WELCOME TO:
Use Of Social Network Graph And Analytics
By Adj Prof. Giuseppe Mascarella
giuseppe@valueamplify.com
Social Media Innovation Lecture 6
Social Media Innovation Lecture 9 3
https://www.cmswire.com/digital-
workplace/the-enterprise-social-
network-graph-battle-who-is-poised-to-
win/
In the consumer context, the social
graph provides connections with both
people and artefacts. Each connection
provides a means for personalizing
content and ultimately advertisements.
In the enterprise SNA context, links to
artefacts are used to infer indirect
(weaker) connections (e.g. How
Microsoft Delve infers worker
associations). Direct connections can
be both one-way and reciprocated two-
way (strongest). It is the people to
people graph that provides the
intelligence for Enterprise value
capture.
5
Edge or
Original content in this presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Singapore
Attribution 3.0 license unless stated otherwise (see above)
Social Media Innovation Lecture 6 6
Social Media Innovation Lecture 6 7
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
8
Newman et al, 2006
Newman et al, 2006
A very early example of network analysis
comes from the city of Königsberg (now
Kaliningrad). Famous mathematician
Leonard Euler used a graph to prove that
there is no path that crosses each of the
city’s bridges only once (Newman et al,
2006).
SNA has its origins in both social science and in
the broader fields of network analysis and
graph theory
Network analysis concerns itself with the
formulation and solution of problems that have
a network structure; such structure is usually
captured in a graph (see the circled structure to the right)
Graph theory provides a set of abstract
concepts and methods for the analysis of
graphs. These, in combination with other
analytical tools and with methods developed
specifically for the visualization and analysis of
social (and other) networks, form the basis of
what we call SNA methods.
But SNA is not just a methodology; it is a
unique perspective on how society functions.
Instead of focusing on individuals and their
attributes, or on macroscopic social structures,
it centers on relations between individuals,
groups, or social institutions
This is an early depiction of what we call an
‘ego’ network, i.e. a personal network. The
graphic depicts varying tie strengths via
concentric circles (Wellman, 1998)
• CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)9
Wellman, 1998
Studying society from a network perspective is to study
individuals as embedded in a network of relations and
seek explanations for social behavior in the structure of
these networks rather than in the individuals alone. This
‘network perspective’ becomes increasingly relevant in a
society that Manuel Castells has dubbed the network
society.
SNA has a long history in social science, although much
of the work in advancing its methods has also come from
mathematicians, physicists, biologists and computer
scientists (because they too study networks of different
types)
The idea that networks of relations are important in
social science is not new, but widespread availability of
data and advances in computing and methodology have
made it much easier now to apply SNA to a range of
problems
10
These visualizations depict the flow of communications
in an organization before and after the introduction of
a content management system (Garton et al, 1997)
A visualization of US bloggers shows clearly how they
tend to link predominantly to blogs supporting the
same party, forming two distinct clusters (Adamic and
Glance, 2005)
11
Businesses use SNA to analyze and improve communication
flow in their organization, or with their networks of partners
and customers
1. Law enforcement agencies (and the army) use SNA to
identify criminal and terrorist networks from traces of
communication they collect; and then identify key
players in the that se networks
2. Social Network Sites like Facebook use basic elements
of SNA to identify and recommend potential friends
based on friends-of-friends
3. Civil society organizations use SNA to uncover
conflicts of interest in hidden connections between
government bodies, lobbies and businesses
4. Network operators (telephony, cable, mobile) use
SNA-like methods to optimize the structure and
capacity of their networks
community search
protein
interaction network
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C
ommunity_structure
Western States Power Grid of USA.
Each node represents a community. Node sizes
are proportional to the number of nodes in each
community and edge sizes are proportional to the
amount of edges linking 2 communities. Each
node has a different color, to represent a different
community. We also use the circular layout, with
labels.
https://gallery.azure.ai/CustomModule/Graph-Plotting-3
1. Whenever you are studying entities relationships, either offline or online, or when you
wish to understand how to improve the effectiveness of the network
2. When you want to visualize your data so as to uncover patterns in relationships or
interactions
3. When you want to follow the paths that information (or basically anything) and see
where they lead to
13
https://www.youtube.c
om/watch?v=QdoMku
3V7I8
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
15
How to represent various social networks
How to identify strong/weak edges in the network
How to identify key/central nodes in network
Measures of overall network structure
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
16
1
2
3
4
1 2 3 4
Graph
Anne Jim
Mary
John Murray
Vertex
(node) Edge (link)
Can we study their
interactions as a
network?
