Week1 Introduction, Overview and History of SNA

Overview

Network Theory is a field of computer science and network sciences and is also part of graph theory (the study of graphs and mathematical structures).

Applications of Network Theory

• World Wide Web and hyperlink structure
• Internet and router connectivity
• Collaborations among
  • movie actors, directors, etc.
  • scientists and mathematicians
• Cellular networks in biology
• Food webs in ecology
• Phone call patterns
• Word co-occurrence in text
• Neural network connectivity of
  flatworms
• Conformational states in protein folding

Social network is more than Facebook or Weibo. It is how people, organizations, how things are connected.

Basic Network Concepts

Network = Node + Link
Web Definition: A set of nodes, points, or locations connected by means of data, voice, and video communications for the purpose of exchange.

A social network is a description of the social structure between actors, mostly individuals or organizations. It indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familiar bonds.

To model the social network.

People are represented as nodes.
Relationships are represented as edges. (Relationships may be acquaintanceship, friendship, co-authorship, etc.)

This allows analysis using tools of mathematical graph theory.

The questions we need to solve by using social network analysis include:

• who is friends with whom?
• Which “actors” are the “power brokers”?
• What social groups are present?

Network methods focus on:

• Dyads (two actors and theirties)
• Triads (three actors and theirties)
• Larger systems (subgroups of individuals, or entire networks)

Journals

Social Networks (the journal) provides a common forum for representatives of anthropology, sociology, history, social psychology, political science, human geography, biology, economics, communications science and other disciplines who share an interest in the study of the empirical structure of social relations and associations that may be expressed in network form.

Principles of Social Network Analysis!

• Actors and their actions are viewed as interdependent rather than independent, autonomous units
• Relational ties (linkages) between actors are channels for transfer or “flow” of resources (either material or nonmaterial)
• Network models focusing on individuals view the network structure environment as providing opportunities for or constraints on individual action
• Network models conceptualize structure (social, economic, political, and so forth) as lasting patterns of relations among actors

The Social Network Approach

• The world is composed of networks
  • not densely-knit, tightly-bounded groups (you do not know everyone but you can if you want, like Six Degrees of Separation)
• Networks provide flexible means of social organization and of thinking about social organization
• Networks have emergent properties of structure and composition
• Networks are a major source of social capital (网络是社会资本的主要来源，i.e.人脉)
• Networks are self-shaping and reflexive (Some nodes or links may disappear and new ones may appear)
• Networks scale up to networks of networks

History of Social Network Analysis

The main development of the field occurred in the 1930’s by several groups in different traditional fields working independently.

1. Psychology
2. Anthropology
3. Mathematics

Psychology

In Psychology, they studies how the mind works. They stressed the organized patterns that structure thoughts and perceptions. These organized patterns were regarded as “wholes” which have properties distinct from those of their parts. In part, we see objects like plants and people the way we do because we have preconceived conceptual schemes built into the mind. Perception is a kind of pattern-matching process.(先入为主)

Sociometry & Sociogram

Jacob L. Moreno developed sociometry.
He started asking people who their friends were and explored the ways in which their relations with others served as both limitations and opportunities for action and for their psychological behavior.

He founded the journal sociometry which investigated the relationship between psychological well-being and “social configurations”.

He believed that large scale social phenomena, such as the economy and state, were sustained and reproduced over time by the small scale configurations formed by peoples patterns of friendship, dislike and other relations.

He also invented the sociogram – a diagram of points and
lines used to represent relations among persons. He used sociograms to identify social leaders and isolates, to uncover asymmetry and reciprocity in friendship choices, and to map chains of indirect connection. One of the configurations he observed was the sociometric star, i.e. an individual chosen by many others as a friend.

Group Behavior

Kurt Lewin studied group behavior, which he said was a function of conflicting social forces. He thought of the group as existing in a social space or field consisting of the group and it’s perceived environment.

The group and its environment interact and the meaning of these interactions is constructed by the group members on the basis of their perceptions and experiences.

Lewin argued that the structural properties of this social space could be investigated mathematically using vector theory and topology.

The field is seen as consisting of points connected by lines. The points are individuals, their goals, or their actions and the paths represent the interactional or causal sequences that connect them.

The field model is all about representing interactional interdependencies. Fields are divided into regions, separated by an absence of paths between them. The opportunities which individuals are determined by these boundaries.

Social Perception and Attitudes

Fritz Heider developed what is known as balance theory. He said the mind seeks balance (an absence of tension) by trying to hold ideas that are not in conflict with one another. This also applies to attitudes towards other people. (从众现象) He was especially concerned about what happens when a person is emotionally close to two people who start becoming hostile to each other.(闺蜜不喜欢我男朋友，我该和他分手吗)

Cartwright and Harary showed mathematically that the outcome of this process is necessarily a group subdivided into cliques within which all ties are positive and between which all ties are negative.
All groups in which there is any imbalance are in a state of slow transition towards cliques.

Anthropology

One of the biggest emphases in social anthropology this century was on social relations.

