instead of supporting general agent-based ones, allows for the creation of easier to use, more focused tools. In this work, we propose PyNetSYM, an agent-based modeling framework designed to be friendly to programmers and non-programmers alike. PyNetSYM provides a domain-specific language to specify social network simulations expressed as agent-based models. PyNetSYM was created to deal with large simulations and to work effortlessly with other social network analysis toolkits.