Communication
Anne: Jim, tell the Murrays they’re invited
Jim: Mary, you and your dad should come for dinner!
Jim: Mr. Murray, you should both come for dinner
Anne: Mary, did Jim tell you about the dinner? You must come.
John: Mary, are you hungry?
…
Jim
Murray
M Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
17
1
2
3
4
1 2 3 4
Graph
Anne Jim
Mary M
John Murray
Vertex
(node) Edge (link)
Communication
Anne: Jim, tell the Murrays they’re invited
Jim: Mary, you and your dad should come for dinner!
Jim: Mr. Murray, you should both come for dinner
Mary: Did Jim tell you about the dinner? You must come.
John: Mary, are you hungry?
…
Jim
Murray
Vertex Vertex
1(Anne) 2
1 3
2(Jim) 3
2 4
3 4
2 1
18
1
2
3
4
Graph (directed)
Vertex Vertex
1 2
1 3
2 3
2 4
3 4
Edge list
Vertex 1 2 3 4
1 - 1 1 0
2 1 - 1 1
3 0 0 - 1
4 0 0 1 -
Adjacency matrix
19
1
2
3
4
Vertex Vertex
1 2
1 3
2 3
2 4
3 4
Edge list remains the same
Vertex 1 2 3 4
1 - 1 1 0
2 1 - 1 1
3 1 1 - 1
4 0 0 1 -
Adjacency matrix becomes symmetric
1
2
3
4
Directed
Undirected
(who knows whom)
(who contacts whom)
But interpretation
is different nowJim
20
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
5
4
1
2
54
‘whole’ network*
* no studied network is ‘whole’ in practice; it’s usually a partial picture of one’s real life networks (boundary specification problem)
** ego not needed for analysis as all alters are by definition connected to ego
ego
alter
isolate
Networks
Key Players
Cohesion
21
How to represent various social networks
How to identify strong/weak ties in the network
How to identify key/central nodes in network
Measures of overall network structure
22
Vertex Vertex Weight
1 2 30
1 3 5
2 3 22
2 4 2
3 4 37
Edge list: add column of weights
Vertex 1 2 3 4
1 - 30 5 0
2 30 - 22 2
3 5 22 - 37
4 0 2 37 -
Adjacency matrix: add weights instead of 1
Weights could be:
• Frequency of interaction in period of
observation
• Number of items exchanged in
period
• Individual perceptions of strength of
relationship
• Costs in communication or
exchange, e.g. distance
• Combinations of these
1
2
3
4
30
2
37
22
5
interactions flows
similarities
relations
23
 Homophily
clusters
heterophily
strong weak
 Transitivity
cliques
 Bridges
24
Homophily
Strong Weak
Transitivity Bridging
Interlinked
groups
Heterophily
Cliques
Social
network
TIES
CLUSTERING
Networks
Tie Strength
Cohesion
25
How to represent various social networks
How to identify strong/weak ties in the network
How to identify key/central nodes in network
Measures of overall network structure
26
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2
3
4
1
4
1
1
Nodes 3 and 5 have the highest degree (4)
Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
Hypothetical graph
27
1
2
3
4
path
shortest path
distance
Shortest path(s)
5
Hypothetical graph
28
 Degree
 Betweenness
 Closeness
 Eigenvector
How many people/entity can this person reach directly?
How likely is this person to be the most direct
route between two people in the network?
How fast can this person reach everyone in the
network?
How well is this person connected to other well-
connected people?
Centrality measure Interpretation in social networks
29
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0
1.5
6.5
0
9
0
0
Node 5 has higher betweenness centrality than 3
Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
reach
30
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0.5
0.67
0.75
0.46
0.75
0.46
0.46
Nodes 3 and 5 have the highest (i.e. best)
closeness, while node 2 fares almost as well Note: Sometimes closeness is calculated without taking the reciprocal
of the mean shortest path length. Then lower values are ‘better’.
Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
eigenvector centrality
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
0.36
0.49
0.54
0.19
0.49
0.17
0.17
Node 3 has the highest eigenvector centrality,
closely followed by 2 and 5
Note: The term ‘eigenvector’ comes from mathematics (matrix
algebra), but it is not necessary for understanding how to interpret
this measure
Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
32
 Degree
 Betweenness
 Closeness
 Eigenvector
How many people can this person reach directly?
How likely is this person to be the most direct
route between two people in the network?
How fast can this person reach everyone in the
network?
How well is this person connected to other well-
connected people?
Centrality measure Interpretation in social networks
33
 Degree
 Betweenness
 Closeness
 Eigenvector
In network of music collaborations: how many
people has this person collaborated with?
In network of spies: who is the spy though whom
most of the confidential information is likely to
flow?
In network of sexual relations: how fast will an STD
spread from this person to the rest of the network?
In network of paper citations: who is the author
that is most cited by other well-cited authors?
Centrality measure Other possible interpretations…
34
1
4
6
7
8
9
10
0
3 5
2
Networks
Tie Strength
Key Players
35
How to represent various social networks
How to identify strong/weak ties in the network
How to identify key/central nodes in network
How to characterize a network’s structure
EDGEStrength
37
1 2
3 4
Reciprocity for network = 0.4
38
1
2
3
4
density = #Edges/ (Tot Possible # Edges)
1
2
3
4
density = 5/6 = 0.83
density = 5/12 = 0.42
Edge present in network
Possible but not present
39
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
0.67
0.33
N/a
0.17
N/a
N/a
clustering coefficient
transitivity
clique
• Clustering algorithms
edge betweenness
Network clustering coefficient = 0.375
(3 nodes in each triangle x 2 triangles = 6 closed triplets divided by 16 total)
Cluster A
Cluster B
Values computed with the graph package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
40
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
distance
diameter
diameter
41
small world
local cluster
bridge
You may have heard of the
famous “6 degrees” of
separation
Sketch of small world
structure
42
 The result is a network with
few very highly connected
nodes and many nodes with
a low degree
 Such networks are said to
exhibit a long-tailed degree
distribution
 And they tend to have a
small-world structure!
(so, as it turns out, transitivity and
strong/weak tie characteristics are
not necessary to explain small world
structures, but they are common and
can also lead to such structures)
nodes ordered in descending
degree
degree
short
head
long
tail
Example of network with
preferential attachment
Sketch of long-tailed
degree distribution
43
We want to be
associated with popular
people, ideas, items,
thus further increasing
their popularity,
irrespective of any
objective, measurable
characteristics
We evaluate people
and everything else
based on objective
quality criteria, so
higher quality nodes
will naturally attract
more attention, faster
Among nodes of similar
attributes, those that
reach critical mass first
will become ‘stars’ with
many friends and
followers (‘halo effect’)
Popularity Quality Mixed model
May be impossible to
predict who will
become a star, even if
quality matters
Also known as
‘the good get better’
Also known as
‘the rich get richer’
 A useful and relatively simple metric of the
degree to which a social network is centralized
or decentralized, is the centralization measure
 In addition to centralization, many large groups
and online communities have a core of densely
connected users that are critical for connecting
a much larger periphery
joint degree
distributions
 Bow-tie analysis
here
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
44
More peripheral
clusters and other
structures
Node
s in
core
45
How can an online social media platform (and its
administrators) leverage the methods and insights of
social network analysis?
How can it encourage a network perspective among
its users, such that they are aware of their
‘neighborhood’ and can learn how to work with it
and/or expand it?
What measures can an online community take to
optimize its network structure?
Example: cliques can be undesirable because they shun newcomers SNA inspired some of the
first SNS’s (e.g.
SixDegrees), but still not
used so often in
conjunction with design
decisions – much
untapped potential here
How can online communities identify and utilize key
players for the benefit of the community?
What would be desirable structures for different types
of online platforms? (not easy to answer)
46
• Use the steps outlined in the following
pages to visualize and analyze your own
network
• Think about the key players in your
network, the types of ties that you maintain
with them, identify any clusters or
communities within your network, etc.
• Objective: practice SNA with real data!
