social network analysis fun & games (1)

Currently playing with various SNA tools:

• NetDraw - download it for free and have a play. I've pretty much got my head round the VNA data format and it generates cute pictures such as this:

• Maje offers nifty 3D visualisations of social networks like this*:

• And now I am wrestling with UCInet. Whereas NetDraw gives you lots of pretty pictures, UCInet is all about social network ANALYSIS. The screen shots from UCInet would involve lots of numbers formatted in ASCII text. Not so much fun, oh no. Get your harcore SNA jollies here.

*My only beef with Maje is that whilst 3D visualisations look cool, they are pretty much useless from an analytics perspective.

More on social software visualisation

Laurel goes nuts for socialistics. Facebook sees more & more innovation around "consumer SNA" - already noted here. These aren't analytics per se - no betweenness or centrality measures here. But they are giving people the new best friend of analytics - visualisations.

Ross talks about some specialist social networking sites here and their enterprise brethren here.

The collision of social networking tools with visualisation tools will accelerate the uptake of both. Those who have been banging on about SNA for the last 20 years may find themselves the flavour of the month. Interest in SNA/ONA got a resurgence in the corporate world a couple of years ago but now seems to be moving into the consumer environment*. I think this new round of social network mapping will be extremely messy & lacking in rigour. But it will also be a fascinating group experiment as individuals try to make sense of this stuff. And manipulate for their own ends (human beings are like that). And get caught out by incorrect inferences (as anyone with SNA experience can tell you - the map is not the territory).

*For once moving in the opposite direction to other social software trends.

Hyperreality (mashable planet)

Kaye discusses virtual worlds in general & SL in particular. And she links to this very interesting MIT article on called Second Earth. Unlike Kaye, I never really been a gamer (apart from a brief Civ addiction* in the early 90s that almost cost me my degree) and I have been a bit wary of Second Life.

But the more I ponder analytics, the more I realise that visualisation is the key to wide-spread use / acceptance of these. We are seeing a massive explosion in visualisation technologies - in terms of development of new techniques, applications of these techniques to real-world issues and broad-based user interest. Sites like Many Eyes are an example of these.

I see three interlinked yet distinct tracks coming out of this:

1. Dataspace. William Gibson's cyberspace was not like the internet or the metaverse of SL. WG cyberspace is a completely artificial world. A 3D representation of data & its flows. The visualisation tools that make analytics accessible are the full-flowering of WG's vision - driven as much by Excel & ERP systems as HTTP. We'll begin with individual analytics visualisations and then move onto the collaborative kind.

2. Augmented reality. This is where the real world interfaces with VR - using data transmitted by mobile & embedded devices such as RFID. The world will become "chatty". It will both assist us and drive us nuts. The extent to which we can choose to participate in this noisy place (or shut it off) will be major lifestyle choice for us in the next 20 years.

3. Second earths. The metaverse that Kaye & the article discuss. Their impact will be like TV - making the world a suddenly smaller place. However, has TV made us any less selfish? Or more generous? I honestly don't know. Global visualisations may make us more aware of the environmental impact of our lives. Or may simply provide us with entertainment - anyone fancy a bet on the next species to become extinct?

*It was the God-like power of life & death over an entire world that got me. Now the megalomania only comes in brief bursts.

Facebook network mapping

Ton Zijlstra points me towards the SNS application I have been waiting for 3 years for. Someone has twigged that not only can you build social network maps from social networking software - but that this can be useful for individuals too.

Jack Vinson has also picked up on this and comes up with some good upgrade suggestions:

• navigate my network's connections (see their wheels), mostly for fun
• merge the wheels of a limited number of people, again for entertainment

This isn't a full-blown social network mapping application - in effect it only models an ego-centric network (modelled around me in the example below). Where is might become interesting is to map the members of a particular group or network and those immediately related to them - i.e. those who might be potential members of that group...