Classification of Celebrity as a Function of Number of Citations in Internet Pages.

Introduction

To measure the weight of cultures, a simple method consists of comparing the degree of celebrity of individuals who represent the best of a culture, whether in the domains of art, science, or politics. How to measure the "degree of celebrity?'' Once again by the number of citations in Internet WWW pages.

Methodology     
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The biggest problem is given names. It is not valid to compare a simple name with a surname plus given name; the difference is high. In fact, when an individual is famous, the more the pair of names (surname and forename) tends to reduce the score. Some individuals are known almost exclusively by a single surname (Charlemagne, Voltaire, or Lenin, for example). Finally, the written forms of names and forenames sometimes varies according to the language, and typographical errors also occur (it's necessary to search for mitterand with just one "r'' to get the maximum score for the former French president).

We have tried to account for these difficulties, and we present a double set of rankings: simple name and compound name. The ratio of simple to compound name is a significant indicator:

• the lower it is, the more the person is known interchangeably by the simple name or the compound name (like Frank Sinatra);
• the higher it is, the more the person is known solely by a simple name (either forename or surname, as in Mozart, Michelangelo, or Voltaire).

The names appearing in the tables were selected in our research. The plus sign (+) indicates interchangeable keywords, and an option in parentheses also indicates equivalent combinations. Thus for "anne(e) rice'' the scores of "ann rice'' and "anne rice'' are added. And for "c+karl jung'' the scores of "carl jung'' and of "karl jung'' are added. In certain cases, such as "o.j. simpson'' or "j.r.r. tolkien,'' we have respected the common usage of initials for forenames.

Finally, there are certain multi-facetted individuals who may be classified in several categories (sciences, philosophy, and politics, for example). We recognize that we have made arbitrary choices in these situations.

Francophones appear in boldface. The mention of US or RD is made respectively for people from the United States or the Dominican Republic. The at sign (@) indicates a person with strong ties to the Internet culture, and whose score may be overvalued as a result.