I will speak this March 4th at the 2012 Predictive Analytics World in San Francisco about ” Crowd Photography for Social Media“.

http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/sanfrancisco/2012/speakers.php
http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/sanfrancisco/2012/agenda.php#

Monday @ 5:25-5:45pm

Track 1:
Social Data Case Study:
Social Media Research Foundation
Crowd Photography for Social Media

Crowds of people gather in social media around many products, services, businesses, and events but they can be difficult to see and understand. With new free and open tools, it is now possible to map and measure social media spaces, capturing the sub-groups and key people within and between them. Learn how to capture social media data and quickly generate a visual map of the crowd. With maps in hand, we will discuss ways they guide a journey to the key influencers and concepts in the crowd.

Speaker: Marc Smith, Director, Social Media Research Foundation

Connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word Oracle when queried on October 5, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

Top most between users:
@benioff
@oracleopenworld
@salesforce
@arstechnica
@sai
@oracledatabase
@sapjobswithace
@kirbylunger
@capgemini
@reuters_biz

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 1000
Unique Edges: 2747
Edges With Duplicates: 827
Total Edges: 3574
Self-Loops: 1102
Connected Components: 425
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 396
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 541
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 2923
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 10
Average Geodesic Distance: 3.475208
Graph Density: 0.00226026
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

A related map represents the connections among people who tweeted the term #OOW11

These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word oow11 when queried on October 3, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

See: www.oracle.com/openworld/live/on-demand/index.html

Betweenness Centrality is defined here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrality#Betweenness_centrality

Clauset-Newman-Moore algorithm is defined here: pre.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v70/i6/e066111

Top most between users:
@oracleopenworld
@oracle
@oracletechnet
@rwang0
@devops_borat
@salesforce
@mysql
@emcoracle
@oraclemix
@oracledatabase

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 670
Unique Edges: 5882
Edges With Duplicates: 1573
Total Edges: 7455
Self-Loops: 881
Connected Components: 45
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 44
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 626
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 7405
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 7
Average Geodesic Distance: 2.770009
Graph Density: 0.013401602
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

More NodeXL network visualizations are here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/
NodeXL is free and open and available from www.codeplex.com/nodexl
NodeXL is developed by the Social Media Research Foundation (www.smrfoundation.org) – which is dedicated to open tools, open data, and open scholarship.

Here is a NodeXL map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term PDA2011 OR PDA11:

The top most between people in this graph were: @anarchivist, @blefurgy, @naypinya, @rodanda, @jeffubois, @scottros, @evancaroll, @kevinmarks, @vurayav, and @sshreeves.

Here is the video from my talk:

Mapping mobile social networks with NodeXL: finding key users, groups, and locations

The video is now available:

The video reviews the creation of maps like this:

That illustrate the connections among people who tweet the term “#ecomm2010″, scaled by the number of followers.

Abstract: Social network analysis (SNA) is a powerful method for gaining insight into the massive collections of connections created when many people connect to one another through mobile devices. SNA has been widely applied to desktop social media and is moving into the mobile world. Prominent studies of the “call graph” have been produced at national scales.

Mobile providers are applying SNA to identify key subscribers who can reduce churn and help gain adoption of new services and products. Network analysis has historically had a steep learning curve, but now new tools are making SNA easier for less technical users. This talk will describe social network concepts and their application to mobile data sets. A free and open add-in for the popular Excel 2007 spreadsheet called NodeXL (http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl) can perform many complex SNA tasks like data import, scrubbing, metrics calculation, clustering, and visualization. Applying this tool to call graph and subscriber data sets can reveal key positions in the network that can attract and hold other subscribers in the system.

Examples of network analysis of social media and mobile data sets can be found on the Connected Action blog (http://www.connectedaction.net).

I will present a workshop on social media network analysis at the next Network Singularity event at Fort Mason on the Bay in San Francisco on April 30, 2010.

Bay Area and Silicon Valley Network: Special Action/Research Event

Social Media Network Analysis: Next Practices in Social Network Analysis, Tools and Media

Friday 30 April 2010
8:00am -5:00pm
http://www.regonline.com/BAN10
Workshop Abstract
Why do some social media and online groups succeed when others fail? How do different collections of online media and populations of authors and users differ from one another? How do patterns of contribution vary? How do these differences illustrate the roles people play within their communities?

