  The small-world phenomenon is found in many self-organising systems. Systems
configured in small-world networks spread information more easily than in
random or regular lattice-type networks. Whilst it is a known fact that
small-world networks have short average path length and high clustering
coefficient in self-organising systems, the ego centralities that maintain the
cohesiveness of small-world network have not been formally defined. Here we
show that instantaneous events such as the release of news items via Twitter,
coupled with active community arguments related to the news item form a
particular type of small-world network. Analysis of the centralities in the
network reveals that community arguments maintain the small-world network
whilst actively maintaining the cohesiveness and boundary of the group. The
results demonstrate how an active Twitter community unconsciously forms a
small-world network whilst interacting locally with a bordering community. Over
time, such local interactions brought about the global emergence of the
small-world network, connecting media channels with human activities.
Understanding the small-world phenomenon in relation to online social or civic
movement is important, as evident in the spate of online activists that tipped
the power of governments for the better or worst in recent times. The support,
or removal of high centrality nodes in such networks has important
ramifications in the self-expression of society and civic discourses. The
presentation in this article anticipates further exploration of man-made
self-organising systems where a larger cluster of ad-hoc and active community
maintains the overall cohesiveness of the network.
