# Network Theory- 13 Centralized & Scale Free Networks

In this module we looked at networks that have the highest degree distribution making their topology very heterogeneous in terms of the distribution of connectivity, these networks may have one or a few nodes with a very high degree of connectivity forming global hubs within the network and very many with a much smaller degree of connectivity

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Transcription excerpt:

let's start by taking a few examples of these centralized systems, if we look at his network of global banking activity with nodes representing the absolute size of assets booked in the respective jurisdiction and the edges between them the exchange of financial assets, with data taken from the IMF. We can then see clearly how a very few core nodes dominate this network, there are approximately 200 countries in the world but these 19 largest jurisdictions in terms of capital together are responsible for over 90% of the assets. This type of centralized structure to a network is surprisingly reverent in our world and we could cite many other examples of it, such as social networks where a very few people may have millions of people connected to them and the vast majority very few.

These highly centralized networks are more formally called scale free or power law networks, that describe a power or exponential relationship between the degree of connectivity a node has and the frequency of its occurrence. These power law…

- Kind: Short
- Year: 2015
- Runtime: 5 min
- By: Complexity Academy
- Genres: Science
- Archive: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Network_Theory-_13_Centralized_%26_Scale_Free_Networks.webm)
- Licence or status: [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Complexity Academy
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/commons/57997197?play=1)