Patterns of contribution and connection determines social media success. Visualizing these network patterns aids implementation, adoption, security and effectiveness of social media. A range of Internet social media including discussion groups, Twitter, enterprise social media, communities-of-practice, blogs and email are presented, analyzed and visualized. Network patterns are explored to illustrate the scope of variation among social media repositories and between types of contributors.

Maps and patterns of interaction deliver a far more comprehensive view of social media. These views generate actionable findings to improve social media effectiveness, syndication and collaborative outcomes. Network analysis and intelligence can guide community cultivation, coordination and development tasks. New network capabilities provision features that improve search, ranking and consumption of user generated content.

A freely available, open source tool will be demonstrated to perform basic social media network analysis for contemporary social media that should be relevant to business models and organizations of all types. Delegates will be equipped to use social network techniques to improve overall effectiveness and impact of social media, communities-of-practice and social software applications. Participants may expect to achieve immediate improvements in key business activities such as marketing, sales, engineering, support, service, innovation and overall organizational effectiveness.

Directions

The 2009 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting was held in San Francisco, California, August 8-11.

The ASA attracts thousands of sociologists, a subsection of whom have  a passion for the study of the Internet and its many forms of social impacts and uses.  The Communications and Information Technology Section of the American Sociological Association (CITASA) is the group that gathers many forms of social science research on the creation and uses of information technology.  This year’s meeting included two CITASA panels, round tables, a business meeting with awards, and a (windy!) boat ride through San Francisco Bay and beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

The CITASA sponsored papers at the conference are listed below.  The range of work illustrates the continued interest in social science studies of the impacts of information technology.

Session 1: Cultural Divergences and Convergences: Mediated Communication, Community, and Social Networks
Presider: Laura Robinson, Santa Clara University
10:30 – 12:10 PM, Location: Parc 55 Hotel

Reframing Public Space Through Digital Mobilization: The Case of Flash Mobs
Virág Molnár

The Consumption of Online News at Work
Pablo J. Boczkowski

French Software Politics: The Freedom Discourse and Globalization from Below
Sara Schoonmaker

Convergence in E-Campaigning: Comparing the Use of Attacks on German and American Political Web Sites
Eva Johanna Schweitzer

The Flow of Mediated Culture: Trends of Supply and Demand 1960-2005
W. Russell Neuman

Session 2: Sociology of Communications and IT
Presider: Keith N. Hampton, University of Pennsylvania
2:30 – 4:10 PM, Location: Parc 55 Hotel

Gauging the Impact of e-Research in the Social Sciences
Ralph Schroeder, Eric T. Meyer, University of Oxford

Does Previous Technology Use Influence Later Opinions Linking Use to Work Experiences, Relationships, and Time?
Noelle A. Chesley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Medical Conversations in Technology Enabled Communities: Perceived Benefits of Participation in Online Patient Communities
Gul Seckin

Model Failure: Assemblages, Performances, and Uneasy Collaborations in Commercial Construction
Gina Neff, University of Washington; Brittany Fiore-Silfvast, University of Washington; Carrie Sturts Dossick, University of Washington

Core Discussion Networks, Internet and Mobile Phone Use: New Media are not Increasing Privatism in America
Keith N. Hampton, University of Pennsylvania; Lauren Sessions, University of Pennsylvania; Eun Ja Her, University of Pennsylvania

————–

Round tables (1-hour): Open Submission
Organizer: Steven G. Hoffman, SUNY Buffalo
8:30 – 9:30 AM, Location: Parc 55 Hotel

Table 1: Communication and Information Technologies at the Producer-Consumer Nexus
Presider: Chris Rhomberg, Fordham University

A Tale of Two Newspaper Chains: Gannett, Knight Ridder, and the Crisis of American Newspapers
Chris Rhomberg, Fordham University

Analyzing design activity in architect and user talk-in-interaction: a preliminary analysis
Rachael Luck, University of Reading

Distributed Cognition and the Emerging Peer-to-Peer Production Model
Michael Restivo, Stony Brook University