It was understood by Radcliffe-Brown and Nadel that what social structure was concrete relations among individuals. It had long been understood that in pre-industrial societies kinship relations were extraordinarily complex and important.

But other relations, such as friendships, were equally important in industrialized societies. These people wrote at a theoretical level about the web of relations comprising society.

Mathematics

Euler (1736) settled the Konigsberg Bridge problem. By translating into a mathematical notation involving points and lines, and then deriving some proofs.

This idea was rediscovered many times in different areas of math and applied sciences.

• In statistics they developed the notion of Markov probability chains.
• In physics they were used to understand molecules adjacent to each other in Euclidean space.
• In operations research, graphs were used to map out the location of goods and channels of transmission.

Today, graph theory is a well-developed area located at the intersection of combinatorics and topology.

Technology

• Email, newsgroups and weblogs
• Search engines (Page Rank)
• collaborative filtering and/or recommender systems

LinkedIn

When your connections invite their connections, your Network starts to grow.
Your Network is your connections, their connections, and so on out from you at the center.
Your Network contains professionals out to “three degrees”.
LinkedIn lets you see your network as one large group of searchable professional profiles.

KMS

Knowledge Management involves people, technology and processes in overlapping parts.

What ties Information Architecture, Knowledge
Management and Social Network Analysis more closely together is the reciprocal relationship between people and content.

SNA

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers or other information/knowledge processing entities.

The nodes in the network are the people and groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes.

To understand networks and their participants, we evaluate the location of actors in the network. Measuring the network location is finding the centrality of a node.

These measures give us insight into the various roles and groupings in a network – who are the connectors, mavens, leaders, bridges, isolates, where are the clusters and who is in them, who is in the core of the network, and who is on the periphery?

Network Centrality

The “Kite Network” – developed by David Krackhardt, a leading researcher in social networks.
Two nodes are connected if they regularly talk to each other, or interact in some way.
This network effectively shows the distinction between the three most popular individual centrality measures: Degree Centrality, Betweenness Centrality, and Closeness Centrality.

Degree Centrality

Social network researchers measure network activity for a node by using the concept of degrees – the number of direct connections a node has.

In the kite network above, Diane has the most direct connections in the network, (6 degree) making hers the most active node in the network. She is a “connector” or “hub” in this network.

Common wisdom in personal networks is “the more connections, the better”. However, this is not always so. What really matters is where those connections lead to – and how they connect the otherwise unconnected!

Diane has connections only to others in her immediate cluster – her clique. She connects only those who are already connected to each other.

Betweenness Centrality

Heather has one of the best locations in the network – she is between two important constituencies. She plays a “broker” (a powerful) role in the network, but she is also a single point of failure (Without her, Ike and Jane would be cut off from information and knowledge in Diane’s cluster).

A node with high betweenness has great influence over what flows – and does not – in the network. Heather may control the outcomes in a network.

Closeness Centrality

Fernando and Garth have the shortest paths to all others – they are close to everyone else. They are in an excellent position to monitor the information flow in the network – they have the best visibility into what is happening in the network.

Network Centralization

Individual network centralities provide insight into the individual’s location in the network. The relationship between the centralities of all nodes can reveal much about the overall network structure.

A highly central node can become a single point of failure. A network centralized around a well connected hub can fail abruptly if that hub is disabled or removed. Hubs are nodes with high degree and betweenness centrality.

Networks of low centralization fail gracefully.

Network Reach

Not all network paths are created equal. More and more research shows that the shorter paths in the network are more important.

Noah Friedkin, Ron Burt and other researchers have shown that networks have horizons over which we cannot see, nor influence.

They propose that the key paths in networks are 1 and 2 steps and on rare occasions, three steps.

The “small world” in which we live is not one of “six degrees of separation” but of direct and indirect connections < 3 steps away. Therefore, it is important to know: who is in your network neighborhood? Who are you aware of, and who can you reach?

Network Integration

Network metrics are often measured using geodesics – or shortest paths. They make the (erroneous) assumption that all information/influence flows along the network’s shortest paths only. But networks operate via direct and indirect, shortest and near-shortest paths.

It is important to be on many efficient paths in networks that reach out to various parts of the extended network. Those well integrated in the network of paths have both local and distant information, along with several flavors of it!

Boundary Spanners

Boundary spanners are those at the edge of the group, seated between two group of people.

Nodes that connect their group to others usually end up with high network metrics.

Boundary spanners such as Fernando, Garth and Heather are more central in the overall network than their immediate neighbors whose connections are only local within their immediate cluster.

You can be a boundary spanner via your bridging connections to other clusters or via your concurrent membership in overlapping groups.

Boundary spanners are well-positioned to be innovators, since they have access to ideas and information flowing in other clusters. They are in a position to combine different ideas and knowledge, found in various places, into new products and services.

Peripheral Players

Ike and Jane may be contractors or vendors that have their own network outside of the company – making them very important resources for fresh information not available inside the company!