• Present your findings in class next week!
TouchGraph Google Browser
47
Example TouchGraph Facebook Layout
Navigate the graph, examine friend
‘ranks’, friend positions in the
network, clusters and what they have
in common, try to identify weak and
strong ties of yours and assess
overall structure of your ego-
network
https://www.touchgraph.com/navigator
• Data is more useful when you can extract it from an online platform and
analyze with a variety of more powerful tools
• Bernie Hogan (Oxford Internet Institute) has developed a Facebook
application that extracts a list of all edges in your ego-network (see
instructions on next page)
• Also, NodeXL (Windows only, see later slide) currently imports data from: Twitter,
YouTube, Flickr, and your email client!
• Let’s start with installing and learning to use NodeXL…
48
NodeXL
49
NodeXL sample screenshot
 Launch Excel and select
New -> My Templates ->NodeXLGraph.xltx
 Go to “Import” and select the
appropriate option for the data you wish
to import (for Facebook import see next
slide first!)
NM4881A Tweep Network (weekly data)
 Click on to ask NodeXL
to compute centralities, network
density, clustering coefficients, etc.
 Select
to display network graph. You can
customize this using and as
well as
For more info read this
NodeXL tutorial
 Launch Excel and open the file that you just saved to your
computer.
1. Excel will launch the Text Import Wizard. Select “Delimited”. Click “Next >”
2. Select “Space” as the delimiter, as shown here
3. Select “Next >” and then “Finish”.
4. A new file will be created in Excel. It contains a list of all the nodes in your ego-network,
followed by a list of all edges. Scroll down until you find the edges, select all of them and
copy them (Ctrl-C)
5. You can now open a new NodeXL file in Excel as explained in the previous slide. Instead of
using NodeXL’s import function, paste the list of edges to the NodeXL worksheet, right here
6. In NodeXL select and “Get Vertices from Edge List”
7. Now you can compute graph metrics and visualize your data like explained in the previous
slide!
50
This will explain how to export your Facebook data for analysis with a tool like NodeXL
here
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
51
ilamont
ChrisK4u
AJC1
52
CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis (gcheliotis@nus.edu.sg)
Original content in this presentation is licensed under the Creative
Commons Singapore Attribution 3.0 license unless stated otherwise (see
above)

AI Class Topic 5: Social Network Graph

  • 1.
    WELCOME TO: Use OfSocial Network Graph And Analytics By Adj Prof. Giuseppe Mascarella [email protected]
  • 2.
  • 3.
    Social Media InnovationLecture 9 3 https://www.cmswire.com/digital- workplace/the-enterprise-social- network-graph-battle-who-is-poised-to- win/ In the consumer context, the social graph provides connections with both people and artefacts. Each connection provides a means for personalizing content and ultimately advertisements. In the enterprise SNA context, links to artefacts are used to infer indirect (weaker) connections (e.g. How Microsoft Delve infers worker associations). Direct connections can be both one-way and reciprocated two- way (strongest). It is the people to people graph that provides the intelligence for Enterprise value capture.
  • 5.
    5 Edge or Original contentin this presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Singapore Attribution 3.0 license unless stated otherwise (see above)
  • 6.
  • 7.
  • 8.
    CNM Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 8 Newman et al, 2006 Newman et al, 2006 A very early example of network analysis comes from the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Famous mathematician Leonard Euler used a graph to prove that there is no path that crosses each of the city’s bridges only once (Newman et al, 2006). SNA has its origins in both social science and in the broader fields of network analysis and graph theory Network analysis concerns itself with the formulation and solution of problems that have a network structure; such structure is usually captured in a graph (see the circled structure to the right) Graph theory provides a set of abstract concepts and methods for the analysis of graphs. These, in combination with other analytical tools and with methods developed specifically for the visualization and analysis of social (and other) networks, form the basis of what we call SNA methods. But SNA is not just a methodology; it is a unique perspective on how society functions. Instead of focusing on individuals and their attributes, or on macroscopic social structures, it centers on relations between individuals, groups, or social institutions
  • 9.