Table 2: Communication and Information Technologies, Community, and Sexuality

Negotiating identities/remediating queering desires: Coming out and coming of age online
Mary L. Gray, Indiana University

Sociological Examination of People’s Attitude Towards Online Dating
Xue Liu, Clemson University

The Amorous Migrant: Race, Interracial Desire and Relocation in Cyberspace
Nicholas Andrew Boston, Cambridge University/Lehman College of the City University of New York

Virtually Gay: The Internet and the Construction of Hybrid Queer Identities and Transnational Gay Cultures

James Paul Thing, University of Southern California

Table 3: The Internet and Political Engagement I
Presider: Phil Howard, University of Washington

Bringing the body back in: considering the role of the body in deliberative democracy
Amy Stuart, New School for Social Research ICANN and Internet Governance
Hangwoo Lee, Chungbuk National University

Social Capital and Political Mobilization in Online Community
Jun Young Ah, Yonsei university; Jeong-han Kang, Yonsei University

Vitalizing Donation Culture in Korea: Comparison of Strategies between Traditional Off-line and New Online Donations
Sun Hyoung Lee, Yonsei University

Table 4: The Internet and Political Engagement II

A Facilitator of Civic Engagement in Online Group Contexts
Ja Hyouk Koo, University of Virginia

Muslim resistance online: a diasporic Pakistani punk music subculture on the Internet
Dhiraj Murthy, Bowdoin College

Transylvania, the Internet, and the Strategic Construction of Ethnic/National Identity
J. Patrick Williams, Nanyang Technological University

Table 5: New Technologies, Social Change and Knowledge
Presider: James A. Evans, University of Chicago

How the Internet Shrinks Knowledge By Extending It
James A. Evans, University of Chicago

Socializing the Mobile Phone: Young Urban Poor’s Fascination at Play
Lip Soon Wong, Telenor Research and Innovation Center

Social Networks inside the Enterprise: analyzing colleague link patterns in an IT workplace
Marc Smith

Table 6: Computer Mediated Communication, Social Capital, and Symbolic Interaction
Presider: Simon Gottschalk, University of Nevada- Las Vegas

Dramaturgy, Technology and Public Health: Finding Sex Partners Online among Men who have Sex with Men
Anthony P. Lombardo, University of Toronto

eIntelligence: Social Intelligence in Computer-Mediated Communication
Simon Gottschalk, University of Nevada- Las Vegas

How to Ground a Child in Cyberspace: Parents’ Exploration of Norms and Rules
Mito Akiyoshi, Senshu University

Structured Talk and Web 2.0: Blogs and Community Formation

Kenneth M. Kambara, California Lutheran University

Table 7: Communication Technologies and Network Formation
Presider: John P. Robinson, University of Maryland

Events and Attendees in Two Countries: Factors Influencing the Size and Composition of Online Social Groups
Ryan M. Acton, University of California, Irvine

From each according to media? Testing Wellman’s theory of networked individualism
Bernard Hogan, University of Toronto

The Composition of a Korean Immigrant Social Network
Sun Kyong Lee, Rutgers University

Table 8: Information Production, Coordination and Distribution

Order, Coordination and Uncertainty in Online Information Systems”
Judd Antin, University of California, Berkeley
Coye V. Cheshire, University of California, Berkeley

When High Commitment Hurts: Evidence from Wikipedia
Andreea Gorbatai, Harvard University

Wikipedia: Community or a social movement?
Piotr Konieczny, University of Pittsburgh

We got some great questions from the attendees about how they can apply these approaches to their social media investments.  Tools like NodeXL can be helpful for people interested in structural data analysis.  Kate has built tools for performing semantic analysis of social media content over time.

The video is now available on vimeo:

Beyond Buzz: On Measuring a Conversation (Web 2.0 Expo 2009 – Katie Niederhoffer & Marc Smith) from Steffan Antonas on Vimeo.

I will be speaking with Kate Niederhoffer from Dachis at Web 2.0 Expo Wednesday, April 1st at 10.50 in San Francisco.  We will be speaking about:

Beyond Buzz: On Measuring a Conversation
http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2009/public/schedule/detail/6273