I'm doing fair bit of ONA stuff at work at the moment - using Laurie & Cai's getting-there onasurveys and the wonderful NetDraw. And in doing so, I'm reminded of this post from August concerning Facebook's Friend Wheel that highlights for me the strengths and weaknesses of network mapping.
The strengths: The "Friend Wheel" does a decent job of identifying the main groups in my life from the last 10 years. The clusters from IBM/PwC, Oracle, Calcutta Rescue, Ankali, London/Barbelith, the Australian music heads & poets that leave slight traces, the huge tangle of KM/blogging folk that I know. All beautiful people whom I am lucky to have met.
The weaknesses: You would know nothing of the people I went to schools and universities with (OK - with one exception, Mike). You couldn't see my oldest friends. The people I would die (& maybe kill) for. The vast underground of love and hate and need you will never know. And even with the folk you can see, you don't know about the joy and the pain and the people I've helped, been helped by, screwed over & been screwed over by. You see from 30,000 (air-brushed) feet.
The humility this instills in the network analyst is critical. We see but through a glass darkly - and that is better than not seeing at all. Let's not confuse the map for the territory.
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2 comments:
Its interesting, some of those people you mention that are missing from your FB Friend Wheel are now starting to appear in mine, mostly school friends. That's great! But its also creating new questions about what my online social network map is and how I want to engage with it.
James - so what might those questions be?
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