    This is anearly depiction of what we call an ‘ego’ network, i.e. a personal network. The graphic depicts varying tie strengths via concentric circles (Wellman, 1998) • CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected])9 Wellman, 1998 Studying society from a network perspective is to study individuals as embedded in a network of relations and seek explanations for social behavior in the structure of these networks rather than in the individuals alone. This ‘network perspective’ becomes increasingly relevant in a society that Manuel Castells has dubbed the network society. SNA has a long history in social science, although much of the work in advancing its methods has also come from mathematicians, physicists, biologists and computer scientists (because they too study networks of different types) The idea that networks of relations are important in social science is not new, but widespread availability of data and advances in computing and methodology have made it much easier now to apply SNA to a range of problems
  • 10.
    10 These visualizations depictthe flow of communications in an organization before and after the introduction of a content management system (Garton et al, 1997) A visualization of US bloggers shows clearly how they tend to link predominantly to blogs supporting the same party, forming two distinct clusters (Adamic and Glance, 2005)
  • 11.
    11 Businesses use SNAto analyze and improve communication flow in their organization, or with their networks of partners and customers 1. Law enforcement agencies (and the army) use SNA to identify criminal and terrorist networks from traces of communication they collect; and then identify key players in the that se networks 2. Social Network Sites like Facebook use basic elements of SNA to identify and recommend potential friends based on friends-of-friends 3. Civil society organizations use SNA to uncover conflicts of interest in hidden connections between government bodies, lobbies and businesses 4. Network operators (telephony, cable, mobile) use SNA-like methods to optimize the structure and capacity of their networks
  • 12.
    community search protein interaction network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C ommunity_structure WesternStates Power Grid of USA. Each node represents a community. Node sizes are proportional to the number of nodes in each community and edge sizes are proportional to the amount of edges linking 2 communities. Each node has a different color, to represent a different community. We also use the circular layout, with labels. https://gallery.azure.ai/CustomModule/Graph-Plotting-3
  • 13.
    1. Whenever youare studying entities relationships, either offline or online, or when you wish to understand how to improve the effectiveness of the network 2. When you want to visualize your data so as to uncover patterns in relationships or interactions 3. When you want to follow the paths that information (or basically anything) and see where they lead to 13
  • 14.
  • 15.
    CNM Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 15 How to represent various social networks How to identify strong/weak edges in the network How to identify key/central nodes in network Measures of overall network structure
  • 16.
    CNM Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 16 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Graph Anne Jim Mary John Murray Vertex (node) Edge (link) Can we study their interactions as a network? Communication Anne: Jim, tell the Murrays they’re invited Jim: Mary, you and your dad should come for dinner! Jim: Mr. Murray, you should both come for dinner Anne: Mary, did Jim tell you about the dinner? You must come. John: Mary, are you hungry? … Jim Murray
  • 17.
    M Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 17 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Graph Anne Jim Mary M John Murray Vertex (node) Edge (link) Communication Anne: Jim, tell the Murrays they’re invited Jim: Mary, you and your dad should come for dinner! Jim: Mr. Murray, you should both come for dinner Mary: Did Jim tell you about the dinner? You must come. John: Mary, are you hungry? … Jim Murray Vertex Vertex 1(Anne) 2 1 3 2(Jim) 3 2 4 3 4 2 1
  • 18.
    18 1 2 3 4 Graph (directed) Vertex Vertex 12 1 3 2 3 2 4 3 4 Edge list Vertex 1 2 3 4 1 - 1 1 0 2 1 - 1 1 3 0 0 - 1 4 0 0 1 - Adjacency matrix
  • 19.
    19 1 2 3 4 Vertex Vertex 1 2 13 2 3 2 4 3 4 Edge list remains the same Vertex 1 2 3 4 1 - 1 1 0 2 1 - 1 1 3 1 1 - 1 4 0 0 1 - Adjacency matrix becomes symmetric 1 2 3 4 Directed Undirected (who knows whom) (who contacts whom) But interpretation is different nowJim
  • 20.
    20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 5 4 1 2 54 ‘whole’ network* * nostudied network is ‘whole’ in practice; it’s usually a partial picture of one’s real life networks (boundary specification problem) ** ego not needed for analysis as all alters are by definition connected to ego ego alter isolate
  • 21.
    Networks Key Players Cohesion 21 How torepresent various social networks How to identify strong/weak ties in the network How to identify key/central nodes in network Measures of overall network structure
  • 22.
