  Here we provide a detailed analysis, along with some extensions and additonal
investigations, of a recently proposed self-organised model for the evolution
of complex networks. Vertices of the network are characterised by a fitness
variable evolving through an extremal dynamics process, as in the Bak-Sneppen
model representing a prototype of Self-Organized Criticality. The network
topology is in turn shaped by the fitness variable itself, as in the fitness
network model. The system self-organizes to a nontrivial state, characterized
by a power-law decay of dynamical and topological quantities above a critical
threshold. The interplay between topology and dynamics in the system is the key
ingredient leading to an unexpected behaviour of these quantities.
