Hashkat (http://hashkat.org) is a free, open source, agent based simulationsoftware package designed to simulate large-scale online social networks (e.g.Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc). It allows for dynamic agent generation, edgecreation, and information propagation. The purpose of hashkat is to study thegrowth of online social networks and how information flows within them. Likereal life online social networks, hashkat incorporates user relationships,information diffusion, and trending topics. Hashkat was implemented in C++, andwas designed with extensibility in mind. The software includes Shell and Pythonscripts for easy installation and usability. In this report, we describe all ofthe algorithms and features integrated into hashkat before moving on to exampleuse cases. In general, hashkat can be used to understand the underlyingtopology of social networks, validate sampling methods of such networks,develop business strategy for advertising on online social networks, and testnew features of an online social network before going into production.
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