    22 Vertex Vertex Weight 12 30 1 3 5 2 3 22 2 4 2 3 4 37 Edge list: add column of weights Vertex 1 2 3 4 1 - 30 5 0 2 30 - 22 2 3 5 22 - 37 4 0 2 37 - Adjacency matrix: add weights instead of 1 Weights could be: • Frequency of interaction in period of observation • Number of items exchanged in period • Individual perceptions of strength of relationship • Costs in communication or exchange, e.g. distance • Combinations of these 1 2 3 4 30 2 37 22 5
  • 23.
  • 24.
     Homophily clusters heterophily strong weak Transitivity cliques  Bridges 24 Homophily Strong Weak Transitivity Bridging Interlinked groups Heterophily Cliques Social network TIES CLUSTERING
  • 25.
    Networks Tie Strength Cohesion 25 How torepresent various social networks How to identify strong/weak ties in the network How to identify key/central nodes in network Measures of overall network structure
  • 26.
    26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 3 4 1 4 1 1 Nodes 3 and5 have the highest degree (4) Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software. Hypothetical graph
  • 27.
  • 28.
    28  Degree  Betweenness Closeness  Eigenvector How many people/entity can this person reach directly? How likely is this person to be the most direct route between two people in the network? How fast can this person reach everyone in the network? How well is this person connected to other well- connected people? Centrality measure Interpretation in social networks
  • 29.
    29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1.5 6.5 0 9 0 0 Node 5 hashigher betweenness centrality than 3 Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
  • 30.
    reach 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0.5 0.67 0.75 0.46 0.75 0.46 0.46 Nodes 3 and5 have the highest (i.e. best) closeness, while node 2 fares almost as well Note: Sometimes closeness is calculated without taking the reciprocal of the mean shortest path length. Then lower values are ‘better’. Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
  • 31.
    eigenvector centrality 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0.36 0.49 0.54 0.19 0.49 0.17 0.17 Node 3has the highest eigenvector centrality, closely followed by 2 and 5 Note: The term ‘eigenvector’ comes from mathematics (matrix algebra), but it is not necessary for understanding how to interpret this measure Values computed with the sna package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
  • 32.
    32  Degree  Betweenness Closeness  Eigenvector How many people can this person reach directly? How likely is this person to be the most direct route between two people in the network? How fast can this person reach everyone in the network? How well is this person connected to other well- connected people? Centrality measure Interpretation in social networks
  • 33.
    33  Degree  Betweenness Closeness  Eigenvector In network of music collaborations: how many people has this person collaborated with? In network of spies: who is the spy though whom most of the confidential information is likely to flow? In network of sexual relations: how fast will an STD spread from this person to the rest of the network? In network of paper citations: who is the author that is most cited by other well-cited authors? Centrality measure Other possible interpretations…
  • 34.
  • 35.
    Networks Tie Strength Key Players 35 Howto represent various social networks How to identify strong/weak ties in the network How to identify key/central nodes in network How to characterize a network’s structure
  • 36.
  • 37.
    37 1 2 3 4 Reciprocityfor network = 0.4
  • 38.
    38 1 2 3 4 density = #Edges/(Tot Possible # Edges) 1 2 3 4 density = 5/6 = 0.83 density = 5/12 = 0.42 Edge present in network Possible but not present
  • 39.
    39 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 0.67 0.33 N/a 0.17 N/a N/a clustering coefficient transitivity clique • Clusteringalgorithms edge betweenness Network clustering coefficient = 0.375 (3 nodes in each triangle x 2 triangles = 6 closed triplets divided by 16 total) Cluster A Cluster B Values computed with the graph package in the R programming environment. Definitions of centrality measures may vary slightly in other software.
  • 40.
  • 41.
    41 small world local cluster bridge Youmay have heard of the famous “6 degrees” of separation Sketch of small world structure
  • 42.
    42  The resultis a network with few very highly connected nodes and many nodes with a low degree  Such networks are said to exhibit a long-tailed degree distribution  And they tend to have a small-world structure! (so, as it turns out, transitivity and strong/weak tie characteristics are not necessary to explain small world structures, but they are common and can also lead to such structures) nodes ordered in descending degree degree short head long tail Example of network with preferential attachment Sketch of long-tailed degree distribution
  • 43.
    43 We want tobe associated with popular people, ideas, items, thus further increasing their popularity, irrespective of any objective, measurable characteristics We evaluate people and everything else based on objective quality criteria, so higher quality nodes will naturally attract more attention, faster Among nodes of similar attributes, those that reach critical mass first will become ‘stars’ with many friends and followers (‘halo effect’) Popularity Quality Mixed model May be impossible to predict who will become a star, even if quality matters Also known as ‘the good get better’ Also known as ‘the rich get richer’
  • 44.
     A usefuland relatively simple metric of the degree to which a social network is centralized or decentralized, is the centralization measure  In addition to centralization, many large groups and online communities have a core of densely connected users that are critical for connecting a much larger periphery joint degree distributions  Bow-tie analysis here CNM Social Media Module – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 44 More peripheral clusters and other structures Node s in core
  • 45.
    45 How can anonline social media platform (and its administrators) leverage the methods and insights of social network analysis? How can it encourage a network perspective among its users, such that they are aware of their ‘neighborhood’ and can learn how to work with it and/or expand it? What measures can an online community take to optimize its network structure? Example: cliques can be undesirable because they shun newcomers SNA inspired some of the first SNS’s (e.g. SixDegrees), but still not used so often in conjunction with design decisions – much untapped potential here How can online communities identify and utilize key players for the benefit of the community? What would be desirable structures for different types of online platforms? (not easy to answer)
  • 46.
    46 • Use thesteps outlined in the following pages to visualize and analyze your own network • Think about the key players in your network, the types of ties that you maintain with them, identify any clusters or communities within your network, etc. • Objective: practice SNA with real data! • Present your findings in class next week!
  • 47.
    TouchGraph Google Browser 47 ExampleTouchGraph Facebook Layout Navigate the graph, examine friend ‘ranks’, friend positions in the network, clusters and what they have in common, try to identify weak and strong ties of yours and assess overall structure of your ego- network https://www.touchgraph.com/navigator
  • 48.
    • Data ismore useful when you can extract it from an online platform and analyze with a variety of more powerful tools • Bernie Hogan (Oxford Internet Institute) has developed a Facebook application that extracts a list of all edges in your ego-network (see instructions on next page) • Also, NodeXL (Windows only, see later slide) currently imports data from: Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and your email client! • Let’s start with installing and learning to use NodeXL… 48
  • 49.
    NodeXL 49 NodeXL sample screenshot Launch Excel and select New -> My Templates ->NodeXLGraph.xltx  Go to “Import” and select the appropriate option for the data you wish to import (for Facebook import see next slide first!) NM4881A Tweep Network (weekly data)  Click on to ask NodeXL to compute centralities, network density, clustering coefficients, etc.  Select to display network graph. You can customize this using and as well as For more info read this NodeXL tutorial
  • 50.
     Launch Exceland open the file that you just saved to your computer. 1. Excel will launch the Text Import Wizard. Select “Delimited”. Click “Next >” 2. Select “Space” as the delimiter, as shown here 3. Select “Next >” and then “Finish”. 4. A new file will be created in Excel. It contains a list of all the nodes in your ego-network, followed by a list of all edges. Scroll down until you find the edges, select all of them and copy them (Ctrl-C) 5. You can now open a new NodeXL file in Excel as explained in the previous slide. Instead of using NodeXL’s import function, paste the list of edges to the NodeXL worksheet, right here 6. In NodeXL select and “Get Vertices from Edge List” 7. Now you can compute graph metrics and visualize your data like explained in the previous slide! 50 This will explain how to export your Facebook data for analysis with a tool like NodeXL here
  • 51.
    CNM Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) 51
  • 52.
    ilamont ChrisK4u AJC1 52 CNM Social MediaModule – Giorgos Cheliotis ([email protected]) Original content in this presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Singapore Attribution 3.0 license unless stated otherwise (see above)

Editor's Notes

  • #4 enterprise value is achieved through enhanced levels of collaboration, more so than simple content consumption. The Enterprise Social Network Graph focusses on people and their relationships with each other. The contrast to the Social Graph is illustrated below: