Connected Action » Social network http://www.connectedaction.net Sociology and the Internet, Social Media, Networks and Mobile Social Software Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:47:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 November 28 and 30: Mastering Social Media – Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/11/18/november-28-and-30-mastering-social-media-cape-town-and-johannesburg-south-africa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=november-28-and-30-mastering-social-media-cape-town-and-johannesburg-south-africa http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/11/18/november-28-and-30-mastering-social-media-cape-town-and-johannesburg-south-africa/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:56:59 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5381

Mastering Social Media 2011 is a workshop scheduled for November 28 and 30 in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.

My partner, Walter Pike, is a Marketing Maven and Founder of PiKE | New Marketing (www.pike.co.za) and the founder of the Digital Academy www.digitalacademy.co.za
He blogs at walterpike.com.

Mastering Social Media will give you practical tools on how to plan, execute and monitor your social media campaigns. Discussions will lead you through the introduction to social media marketing, understanding community dynamics, mapping social networks and applying network insights to your goals.
Brand Managers, Marketing Managers, Advertising Agencies, Digital Agencies, and PR Agencies are likely to find the day useful.

Venues and Dates

Cape Town

Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge

28 November 2011
Protea Hotel
Breakwater Lodge,
Waterfront

Johannesburg

Gordon Institute of Business Science

30 November 2011
Gordon Institute
of Business Science,
Illovo

Pictures:

Lanseria Airport Runway, Johannesburg, South AfricaLanseria Airport Runway, Johannesburg, South AfricaThe cockpit of the Swift Flite King Air that flew us back to JohannesburgFlying to Johannesburg aboard the Swift Flite King AirAbove Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaTake Off from Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMarc in the King Air CockpitKing Air CockpitKing Air, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMarc and Madeline with the King Air, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaInyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWalter Pike, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaInyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWhere the Buffalo roam (and fight), Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaGiraffe, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaGiraffe, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaImpala, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaHyena, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaHyena, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBuffalo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWet Elephant, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWet Elephant, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaGiraffe, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaPiet Marimane, Game Ranger, Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaImpala, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWater Buffalo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWater Buffalo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaYoung Lion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWater Buffalo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South Africa"Inyati" means Water Buffalo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBaby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBaby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMomma and Baby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMomma and Baby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMomma and Baby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBaby Rhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaRhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaRhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaRhino, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaImpala, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Mpumalanga, South AfricaElephant Skull, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaZebra, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaNelson and Piet examine the game tracks, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBird nests,Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSand River Dam, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaZebra and Impala, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaZebra, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaZebra, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLioness, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaElephant browses the trees at Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaView from Inyati, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLions at rest, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLions, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLions, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion Roars, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion Roars, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSunset, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBreak Time, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaThorn Bushes, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaBreak Time, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaHippo, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMarc and Leopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLeopard, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaSabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLions, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaLion, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaGame Ranger Piet, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaKing Air, Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaWalter Pike aboard a King Air, enroute to Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMarc and Peter Hall, enroute to Sabi Sands Game Preserve, Limpopo, South AfricaMadeline and Catherine at Swift Flite, Lanseria Airport, Johannesburg, South AfricaMastering Social Media at GIBS School of Business, Johannesburg, South AfricaMastering Social Media at GIBS School of Business, Johannesburg, South AfricaMarc in Sandton Lodge, Johannesburg, South AfricaStellenbosch, South AfricaUniversity of Cape Town, South AfricaMarc lectures in Cape Town, South AfricaMarc lectures in Cape Town, South AfricaMarc lectures in Cape Town, South AfricaMastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaMastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaMastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaMastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaWalter Pike at Mastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaMastering Social Media, Cape Town, South AfricaBreakwater and Cape Town Stadium, South AfricaCamper Sail Boat with Helicopter Escort - Volvo Ocean Race, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town Harbor Break Water and Table Mountain, South AfricaCape Town Harbor and Table Mountain, South AfricaCape Town Harbor, South AfricaSeals in Cape Town Harbor, South AfricaTable Mountain and Harbor, Cape Town, South AfricaHarbor Clock Tower, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaMarc in Cape Town, South AfricaPenguins in Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins in Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins in Simon's Town, South AfricaThe Donner Family, Cape Town, South AfricaSimon's Town, South AfricaLots of things for sale in Simon's Town, South AfricaFalse Bay, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins! Simon's Town, South AfricaPenguins in Simon's Town, South AfricaLots for sale in Simon's Town, South AfricaSimon's Town, South AfricaSouth AfricaJonathan Donner in South AfricaSouth AfricaChapman's Peak Drive, South AfricaChapman's Peak Drive, South AfricaChapman's Peak Drive, South AfricaChapman's Peak Drive, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaJonathan Donner, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaWalter Pike at Mobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaWalter Pike at Mobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaWalter Pike at Mobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaEnroute to South Africa
]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/11/18/november-28-and-30-mastering-social-media-cape-town-and-johannesburg-south-africa/feed/ 0 October 19-20, 2011: NYC – Predictive Analytics World: Network Maps for End Users: Collect, Analyze, Visualize and Communicate Network Insights with Zero Coding http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/17/october-19-20-2011-nyc-predictive-analytics-world-network-maps-for-end-users-collect-analyze-visualize-and-communicate-network-insights-with-zero-coding/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-19-20-2011-nyc-predictive-analytics-world-network-maps-for-end-users-collect-analyze-visualize-and-communicate-network-insights-with-zero-coding http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/17/october-19-20-2011-nyc-predictive-analytics-world-network-maps-for-end-users-collect-analyze-visualize-and-communicate-network-insights-with-zero-coding/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:00:07 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4474  

I presented on social media network analysis on October 20, 2011 in New York City at Predictive Analytics World.

A map of the connections among the people tweeting about the #Pawcon hashtag is below.

Network Maps for End Users: Collect, Analyze, Visualize and Communicate Network Insights with Zero Coding

Abstract: Networks are everywhere except the end user desktop.  NodeXL, the free and open network overview, discovery and exploration add-in for the popular and familiar Excel (2007/2010) spreadsheet allows users who are comfortable making pie charts to now make useful network visualizations.  Developed and released by the Social Media Research Foundation, NodeXL uses Excel as a framework, providing a GUI network browser (a “web browser”?) that novices can use quickly and experts can use to generate sophisticated results.  Data importers provide access to a range of social media network data sources like Twitter, flickr, YouTube, Facebook, email, the WWW, and more through standard file formats (CSV, GraphML, Matrix).  Simple to use tools can automatically analyze, visualize and highlight insights in complex network graphs.  Using NodeXL, researchers have been collecting a wide range of network data sets from various social media services.  These images reveal a range of common social formations in social media and point to people who occupy strategic locations in these graphs.

This is a map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term “PAWCON” on the first day of the event:

20111019-NodeXL-Twitter-pawcon graph

These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word #pawcon when queried on October 19, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6261006732/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@tapan_patel
@pawcon
@sasanalytics
@deloitteba
@kristinevick
@jamet123
@zementis
@kdnuggets
@tibcospotfire
@saspublishing

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 41
Unique Edges: 233
Edges With Duplicates: 120
Total Edges: 353
Self-Loops: 44
Connected Components: 2
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 1
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 40
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 352
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 4
Average Geodesic Distance: 1.87133
Graph Density: 0.15304878
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

Here is an example map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term “pawcon” in Twitter on September 14th, a week prior to the event.

Manu Sharma from LinkedIn at Predictive Analytics World, New York City Manu Sharma from LinkedIn at Predictive Analytics World, New York City

Manu Sharma, Principle Research Scientist at LinkedIn gave a great presentation on the patterns found in their data.  Big data, for example, showed that most of the people who previously worked at recently failed banks and financial institutions have updated their profiles to show that they mostly have new jobs at some of the remaining companies in the industry.

The event was held at the New York Hilton: Maps & Directions

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/17/october-19-20-2011-nyc-predictive-analytics-world-network-maps-for-end-users-collect-analyze-visualize-and-communicate-network-insights-with-zero-coding/feed/ 0 ThreadMill 0.1: Social Accounting for Message Thread Collections http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/16/threadmill-0-1-social-accounting-for-message-thread-collections/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=threadmill-0-1-social-accounting-for-message-thread-collections http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/16/threadmill-0-1-social-accounting-for-message-thread-collections/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 13:00:44 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4387 The Social Media Research Foundation is pleased to announce the immediate availability of ThreadMill 0.1.  ThreadMill is a free and open application that consumes message thread data and produces reports about each author, thread, forum, and board along with visualizations of the patterns of connection and activity.  ThreadMill is written in Ruby, and depends on MongoDB, SinatraRB, HAML, and Flash to collect, analyze, and report data about collections of conversation threads.

Threaded conversations are a major form of social media.  Message boards, email and email lists, twitter, blog comments, text messages, and discussion forums are all social media systems built around the message thread data structure.  As messages are exchanged through these systems, some messages are sent as a reply to a particular previous message.  As messages are sent in reply to prior messages, chains of messages form.  Message chains come in two major forms: branching and non-branching.  Branching threads are those that allow more than one message to reply to a prior message.  Non-branching threads are single chains, like a string of pearls, that allow only one message to reply to a prior message.  Many web based message boards are non-branching.  Many email systems and discussion forums are branching.

ThreadMill requires a minimal set of data elements to generate its reports.  A data table must minimally have a column of information for each message that includes the name of the message board, the forum, the thread, and the author, along with a unique identifier for each message and the date and time it was posted.  Optional data elements include the unique identifier of the message being replied to, the URL of the message, and the URL for a profile photo.

All forms of threaded message exchange can be measured.  Simple measures like the count of the number of messages or the number of authors are obvious and useful.  Other measures can be created from more sophisticated analysis.  For example, the network of connections that forms as different authors reply to one another can be extracted and analyzed using network analysis methods.  It is possible to calculate metrics from these networks of reply that describe the location of each person in the graph.

ThreadMill generates several data sets that can be used to create visualizations of the activity and structure of a message board collection.

A Treemap data set can illustrate the hierarchy of encapsulated authors within threads, threads within fora, fora within boards, and boards within collections.  Treemap visualizations of collections of threaded conversations can quickly highlight the most active or populous discussions.

An AuthorLine visualization takes the form of a double histogram, with bubbles representing each thread active in each time period sized by the volume of messages the author contributed, sorted by size.  Threads that have been initiated by the author are represented as bubbles above the center line.  Messages that the author contributes to threads started by other authors are represented as bubbles stacked below the center line.  AuthorLines quickly reveal the pattern of activity an author displays and identifies which of several types of contributors the author is.

A scatter plot visualization represents each author as a bubble in an X-Y space defined by the number of different days the author was active against the average number of messages the author contributes to the threads in which they participate.

A time series line chart reveals the days of maximum and minimum activity along with trends.

A network diagram reveals the overall structure of the discussion space and the people who occupy strategic locations within the network graph.

ThreadMill has received generous assistance from Morningside Analytics.  Bruce Woodson implemented ThreadMill.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/16/threadmill-0-1-social-accounting-for-message-thread-collections/feed/ 2 #JW11 NodeXL SNA Map for 10 October 2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/11/jw11-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jw11-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/11/jw11-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:31:47 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5343 The Jive World 11 conference took place October 4-6, 2011.

20111010-NodeXL-Twitter-#jw11 graph
These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word #JW11 when queried on October 10, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

See: www.jivesoftware.com/jiveworld

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6234653454/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@jivesoftware
@gialyons
@mikefraietta
@cflanagan
@cosmopolitan_lv
@ginorossi
@kristinhersant
@thebrandbuilder
@alanlepo
@mor_trisha

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 345
Unique Edges: 3606
Edges With Duplicates: 2072
Total Edges: 5678
Self-Loops: 632
Connected Components: 11
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 9
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 334
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 5659
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 5
Average Geodesic Distance: 2.353001
Graph Density: 0.034184361
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

More NodeXL network visualizations are here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/11/jw11-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/feed/ 0 #occupywallstreet NodeXL SNA Map for 10 October 2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:18:42 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5320 #occupywallstreet continues to be an active topic of social media traffic.

Here is the updated map of connections among people who recently tweeted #occupywallstreet:

20111010-NodeXL-Twitter-occupywallstreet graph 20111010-NodeXL-Twitter-occupywallstreet composite wide

These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word OccupyWallStreet when queried on October 10, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

See: occupywallst.org/

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6232030871/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@ajenglish
@anonymousirc
@cnbc
@rawstory
@ryannewyork
@mediabistro
@blogdiva
@brentnhunter
@krenner2
@rebuilddream

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 1000
Unique Edges: 3014
Edges With Duplicates: 720
Total Edges: 3734
Self-Loops: 994
Connected Components: 318
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 300
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 664
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 3326
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 9
Average Geodesic Distance: 3.508133
Graph Density: 0.002524525
NodeXL Version1.0.1.179

More NodeXL network visualizations are here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-map-for-10-october-2011/feed/ 0 October 9-11, 2011: IEEE 2011 Social Computing, Boston: NodeXL Paper on “Group-in-a-box” layouts http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/october-9-11-2011-ieee-2011-social-computing-boston-nodexl-paper-on-group-in-a-box-layouts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-9-11-2011-ieee-2011-social-computing-boston-nodexl-paper-on-group-in-a-box-layouts http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/october-9-11-2011-ieee-2011-social-computing-boston-nodexl-paper-on-group-in-a-box-layouts/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:00:39 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4253

This year the IEEE Social Computing conference is being held in Boston, October 9-11, 2011.

The NodeXL team from the Social Media Research Foundation have a paper on our newest layout feature in NodeXL: Group-in-a-box.

Abstract: Communities in social networks emerge from interactions among individuals and can be analyzed through a combination of clustering and graph layout algorithms. These approaches result in 2D or 3D visualizations of clustered graphs, with groups of vertices representing individuals that form a community. However, in many instances the vertices have attributes that divide individuals into distinct categories such as gender, profession, geographic location, and similar. It is often important to investigate what categories of individuals comprise each community and vice-versa, how the community structures associate the individuals from the same category. Currently, there are no effective methods for analyzing both the community structure and the category-based partitions of social graphs. We propose Group-In-a-Box (GIB), a metalayout for clustered graphs that enables multi-faceted analysis of networks. It uses the treemap space filling technique to display each graph cluster or category group within its own box, sized according to the number of vertices therein. GIB optimizes visualization of the network sub-graphs, providing a semantic substrate for category-based and cluster-based partitions of social graphs. We illustrate the application of GIB to multi-faceted analysis of real social networks and discuss desirable properties of GIB using synthetic datasets.

The paper is authored by:

Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues*, Natasa Milic-Frayling†, Marc Smith‡, Ben Shneiderman§, Derek Hansen¶
* Dept. of Informatics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal – eduardamr @ acm.org
† Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK -natasamf @ microsoft.com
‡ Connected Action Consulting Group, Belmont, California, USA – marc @ connectedaction.net
§ Dept. of Computer Science & Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA – ben @ cs.umd.edu
¶ College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland – dlhansen @ umd.edu

A map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted #SocialCom2011:

20111010-NodeXL-Twitter-#socialcom2011

20111010-NodeXL-Twitter-#socialcom2011 composite wide
Connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word #socialcom2011 when queried on October 10, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

Layout using the “Group Layout” composed of tiled bounded regions. Clusters calculated by the Clauset-Newman-Moore algorithm are also encoded by color.

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6232130442/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@danielequercia
@gadgetman4u
@bkeegan
@shaunlawson
@maryheston
@mmiiina
@ronaldomenezes
@theshadowhost
@fergal_reid
@cosleydr

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 36
Unique Edges: 119
Edges With Duplicates: 155
Total Edges: 274
Self-Loops: 105
Connected Components: 2
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 1
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 35
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 273
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 5
Average Geodesic Distance: 2.174551
Graph Density: 0.107936508
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

More NodeXL network visualizations are here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/10/october-9-11-2011-ieee-2011-social-computing-boston-nodexl-paper-on-group-in-a-box-layouts/feed/ 0 #occupywallstreet NodeXL SNA Twitter Map for 8 October 2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/08/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-twitter-map-for-8-october-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-twitter-map-for-8-october-2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/08/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-twitter-map-for-8-october-2011/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:17:54 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5311 The #Occupywallstreet movement is growing and lots of activity is taking place in social media.  Here is a map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted the term “#occupywallstreet” on 8 October 2011.

20111008-NodeXL-Twitter-#occupywallstreet
Link: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6225446144/

Each user is scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

See: occupywallst.org/

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6225446144/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@maddow
@motherjones
@aclu
@zerohedge
@mmfa
@spread4freedom
@diggrbiii
@angelsavant
@marychastain
@katiepavlich

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 1000
Unique Edges: 3835
Edges With Duplicates: 916
Total Edges: 4751
Self-Loops: 1109
Connected Components: 311
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 301
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 678
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 4327
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 9
Average Geodesic Distance: 3.283708
Graph Density: 0.003408408
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

More NodeXL network visualizations are here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/08/occupywallstreet-nodexl-sna-twitter-map-for-8-october-2011/feed/ 1 WIN 2011 NodeXL SNA Twitter Map http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/win-2011-nodexl-sna-twitter-map/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=win-2011-nodexl-sna-twitter-map http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/win-2011-nodexl-sna-twitter-map/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:00:45 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5095  

The Workshop on Information in Networks 2011 was held at NYU September 30-October 1st.

Over the course of the event a number of people tweeted using the hashtag #win2011.

20111003-NodeXL-Twitter-#win2011
These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word win2011 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: winworkshop.net/

Layout using the “Group Layout” composed of tiled bounded regions. Clusters calculated by the Clauset-Newman-Moore algorithm are also encoded by color.

A larger version of the image is here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6209064926/sizes/l/in/photostream/

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:

@sinanaral
@winworkshop
@barrywellman
@ladamic
@seanjtaylor
@drewconway
@chrisdiehl
@dylanwalker
@marc_smith
@ariegoldshlager

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 38
Unique Edges: 227
Edges With Duplicates: 193
Total Edges: 420
Self-Loops: 68
Connected Components: 1
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 0
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 38
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 420
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 3
Average Geodesic Distance: 1.836565
Graph Density: 0.194167852
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

20110930-NodeXL-Twitter-#win2011

These are the connections among the Twitter users who tweeted the word win2011 when queried a few days earlier on September 30, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6198785387/sizes/l/in/ph…

Top most between users:
@sinanaral
@winworkshop
@ariegoldshlager
@drewconway
@chrisdiehl
@kateaanderson
@dylanwalker
@barrywellman
@kristinalerman
@pboothe

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 16
Unique Edges: 60
Edges With Duplicates: 45
Total Edges: 105
Self-Loops: 26
Connected Components: 1
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 0
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 16
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 105
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 3
Average Geodesic Distance: 1.617188
Graph Density: 0.270833333
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.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/win-2011-nodexl-sna-twitter-map/feed/ 0 WikiSym NodeXL SNA Map 3 October 2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/wikisym-nodexl-sna-map/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wikisym-nodexl-sna-map http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/wikisym-nodexl-sna-map/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:46:31 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5175 WikiSym 2011,  the conference on Wiki and open collaboration research took place October 3-5 in Mountain View, California.

At the end of the conference on October 5th, the network of connections among the people who tweeted about Wikisym looked like this:

20111005-NodeXL-Twitter-Wikisym graph

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

See: www.wikisym.org/

Top most between users:
@edchi
@jfelipe
@phauly
@readermeter
@hfordsa
@wikisym
@clifflampe
@staeiou
@geoplace
@wikimedia

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 170
Unique Edges: 1163
Edges With Duplicates: 2165
Total Edges: 3328
Self-Loops: 658
Connected Components: 5
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 3
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 165
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 3319
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 6
Average Geodesic Distance: 2.385502
Graph Density: 0.052941176
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.179

In contrast, a few days earlier, these are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word wikisym when queried on October 3, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

20111003-NodeXL-Twitter-wikisym

Top most between users:
@wikisym
@jfelipe
@andicat
@geoplace
@staeiou
@dirkriehle
@wikimedia
@edchi
@bkeegan
@hfordsa

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 78
Unique Edges: 459
Edges With Duplicates: 354
Total Edges: 813
Self-Loops: 132
Connected Components: 10
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 8
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 68
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 800
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 5
Average Geodesic Distance: 2.207506
Graph Density: 0.086913087
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.

The book, Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world, is available from Morgan Kaufmann and from Amazon.

Marc Smith on Twitter.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/10/03/wikisym-nodexl-sna-map/feed/ 1 HealthTap NodeXL SNA Map for 20110928 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/30/healthtap-nodexl-sna-map-for-20110928/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=healthtap-nodexl-sna-map-for-20110928 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/30/healthtap-nodexl-sna-map-for-20110928/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:10:34 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=5107 HealthTap is a website that connects people with medical questions to health providers with answers.

20110928-NodeXL-Twitter-healthtap

This is a map of the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word HealthTap when queried on September 28, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

See: healthtap.com/

Layout using the “Group Layout” composed of tiled bounded regions. Clusters calculated by the Clauset-Newman-Moore algorithm are also encoded by color.

A larger version of the image is here: www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/6198785341/sizes/l/in/ph…

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:
@lifehacker
@healthtap
@drpam4women
@androidandme
@drpam
@amazonwireless
@jonmrich
@etseng
@mobilehealth
@doctor_v

Graph Metric: Value
Graph Type: Directed
Vertices: 638
Unique Edges: 3630
Edges With Duplicates: 1337
Total Edges: 4967
Self-Loops: 865
Connected Components: 183
Single-Vertex Connected Components: 167
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component: 426
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component: 4677
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter): 11
Average Geodesic Distance: 3.098025
Graph Density: 0.008715423
NodeXL Version: 1.0.1.177

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.
The book, Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world, is available from Morgan Kaufmann and from Amazon.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/30/healthtap-nodexl-sna-map-for-20110928/feed/ 0 NodeXL Graph Gallery on the web: Collectively Authored Archives of Networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/07/nodexl-graph-gallery-on-the-web-collectively-authored-archives-of-networks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nodexl-graph-gallery-on-the-web-collectively-authored-archives-of-networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/07/nodexl-graph-gallery-on-the-web-collectively-authored-archives-of-networks/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:00:28 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4363

The NodeXL team from the Social Media Research Foundation has released a web application that allows users to upload network files and download files other users have uploaded.

The Social Media Research Foundation is dedicated to Open Tools, Open Data, and Open Scholarship.

The NodeXL Graph Gallery on the Web enables the research community to collectively gather and share data sets.

Users of NodeXL will notice a new NodeXL>Data>Export>To Web Gallery menu option which opens this dialog box:

Users will be able to browse the NodeXL Web Gallery for graphs that were recently uploaded:

Users will be able to search for graphs that contain certain keywords:

Users can then get details about the network graph and download those files they would like to investigate.

 

 

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/09/07/nodexl-graph-gallery-on-the-web-collectively-authored-archives-of-networks/feed/ 0 Please vote on our SxSW panel: Social Mapping: Bridging Online & Offline Events http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/15/please-vote-on-our-sxsw-panel-social-mapping-bridging-online-offline-events/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=please-vote-on-our-sxsw-panel-social-mapping-bridging-online-offline-events http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/15/please-vote-on-our-sxsw-panel-social-mapping-bridging-online-offline-events/#comments Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:35:26 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4824  

Please vote on our SxSW 2012 panel:

Social Mapping :
Bridging Online & Offline Events
SxSW Twitter Network  
Event Interactive 2012
Format Workshop
Organizer Emily Gannett ‐ IRL Productions
Speakers Marc Smith ‐ Social Media Research Foundation
Description Look up from your phone and you will notice that offline is not obsolete. Experiences in real life (IRL) remain powerful and memorable. Online tools and social platforms are now thoroughly integrated into “offline” life on smart devices in every meeting, conference, or gathering. Marketers can now tie online and offline activity together, mapping online discussions and offline connections to spur awareness, connections, and lasting conversations. Featuring insight from the Social Media Research Foundation and case studies from some of the world’s top brands, this intermediate workshop will teach techniques for integrating social media and emerging technologies with events and experiential marketing campaigns. We’ll illustrate free and open tools for collecting, analyzing and visualizing patterns of how people engage with your topic using various social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. We will review how to augment face-to-face interactions, and present case studies of interactive events that fit cohesively into established online and offline marketing campaigns. Maps of the connections that form when people communicate can reveal the key people and groups who act as your brand influencers. Learn how to make maps of your own, with no programming skills required, to guide your own engagement with stakeholders, online and off.
Questions
Answered
  1. How can marketers leverage digital media to increase the value of experiential marketing? How can they create breadth and impact beyond the transaction?
  2. What are the best new platforms and tools to leverage?
  3. What was your favorite integrated campaign this year? Which brands did an excellent job of incorporating social media at events and weaving digital throughout?
  4. What social media data can be collected at events and conferences? What can you do to better understand your customers through this information?
  5. What are the best ways to compare online and offline metrics? Do we need new standards?
Level Intermediate
Category Branding / Marketing / Advertising
Tags Events, Metrics, social media

Thanks for your vote for our SxSW panel!

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/15/please-vote-on-our-sxsw-panel-social-mapping-bridging-online-offline-events/feed/ 0 Help file for NodeXL (v.172+) http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/13/help-file-for-nodexl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=help-file-for-nodexl http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/13/help-file-for-nodexl/#comments Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:00:15 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4778 A detailed help file describing each of the features and functions of NodeXL is now shipping in the project since version v.172.

A detailed outline of all the topics covered is available:

The help file will be updated as new features are added.

NodeXL Excel Template Help File:

An Overview of Network Graphs
A Quick Tour of the NodeXL Workbook
The NodeXL Worksheets
The Graph Pane
The NodeXL Ribbon Tab
Creating a Simple Graph
Directed vs. Undirected Graphs
Graphs with Isolated Vertices
Zooming, Moving Around and Scaling the Graph
Zooming the Graph
Moving Around the Graph
Scaling the Graph
Selecting Graph Elements
Selecting Vertices
Selecting Edges
Changing How the Graph Looks
Default Visual Properties: Graph Options
Setting Visual Properties for Individual Edges, Vertices or Groups
Automatically Calculating Visual Properties for All Edges, Vertices or Groups
Labeling Edges and Vertices
Changing How the Graph is Laid Out
Layout Algorithms
Selectively Laying Out Parts of the Graph Again
Snapping Vertices to a Grid
Layout Options
Saving an Image of the Graph
Analyzing the Graph
Calculating Graph Metrics
Creating Subgraph Images
Using Dynamic Filters
Working with Options
Using the Current Workbook’s Options for New Workbooks
Exporting and Importing Options
Resetting All Options
Working with Groups
Creating Groups
Creating Groups by Vertex Attribute
Creating Groups by Connected Component
Creating Groups by Cluster
Manually Creating Groups
Understanding the Group Worksheets
How Groups Are Shown in the Graph Pane
Selecting Groups
Collapsing and Expanding Groups
Removing Groups
Showing and Hiding Workbook Columns
Showing and Hiding Graph Elements
Importing Graph Data
Importing Graph Data from Other Programs
Importing Graph Data from Another Workbook
Importing Graph Data from Email
Importing Graph Data from Online Social Networks
Exporting Graph Data
Exporting Graph Data to Other Programs
Exporting Graph Data to Another Workbook
Merging Duplicate Edges
Automating Common Tasks
The NodeXL Network Server
Where to Go for More Information

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/08/13/help-file-for-nodexl/feed/ 0 9 August 2011 – Social Media SNA Workshop – Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (http://www.aejmc.com/) http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/31/8-august-2011-social-media-sna-workshop-association-for-education-in-journalism-and-mass-communication-httpwww-aejmc-com/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=8-august-2011-social-media-sna-workshop-association-for-education-in-journalism-and-mass-communication-httpwww-aejmc-com http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/31/8-august-2011-social-media-sna-workshop-association-for-education-in-journalism-and-mass-communication-httpwww-aejmc-com/#comments Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:30:11 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3840

Here is a map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term “AEJMC” on August 7, 2011:

The top most between people in this network are:@aejmc, @jlab, @karenrussell, @terryflynn, @natcomm, @tmccorkindale, @derigansilver, @tkell, @aejmconlineads, and @jeremyhl:

I will present a Workshop on Social Media Network Analysis and NodeXL at the 9 August 2011 – Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (http://www.aejmc.com) in St. Louis, Missouri along with my colleague Professor Hernando Rojas, from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin – Madison.

See: http://www.aejmc.com/home/events/annual-convention/

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to cultivate the widest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multi-cultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a better informed public.

Our session is:

Using NodeXL for Social Network Analysis
Tuesday — 2 pm to 5 pm
Presented by Communication Theory and Methodology Division
This pre-conference workshop examines social network analysis. Social network analysis can be used to examine message boards, blogs, and friend networks (amongmany other phenomena). Participants will learn to use the NodeXL program to conduct a network analysis. For information, contact Michel M. Haigh, Pennsylvania State University at mmh25@psu.edu.

 

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/31/8-august-2011-social-media-sna-workshop-association-for-education-in-journalism-and-mass-communication-httpwww-aejmc-com/feed/ 0 June 22, 2011: NodeXL at the NextWork Networks event in New York City http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/25/june-22-2011-nextwork-networks-event-in-new-york-city/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=june-22-2011-nextwork-networks-event-in-new-york-city http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/25/june-22-2011-nextwork-networks-event-in-new-york-city/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:00:53 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4611

On June 22nd in New York City Wired Magazine and the Economist hosted a day of discussions and displays related to the theme of “Nextwork” hosted by Juniper Networks and located at the Tribeca Rooftop.

The Social Media Research Foundation displayed and printed  Nextwork Networks maps of the connections among the people who tweeted about the conference, the speakers, and their companies.

Visit the NextWork Network booth hosted by the Social Media Research Foundation to see a map of the connections among people who tweeted the term “NextWork“.  Networks are important data structures but the tools to access, analyze and visualize networks have been hard to use.  New tools now make networks as easy to handle as making a pie chart.  NodeXL, the free and open network overview, discovery and exploration add-in for the familiar Excel spreadsheet, makes creating network diagrams and gaining insights much simpler (see: http://nodexl.codeplex.com).  Using NodeXL, we have been collecting all the tweets that mention the NextWork event and building a network map of the ways those people connect to one another.  Not everyone is equally connected: some people occupy more strategic locations in the web of connections than others.   Find out who: request your own NodeXL social media network map for your Twitter account or the name of your company or brand (or your competitors) by dropping by the booth (or visit: http://www.smrfoundation.org/nextwork2011).

Here is an example, a map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted the name “Kevin Kelly”, one of the speakers at the event:

This is a map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term “Nextwork”:

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/07/25/june-22-2011-nextwork-networks-event-in-new-york-city/feed/ 0 A Sample Settings File for NodeXL: An automated recipie for making Twitter network visualizations http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/06/12/a-sample-settings-file-for-nodexl-an-automated-recipie-for-making-twitter-network-visualizations/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-sample-settings-file-for-nodexl-an-automated-recipie-for-making-twitter-network-visualizations http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/06/12/a-sample-settings-file-for-nodexl-an-automated-recipie-for-making-twitter-network-visualizations/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:10:57 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4469

Starting in version .165 of NodeXL we have supported the idea of an options file that can be imported, exported and exchanged among users.

If you have set all the knobs and dials of your copy of NodeXL just right, you can export these adjustments and configurations into a single file.  Use the NodeXL>Options>Export feature to create a named file containing your settings.  You can now exchange this file with others.  If you receive an options file, you can use the NodeXL>Options>Import feature to pick it out from the file system and set your copy of NodeXL to the settings defined in that file.

If you use the related NodeXL>Options>Use Current for New feature you can set the defaults for NodeXL to the settings contained in any imported options file.

I have been fine tuning a settings file that generates network visualizations that are tailored for the Twitter networks I have been making many of.  I have saved these sample settings file for NodeXL and you can try them yourself here: NodeXL-Twitter Network-Options Settings.NodeXLOptions.

Download this file, rename it by removing the .txt extension and load it into your copy of NodeXL.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/06/12/a-sample-settings-file-for-nodexl-an-automated-recipie-for-making-twitter-network-visualizations/feed/ 0 NodeXL v.167 – New features for handling groups of nodes in a network (and a few other things) http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/05/04/nodexl-v-167-new-features-for-handling-groups-of-nodes-in-a-network-and-a-few-other-things/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nodexl-v-167-new-features-for-handling-groups-of-nodes-in-a-network-and-a-few-other-things http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/05/04/nodexl-v-167-new-features-for-handling-groups-of-nodes-in-a-network-and-a-few-other-things/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 19:59:31 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4513 The NodeXL team at the Social Media Research Foundation is happy to announce the availability of the newest version: there is lots of new stuff in the latest release of NodeXL v.1.0.1.167!

  • Group Frames: If your graph has groups and you choose to lay out the groups in their own boxes (NodeXL, Graph, Layout, Layout Options), you can now specify the width of the box outlines.

  • Constant Edges: When you select an edge, its width no longer changes. NodeXL used to use the same width for all selected edges, even if the edges had varying widths when unselected.
  • Group and Vertex Display Harmony:
    • When a graph has groups, you now have more control over how the groups are shown. Go to NodeXL, Analysis, Groups, Group Options.
    • The NodeXL, Show/Hide, Graph Elements, Groups menu item has been replaced with a checkbox in the Group Options dialog box.

  • Right-Click Group Controls: Menu items for selecting, expanding, collapsing and removing groups are now available in the menu that appears when you right-click the graph pane. (These are just shortcuts for the same menu items that are available in the Ribbon at NodeXL, Analysis, Groups.)

  • WYSIWYCC: What You See Is What You Can Click -
    • Hidden edges and vertices (those that have their Visibility cells set to Hide) can no longer be selected in the graph pane.
    • Edges and vertices that have been filtered (NodeXL, Analysis, Dynamic Filters) can no longer be selected in the graph pane.
  • Bigger Twitter Lists: When importing a Twitter list network (NodeXL, Import, From Twitter List Network), you can now enter up to 10,000 usernames. The maximum used to be 500.
  • UCINET / Matrix Compatibility: Bug fix: When exporting the graph to a UCINET file (NodeXL, Data, Export, To UCINET Full Matrix DL File), isolated vertices didn’t get exported. When exporting the graph to a new matrix workbook (NodeXL, Data, Export, To New Matrix Workbook), isolated vertices didn’t get exported, when importing a graph from a matrix workbook (NodeXL, Data, Import, From Open Matrix Workbook), isolated vertices didn’t get imported. Now they do!

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/05/04/nodexl-v-167-new-features-for-handling-groups-of-nodes-in-a-network-and-a-few-other-things/feed/ 0 Mapping social networks in Twitter Lists with NodeXL (v.161) http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/04/05/mapping-social-networks-in-twitter-lists-with-nodexl-v-161/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mapping-social-networks-in-twitter-lists-with-nodexl-v-161 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/04/05/mapping-social-networks-in-twitter-lists-with-nodexl-v-161/#comments Wed, 06 Apr 2011 02:01:42 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4092

Lists are a recent feature of Twitter which enable users to compile collections of users to follow in a single tweet stream.  People can add up to 500 people to follow on a single list.    People on a list may be connected to one another if one follows the other.

Some people on a list may have many connections.  Some have only a few or even no connections to others on the list.

In version 161 of NodeXL you may now create maps of the connections among a list of Twitter users.

There are two options in this feature.  One makes use of the List functions in Twitter.  If you request the map for a single twitter list, NodeXL will build a map of the connections among all the people Twitter reports as being on the list.  You can create and manage the people on a list using the Twitter list features, or select an existing Twitter list created by other users.

A second option in this feature accepts a list of up to 10,000 twitter user names pasted into the query text box.  If you have a list of users and want a map of how they are connected, and the list is not already in Twitter, just paste them here and get a map.

Either way, a connection will be created for every two users if one follows the other.

Here is an example of the network map of the Twitter list of social network analysis people maintained by Valdis Krebs: valdiskrebs\network-analysts

 

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/04/05/mapping-social-networks-in-twitter-lists-with-nodexl-v-161/feed/ 5 Video: Talk at Personal Digital Archives 2011 at the Internet Archive (24 February 2011) http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/21/video-talk-at-personal-digital-archives-2011-at-the-internet-archive-24-february-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=video-talk-at-personal-digital-archives-2011-at-the-internet-archive-24-february-2011 http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/21/video-talk-at-personal-digital-archives-2011-at-the-internet-archive-24-february-2011/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:11:14 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4229 I gave a talk at the Personal Digital Archives conference held at the Internet Archive in San Francisco, California on 24 February 2011.  The videos of the talks at the event are now available from the Internet Archive web site.

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:

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/21/video-talk-at-personal-digital-archives-2011-at-the-internet-archive-24-february-2011/feed/ 0 11 March 2011: San Francisco – Future of Networks event http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/05/11-march-2011-san-francisco-future-of-networks-event/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=11-march-2011-san-francisco-future-of-networks-event http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/05/11-march-2011-san-francisco-future-of-networks-event/#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 04:27:52 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=4142

On 11 March 2011, I will be speaking at:

Organizational and Social Media Network Analysis:
Next Practices in Organizational Networks, Analytics and Media

Along with Valdis Krebs, Chief Scientist, http://thenetworkthinkers.com/


Valdis will be speaking about Organizational Network Analysis - Introduction to Enterprise Networks, followed by a InFlow 3.1 Workshop: Social Network Analysis with InFlow 3.1

I will be speaking about Social Media Network Analysis with NodeXL.

Preservation Park
1233 Preservation Park Way
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 874-7580
(click for map)


Tell a Friend
Add to Calendar

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2011/03/05/11-march-2011-san-francisco-future-of-networks-event/feed/ 0 October 26, 2010 – Social Tech 2010 – San Jose, CA http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/25/october-26-2010-%e2%80%93-social-tech-2010-%e2%80%93-san-jose-ca/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-26-2010-%25e2%2580%2593-social-tech-2010-%25e2%2580%2593-san-jose-ca http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/25/october-26-2010-%e2%80%93-social-tech-2010-%e2%80%93-san-jose-ca/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:00:51 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3651

I spoke at the Social Tech 2010 conference in San Jose on October 26, 2010.

The event focused on social media technologies and practices in the business to business space.

I spoke on a panel about the application of social network analysis to social media to illustrate the ways SNA can illuminate the shape and key contributors to a social media crowd inside the firewall or on the public Internet.

Other notable speakers included: Thomas Lento from Facebook, Lawrence Liu from Cisco and Michael Wu from Lithium.  The panel was moderated by Tatyana Kanzaveli.

Michael Wu, Tom Lento, and Lawrence Lui at SocialTech 2010

An example of applying social network analysis and visualization is this map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted “socialtech” on the 25th of September, 2010.

The top most between users in this map can be sorted in the spreadsheet, bringing the user accounts for @mprofsevents, @socialtech, @mikewise07, @jowyang, @marketingprofs, @meganleap, @socialmediaclub, @cotweet, @zuberance, @spiral16.

It remains early in this cycle of the use of the socialtech tag, as the conference begins the volume will ramp up and new people will enter the graph bringing with them their unique patterns of connection and interaction.  Over the coming days we may see more clusters emerge and new connections form.
As of Monday evening, the socialtech Twitter graph is small but densely connected with few isolates:
Vertices 87
Unique Edges 224
Edges With Duplicates 88
Total Edges 312
Graph Density 0.035017375
Single-Vertex Connected Components 6

By Tuesday morning, the event is gaining activity and density.
The most between members of this graph are the accounts:
The accounts @zuberance, @spiral16 have been pushed out of the top 10 most between positions in the graph, while @marc_meyer and @anneyaz join the graph.
Vertices 125
Unique Edges 470
Edges With Duplicates 112
Total Edges 582
Connected Components 10
Single-Vertex Connected Components 7
Maximum Vertices in a Connected Component 113
Maximum Edges in a Connected Component 575
Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter) 5
Average Geodesic Distance 2.725082
Graph Density 0.033419355
A paper about “EventGraphs” will be presented at  the HICSS 2011 conference by Prof. Derek Hansen from the University of Maryland, School of Information.
]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/25/october-26-2010-%e2%80%93-social-tech-2010-%e2%80%93-san-jose-ca/feed/ 0 October 22nd, 2010: Marc Smith talk at Northwestern University http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22nd-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-northwestern-university/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-22nd-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-northwestern-university http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22nd-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-northwestern-university/#comments Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:30:24 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3509 I visited the SONIC group at Northwestern University for a talk about social media networks on October 22, 2010.

Northwestern University

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22nd-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-northwestern-university/feed/ 0 October 22, 2010 – Connecting the Dots – A Network Visualization Symposium at Harvard http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22-2010-connecting-the-dots-a-network-visualization-symposium-at-harvard/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-22-2010-connecting-the-dots-a-network-visualization-symposium-at-harvard http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22-2010-connecting-the-dots-a-network-visualization-symposium-at-harvard/#comments Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:00:44 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3600

CONNECTING THE DOTS
A Network Visualization Symposium

http://networks.iq.harvard.edu/

Date: October 22, 2010
The first CONNECTING THE DOTS symposium on network visualization organized by Michael Barnett, Jukka-Pekka Onnela, and Samuel Arbesman of The Christakis Lab at Harvard was held on October 22, 2010.

Keynote speakers:

Alessandro Vespignani, Professor of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington
Ben Fry, co-developer of Processing and data visualization expert

The NodeXL project will be represented by Ben Shneiderman who will speak at 2:00 PM on:

Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL

NodeXL is the free and open add-in for Excel 2007/2010 that supports network
overview, discovery and exploration. Supported by Microsoft External Research
for 3+ years, this effort has produced a game-changing software tool that enables
students, researchers, and professional community managers to extract and
download networks from email, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WWW, etc. Then they
can compute network analytic metrics, filter out less relevant features, apply
multiple layout algorithms, and produce compelling yet comprehensible displays
that reveal actionable insights about complex social processes.

Complete draft program for Connecting_the_Dots…

Program

10:15 AM Keynote I: Ben Fry (Fathom)

11:00 AM SocioPatterns
Wouter van Der Broeck, (ISI Foundation)

The SocioPatterns project developed an active-RFID based sociometric platform capable of sensing mutual proximity in a distributed, scalable fashion. This platform enables a large-scale, real-time assessment of the dynamics of person-to-person interaction network with a fine temporal and spatial granularity. The initial focus of this project was on empirical data collection in support of research on dynamic social interaction networks and infection dynamics. Various experiments also explored the potential of the platform for more service oriented applications, and artscience contexts. The SocioPattens platform has been deployed in more than a dozen settings, ranging from conferences and tradeshows, over primary schools, long-term public exhibitions, artscience projects, and domestic settings.

11:25 AM Visualizing Countrywide Traffic Dynamics
Wen Dong (MIT)

It is often a challenge to reveal the human mobility patterns in multi-gigabyte vehicle tracking data spanning a whole country and many years. We address this problem through a Markov model of how people drive in the road network, and animations of road-traffic conditions on top of Google Maps. We welcome researchers to use our visualization tool set.

12:50 PM Keynote II: Alessandro Vespignani (Indiana University)

1:35 PM Network Visualization Using Processing
Sergiy Nesterko (Harvard University)

Network, or relational data are becoming of increasing interest to researchers in different disciplines, partly because related problems are very hard to solve due to complex structure of underlying datasets. It is well known that a picture is worth a thousand words, and especially for networks related problems, visualization has become an invaluable tool in gaining intuition that helps tackle them. As an example, we consider network visualization using Processing as applied to problems in respondent-driven sampling, which is a variant of link tracing process to explore social networks of hard-to-reach populations. We emphasize the role of a compelling visualization in a successful research endeavor and briefly describe how Processing can be used to make it.

2:00 PM Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL
Ben Shneiderman (Univ. of Maryland, College Park)

NodeXL is the free and open add-in for Excel 2007/2010 that supports network overview, discovery and exploration. Supported by Microsoft External Research for 3+ years, this effort has produced a game-changing software tool that enables students, researchers, and professional community managers to extract and download networks from email, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, WWW, etc. Then they can compute network analytic metrics, filter out less relevant features, apply multiple layout algorithms, and produce compelling yet comprehensible displays that reveal actionable insights about complex social processes.

2:25 PM FacetAtlas: Multifaceted Visualization for Rich-context Networks
Yu-Ru Lin (Harvard University and Northeastern University)

FacetAtlas is a multifaceted visualization technique for analyzing interconnected text documents. FacetAtlas combines search technology with advanced visual analytical tools to convey both global and local patterns simultaneously. The power of FacetAtlas is demonstrated through a case study that targets patient education in the health care domain.

3:35 PM Pathline: A Tool for Exploring Biological Data in the Context of Molecular Networks

Miriah Meyer (Harvard University)

Pathline is an interactive tool that visualizes the biologically interesting relationships between multiple molecular networks, the activity levels of multiple genes, and the evolutionary relatedness of multiple species. Working in close collaboration with a group of genomics scientists we designed Pathline around a representation of a linearized network that provides appropriate topological information and supports the comparison of quantitative data. We validated the efficacy of Pathline to both confirm existing knowledge and discover new scientific insights through a series of case studies.

4:00 PM Is Network Visualization Even Useful?
John Dila (Innocentive)

Our company, InnoCentive Inc. (innocentive.com) is an Open Innovation marketplace, which connects Seeker companies (that have tractable problems they have not been able to solve) with our Global Solver Community of experts, specialists, and generalists who sign up to solve tough, meaningful problems. As part of a website redesign, we wanted to update the way we graphically display data about our global Solver network. By “eating our own dog-food” we posted a challenge on our platform asking for solutions to how we can best visualize a selected data set about our global Solver population in order to drive traffic to our site and add value to customers and the business. We received 10 solutions and they are currently under evaluation. We will present our challenge process, the results of the visualization challenge, and how we plan to use them moving forward.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-22-2010-connecting-the-dots-a-network-visualization-symposium-at-harvard/feed/ 0 Video: October 19, 2010: Marc Smith talk at the University of Michigan http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-19-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-the-university-of-michigan/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=october-19-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-the-university-of-michigan http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-19-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-the-university-of-michigan/#comments Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:00:06 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3511

I spoke at the University of Michigan, School of Information on October 19th, 2010 about “Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Mapping and Measuring Social Media Networks to Find Key Positions and Structures“.

I demonstrated the ways social network data sets can be extracted from social media services like Facebook, Twitter, email, YouTube, and flickr.  These network graphs can reveal information about the “shape” of the population in terms of the presence of sub-groups and communities within the larger population.  In addition, each individual participant is located or positioned within the graph, helping to identify the people who are “core” versus those who are peripheral, as well as those who occupy the position of “bridge” between two otherwise separate groups.

Yahoo logo
 Yahoo! Speaker Series

The Yahoo Speaker Series at the School of Information supports distinguished guest lecturers from the fields of information and technology.

2010 Speaker: Marc Smith
VIDEO: Marc Smith

Marc Smith, chief social scientist with the Connected Action Social Group, presented “Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Mapping and Measuring Social Media Networks to Find Key Positions and Structures,” on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010.

Smith’s talk was sponsored by the Yahoo! Speaker Series, Michigan Interactive & Social Computing, and the School of Information.

In this talk, Smith described how networks are a data structure common across all social media systems — systems defined by enabling populations to author collections of connections. The Social Media Research Foundation‘s NodeXL project makes analysis of social media networks accessible to most users of the Excel spreadsheet application. Using NodeXL, networks become as easy to create and analyze as pie charts. Applying the tool to a range of social media networks has already revealed the variations present in online social spaces. A review of the tool and images of Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and e-mail networks will be presented, illustrating different patterns created when communities, brands, and controversies are discussed.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/10/17/october-19-2010-marc-smith-talk-at-the-university-of-michigan/feed/ 0 29 and 30 September 2010 – Mobile Web in Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa (#MWA10) http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/24/29-and-30-september-2010-%e2%80%93-mobile-web-in-africa-johannesburg-south-africa-mwa10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=29-and-30-september-2010-%25e2%2580%2593-mobile-web-in-africa-johannesburg-south-africa-mwa10 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/24/29-and-30-september-2010-%e2%80%93-mobile-web-in-africa-johannesburg-south-africa-mwa10/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:00:26 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2911

I returned to South Africa to attend the 2010 edition of Mobile Web Africa, a conference focused on the remarkable adoption and development of mobile networks and technology in Africa.

The conference took place on 29th & 30th September 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I presented a workshop on social media network analysis, see: http://www.mobilewebafrica.com/marc-smith-workshop.php

2010 sept – mobile web africa – marc smith – says who – mapping social media crowds

View more presentations from Marc Smith.

The conference twitter hashtag #MWA2010 received a significant amount of traffic.  I mapped the collection of collections formed when people who tweeted “#MWA2010″ also followed, replied, or mentioned one another.  The following two EventMaps of the #MWA2010 twitter hashtag illustrates the development of the network.

Mobile Web Africa 2010

Map of the connections among people who tweet “MWA2010″ on October 5th, 2010

20100929-NodeXL-Twitter-MWA2010-Top Between

Map of the connections among people who tweet “MWA2010″ on September 29th, 2010

The later graph is defined by three leading contributors who each generated significant retweeting along with mentions and replies.

I attended the previous 2009 Mobile Web Africa conference in Johannesburg, South Africa, organized by AllAmber Media which also featured a focus on the next wave of mobile devices and services.

Mobile is BIG in Africa.  The “Remote control of the Universe” = Mobile Phone.

The speaker from Samsung last year noted that for many Africans, the mobile device is their first and main method for managing digital objects.  A phone is not just a phone, it is a still and video camera, music player, watch, web browser, flashlight, wallet and file system.

Mobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa

The representative from Yonder Mobile Media noted that mobile phones have now exceeded the installed base of the previously most widely used communication technology: FM Radio.  But mobile is different from FM: mobile devices are two way, provide a method for exchanging payments, and are a primary method of access to the internet for many billions of people.  Mobile is the “first” screen for many people in Africa, not the third screen role that it plays in more developed economies.  Regional services like MXIT and The Grid are offering Internet services tailored to affordable mobile devices.

Photos from this year’s event:

Mobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaMatthew Dawes at Mobile Web Africa 2010Mobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaVincent Maher and Nicky Allen at Mobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaVincent Maher at Mobile Web Africa 2010, Johannesburg, South AfricaVincent Maher speaking at Mobile Web Afrcia 2South Africa 2010Obama around the world - South Africa 2010Carvings in South Africa 2010Vuvulezas in South Africa 2010Vuvulezas in South Africa 2010Make a call - South Africa 2010On the Gautrain in South Africa 2010Landing in JohannesburgHeathrow, UKHeathrow, UKHeathrow, UKHeathrow, UK

Photos from last year’s event:

Johannesburg, South AfricaNelson Mandela Square, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa Twitter Map made by NodeXL on display, Johannesburg, South Africa, October 13, 2009Sandton City, Johannesburg, South AfricaNelson Mandela Square, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa, Johannesburg, South AfricaMobile Web Africa at the Michelangelo Hotel, Johannesburg, South AfricaView of Sandton from Michelangelo Hotel, Johannesburg, South AfricaMichelangelo Hotel, Sandton City, Johannesburg, South AfricaSandton under construction, Johannesburg, South AfricaTelecom Tower, Johannesburg, South Africa2009 - October 14 - NodeXL - Twitter Network MWA09 X Tweets Y Followers2009 - October 14 - NodeXL - Twitter Network MWA09 Followers

Photos from Cape Town:

Worldcup Football Stadium, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaLion's Head, Cape Town, South Africa12 Apostles, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaUpper Cable Car Station, Table Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaSnack shop at the top of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaRoben Island, as seen from Table Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaKen Venn on top of Table Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaMalteno Reservoir, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaView from Table Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaLion's Head, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Upper Cable Car Station, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaLion's Head, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cable Car Upper Station, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cable Car Upper Station, Cape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaTable Mountain, Cape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaCape Town, South Africa
]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/24/29-and-30-september-2010-%e2%80%93-mobile-web-in-africa-johannesburg-south-africa-mwa10/feed/ 0 Book: Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world now available http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/13/book-analyzing-social-media-networks-with-nodexl-insights-from-a-connected-world-now-available/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-analyzing-social-media-networks-with-nodexl-insights-from-a-connected-world-now-available http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/13/book-analyzing-social-media-networks-with-nodexl-insights-from-a-connected-world-now-available/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:00:32 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3549 In Stock!

The book Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world is now available [Amazon] from Morgan-Kaufman. Co-authored by Professor Derek Hansen (College of Information Studies) and Professor Ben Shneiderman (Computer Science/Human Computer Interaction Lab) from the University of Maryland and Marc Smith from Connected Action, the book is a introduction and guide to the application of social network analysis to social media.  The introductory chapters introduce the history and concepts of social network analysis an the varieties of social media, highlighting the presence of a common data structure, the network, in otherwise diverse social media systems including email, Twitter, Facebook, the WWW, Wikis, Blogs, flickr, an YouTube.  The central section of the book reviews a step-by-step guide to using the key features of NodeXL, the free and open social media network analysis add-in for Excel 2007 and 2010.  Readers can move from simple hand entered networks of a few nodes up to complex graphs extracted from a variety of social media services.  The remainder of the book are focused chapters dedicated to analyzing the networks found within a specific social media service.  These chapters were contributed by leading social media researchers and illustrate the insights that can be extracted from the otherwise disorganized stream of messages, tweets, posts, comments, links, likes, tags, friends, follows, mentions, replies and ratings.  A recent article about the book can be found on the Morgan-Kaufmann website.

Table of contents…

I. Getting Started with Analyzing Social Media Networks

[Chapter 1]: Introduction to Social Media and Social Networks
[Chapter 2]: Social media: New Technologies of Collaboration
[Chapter 3]: Social Network Analysis: Measuring, Mapping, and Modeling Collections of Connections

II. NodeXL Tutorial: Learning by Doing

[Chapter 4]: Getting Started with NodeXL, Layout, Visual Design, and Labeling
[Chapter 5]: Calculating and Visualizing Network Metrics
[Chapter 6]: Preparing Data and Filtering
[Chapter 7]: Clustering and Grouping

III Social Media Network Analysis Case Studies

[Chapter 8]: Email: The Lifeblood of Modern Communication
[Chapter 9]: Thread Networks: Mapping Message Boards and Email Lists

[Chapter 10]: Twitter: Conversation, Entertainment and Information, All in One Network!

By Vladimir Barash and Scott Golder

[Chapter 11]: Visualizing and Interpreting Facebook Networks

By Bernie Hogan

[Chapter 12]: WWW Hyperlink Networks

By Robert Ackland

[Chapter 13]: Flickr: Linking People, Photos, and Tags

By Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues and Natasa Milic-Frayling

[Chapter 14]: YouTube: Contrasting Patterns of Interaction and Prominence

By Dana Rotman and Jennifer Golbeck

[Chapter 15]: Wiki Networks: Networks of Creativity and Collaboration

By Howard T. Welser, Patrick Underwood, Dan Cosley, Derek Hansen, and Laura Black

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/13/book-analyzing-social-media-networks-with-nodexl-insights-from-a-connected-world-now-available/feed/ 0 Latest version of NodeXL gains Web 1.0 Hyperlink Network Importer: VOSON “spigot” http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/07/latest-version-of-nodexl-gains-web-1-0-hyperlink-network-importer-voson-spigot/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=latest-version-of-nodexl-gains-web-1-0-hyperlink-network-importer-voson-spigot http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/07/latest-version-of-nodexl-gains-web-1-0-hyperlink-network-importer-voson-spigot/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 01:00:16 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=1956 2009 - November - VOSON Logo + NodeXL
2009 - November - Robert Ackland
This is a milestone for NodeXL! Prof. Robert Ackland from the Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute (ADSRI) at the Australian National University has created a data provider for NodeXL based on the VOSON (Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks) Project.

With the VOSON Data Provider Plugin for NodeXL, you can now access VOSON hyperlink network construction services from within NodeXL, an Excel 2007/2010 template for analyzing social media network data. So there are two ways you can use VOSON for analyzing hyperlink networks: (1) via the VOSON System (which you login to using a web browser); (2) via VOSON+NodeXL. The VOSON System is a special tool for hyperlink network construction and analysis. NodeXL provides access to various types of social media network data sources, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and, now, WWW hyperlink networks via VOSON.

Developers interested in creating their own data import “spigots” for NodeXL may be interested in this post on the NodeXL Codeplex discussion board: For Programmers: About NodeXL Plug-Ins.

To get access to the VOSON+NodeXL plugin and documentation you first need to register for a VOSON user account.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/07/latest-version-of-nodexl-gains-web-1-0-hyperlink-network-importer-voson-spigot/feed/ 0 April 19 -21, 2010 – Conference: eComm 2010: Emerging Communications – Video now available http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/01/conference-ecomm-2010-emerging-communications-april-19-21-2010/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=conference-ecomm-2010-emerging-communications-april-19-21-2010 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/01/conference-ecomm-2010-emerging-communications-april-19-21-2010/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:00:58 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2299 Emerging Communications America 2010

I spoke at the eComm 2010 conference on April 20, 2010, talking about:

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:

NodeXL - eComm 2010 Twitter Map

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).

NodeXL - eComm 2010 Twitter Map

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/09/01/conference-ecomm-2010-emerging-communications-april-19-21-2010/feed/ 0 July 26-30 – Catalyst 2010 conference – Social Networks in the Enterprise http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/29/july-26-30-catalyst-2010-conference-social-networks-in-the-enterprise/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=july-26-30-catalyst-2010-conference-social-networks-in-the-enterprise http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/29/july-26-30-catalyst-2010-conference-social-networks-in-the-enterprise/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:15:22 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3457

I spoke at the 2010 Catalyst Conference in San Diego on July 29th. The conference hashtag is #CAT10.

The slides are here:

2010 Catalyst Conference – Trends in Social Network Analysis

View more presentations from Marc Smith.

A few days before the conference started the #CAT10 twitter social network map looked like this:

2010 - July - 26 - NodeXL - Twitter - #CAT10

26 July 2010 NodeXL Twitter map of the connections among people who tweet “#CAT10″ the hashtag for this year’s Catalyst conference.

2010 - July - 26 - NodeXL - Twitter - #CAT10 top between

This is the list of the most “between” contributors in the #CAT10 Twitter graph on July 26, 2010.

A few days later, as people began to arrive at the conference, the graph became far more dense and populous.

2010 - July - 29 - NodeXL - Twitter - #CAT10

The network of #CAT10 mentioning users in Twitter has become much more dense, with more people and more connections among them as people reply, retweet, follow, and mention one another.

2010 - July - 29 - NodeXL - Twitter - #CAT10 - top between list

While the core people in this list are similar to the list generated a few days earlier, several people have shifted position.

Filtering the graph, we can remove all but the most between people to reveal the core members of the community.

2010 - July - 29 - NodeXL - Twitter - #CAT10 - top between only

These people are likely to play an influential role in the #CAT10 community.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/29/july-26-30-catalyst-2010-conference-social-networks-in-the-enterprise/feed/ 0 July 22st, 2010 SNA event at Stanford: Network Analysis Made Easy: Using NodeXL To Map Social Media Networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/july-22st-2010-sna-event-at-stanford-network-analysis-made-easy-using-nodexl-to-map-social-media-networks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=july-22st-2010-sna-event-at-stanford-network-analysis-made-easy-using-nodexl-to-map-social-media-networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/july-22st-2010-sna-event-at-stanford-network-analysis-made-easy-using-nodexl-to-map-social-media-networks/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:13:34 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2951

There is a Stanford Media X event on July 22nd, 2010 on new tools for SNA:

Network Analysis Made Easy:  Using NodeXL To Map Social Media Networks

http://mediax.stanford.edu/WSI/marc.html

Bring a laptop (running Windows and Office 2007 or 2010) to this workshop and you can be analyzing a social media network from systems like Twitter, flickr, YouTube and your own email by the end of the day.  If you can make a pie-chart in Excel, using the free and open NodeXL (http://nodexl.codeplex.com) you can now make a rich network graph from data extracted from social media systems and other common formats.  If you have a network, bring it, if not you can bring a suggested topic that we can map during the course of the day.

Even if you leave your laptop behind or have a Mac (sorry, no version is yet available for MacOS – unless you have a virtual machine with Windows and Office) this workshop will introduce the core concepts of network science with application to social networks in general and social media networks in particular. Applied to a range of topics and services, social media network maps can illuminate a variety of “publics” – populations who share a common interest and may share connections.  Maps of topics like “oil spill”, “global warming” and other issue and event related keywords can reveal the groups and factions that cluster around different concepts and terms.  Key contributors in these maps can be identified through the application of network measurements that capture various aspects of a  person’s location in a network graph.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/july-22st-2010-sna-event-at-stanford-network-analysis-made-easy-using-nodexl-to-map-social-media-networks/feed/ 0 Automatic for the people (who use the latest NodeXL!). Release v.1.0.1.128 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/automatic-for-the-people-who-use-the-latest-nodexl-release-v-1-0-1-128/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=automatic-for-the-people-who-use-the-latest-nodexl-release-v-1-0-1-128 http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/automatic-for-the-people-who-use-the-latest-nodexl-release-v-1-0-1-128/#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:57:09 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3381

The NodeXL team has just released a new version (v.1.0.1.128) that contains a new “Automation” feature that allows users to define a collection of operations to perform on their network graphs and invoke the complete set in a single button click AND reuse that configuration on other workbook graphs.  In fact, the feature will apply the configuration you define to all the files you specify, allowing easy processing of large collections of network data sets.

This week the feature is partially complete.  Users can invoke the merge duplicate edges, calculate graph metrics, auto-fill columns, create sub-graph images, find clusters and show graph.  These operations can require as many as dozens of clicks when performed manually.  If you have dozens or hundreds of network data sets the result is a daunting case of repetitive strain injury and carpal tunnel syndrome.  Instead, with automation, these operations can be carried out orders of magnitude more frequently without much pain!

The next release will feature the complete package which will then include control over the layout and graph options.  As a result, automatically generated network visualizations can be produced in a pipeline: users will be able to specify a query using the NodeXL desktop network data collector and then automate the processing of  large collections of data sets.

The result should be better analysis of time series data sets that have many “slices”.  The feature points the way to additional development work for supporting the comparison between networks to evaluate their evolution.

The REM album “Automatic for the people” takes its title from the motto of Athens, Georgia, eatery Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/07/08/automatic-for-the-people-who-use-the-latest-nodexl-release-v-1-0-1-128/feed/ 2 Mapping #e2 OR #e2conf connections in Twitter with NodeXL http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/mapping-e2-or-e2conf-connections-with-nodexl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mapping-e2-or-e2conf-connections-with-nodexl http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/mapping-e2-or-e2conf-connections-with-nodexl/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:42:29 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3204 Enterprise 2.0

The Enterprise 2.0 conference is about to get underway in Boston. The event focuses on all the ways social media tools that are familiar on the consumer Internet are making their way behind the firewall in many enterprises and institutions. Why can’t you “friend” a colleague or “like” a spreadsheet or slide deck? Employees often come to their jobs expecting tools that resemble the social media tools with which they already spend much of their time.

Like many conferences, this one has a hashtag, actually two that I know of: #e2 and #e2conf. There is already a good deal of activity leading up to the event. Here is a map of connections among a group of people who mentioned either #e2 or #e2conf in the last few days.

2010 - June - NodeXL - #e20 All 2010-06-13_10-45-00

In this map there are 532 Vertices and 9,395 Unique Edges, creating 13 Connected Components, 11 of which had only a Single-Vertex, the largest component had 519 vertices which were interconnected 9,393 times.  The small number of isolated components indicates that this is a cohesive community of highly connected participants.  These people know and follow, reply and mention one another.  The Graph had a Density of 0.03 and the Maximum Geodesic Distance (Diameter) was 5 steps with an Average Geodesic Distance of 2.

Within this mass of connected users is a core group of highly “between” people, those who most broadly span connections within the population. These are one possible set of “influentials” within the Enterprise 2.0 community.

Here is a two screen view of the list of the top most between #e2 OR #e2conf mentioning twitter users along with the overview graph of their internal linkages.

2010 - June - NodeXL - #e20 Top Betweenness and Graph 2010-06-13_10-45-00

A closer look at the graph alone can reveal enough detail to read the names of these central participants.

2010 - June - NodeXL - #e20 Top Betweenness Graph 2010-06-13_10-45-00

This is a view of the list of authors sorted in Excel by their “Betweenness centrality” score, the measure of how much these people “bridge” across the network.

2010 - June - NodeXL - #e20 Top Betweenness 2010-06-13_10-45-00

An alternative view plots these contributors in an X/Y space based on their count of followers (along the x axis) and count of tweets (along the y axis).

The top 15 are:

dhinchcliffe
jowyang
rlavigne42
enterprise20
jumpersearch
marciamarcia
itsinsider
cmswatch
philcampos
rwang0
dankeldsen
lliu
juliancaparaz
lehawes
sameerpatel

2010 - June - NodeXL - #e20 All x followers y tweets 2010-06-13_10-45-00

Twitter users who mentioned #e2 or #e2conf on June 13, 2010 scaled by number of followers, x = log(followers), y = log(tweets).

There is a correlation between tweets and followers, but not everyone converts tweets to followers at the same rate. Below the diagonal are those who over convert tweets to followers, those above the diagonal under convert tweets to followers.

The book, Analyzing social media networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world, is forthcoming summer 2010 from Morgan Kaufmann and from Amazon.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/mapping-e2-or-e2conf-connections-with-nodexl/feed/ 1 Request a NodeXL Social Media Network Map http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/request-a-nodexl-social-media-network-map/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=request-a-nodexl-social-media-network-map http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/request-a-nodexl-social-media-network-map/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:26:00 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3197

Hello!  If you would like to request a custom social media network map made with NodeXL, complete the form below.  I will generate the maps as requests come in and email you a pointer to the results which I will post to my flickr feed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc_smith/sets/72157622437066929/

Here is a sample map for the term OCU2010:
2010 - June - 10 - NodeXL Twitter ocu OR ocu10 OR ocu2010

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/13/request-a-nodexl-social-media-network-map/feed/ 0 NodeXL Image in NewScientist: Paper trail: Inside the stem cell wars http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/09/nodexl-image-in-newscientist-paper-trail-inside-the-stem-cell-wars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=nodexl-image-in-newscientist-paper-trail-inside-the-stem-cell-wars http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/09/nodexl-image-in-newscientist-paper-trail-inside-the-stem-cell-wars/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:12:38 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=3176

The June 9 issue of New Scientist contains an article featuring a map of scientific citation that was generated by NodeXL.

The article about the patterns of citation and the time to publication for US and non-US based scientists contains a map of which papers and authors cite which other papers and authors.

From New Scientist:

Our analysis of more than 200 research papers from 2006 onwards reveals that US-based scientists are enjoying a significant advantage, getting their papers published faster and in more prominent journals (find our data, methods and analyses here). The disparity is likely to spark debate when theInternational Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) meets in San Francisco next week.

Description of the methods used to generate the image is available here.

“To map the network of citations, we imported the data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet running a social-network analysis extension called NodeXL. Citations erroneously discarded by Sitkis were entered manually into this spreadsheet.

To reveal a core network of citations among the primary authors, we filtered to exclude all connections where the scientists cited one another’s work less than four times, and drew the diagram so that its elements reflected the number and strength of the remaining links: the more citations, the larger the arrows; the more incoming links, the larger the node representing that scientist. Finally, we adjusted the layout manually to most clearly show any differences in the network based on author location.

There were 43 scientists in the network, 24 from the US and 19 from elsewhere. All but two researchers – one in the US and one in Germany – connected to Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan, the pioneer of cellular reprogramming, but non-US scientists had no other links among themselves. The US side of the diagram showed a richer network of links, with 33 connections among 17 scientists. Seven of the non-US scientists, including Yamanaka, connected with US-based researchers, making a total of 16 links. However, no scientist working in the US linked to any non-US scientist other than Yamanaka.” [Link]

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/06/09/nodexl-image-in-newscientist-paper-trail-inside-the-stem-cell-wars/feed/ 4 May 28th, 2010 – Workshop: Government Applications of Social Media Networks and Communities, University of Maryland, Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/27/may-28th-2010-workshop-government-applications-of-social-media-networks-and-communities-university-of-maryland-human-computer-interaction-lab-hcil/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=may-28th-2010-workshop-government-applications-of-social-media-networks-and-communities-university-of-maryland-human-computer-interaction-lab-hcil http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/27/may-28th-2010-workshop-government-applications-of-social-media-networks-and-communities-university-of-maryland-human-computer-interaction-lab-hcil/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 19:00:52 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2653

http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/soh/

The HCIL Government Applications of Social Media Networks &
Communities Workshop, as part of the 27th Annual Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) Symposium, at the University of Maryland, examined how social media can be systematically applied to increase civic participation on national priorities.

When: Friday, May 28, 2010, 9:30am-4:00pm
Where: CSIC Building, UMD, College Park
Who: Government thought leaders, system developers, and agencies; industry partners, researchers, and students


Photo by Ben Shneiderman

Front row (left to right): Brad Hesse, Betsy Rebert, Claudia Louis,
Vladimir Barash, Derek Hansen, Robin Naughton.
Middle row: Scot Golder, Rex Robison, Yan Qu, Joe Pringle, Natasa
Milic-Frayling, Amanda Shanor, Leonard Lidov, Laura Milner
Back row: Robert Altiero, Mark Edson, Keith Walker, Tim Clausner, Marc
Smith, Nick Violi, Brian Dennis, Manuel Freire, John Bertot, Derrick
Cogburn, Jennifer Preece, Francy Stilwell

Not pictured: Ben Shneiderman

The Friday, May 28th all day event focused on the use of social media data in improving the quality of government.

May 28th, 2010: Government Applications of Social Media Networks and Communities
Derek Hansen, Marc Smith, Jenny Preece, Ben Shneiderman
Federal, state, and local governments are discovering interesting and ambitious ways that social media can be used to increase civic participation in decision-making, health-care /wellness, energy sustainability, education, disaster response, community safety, scientific research, etc. This workshop will invite attendees to present current projects, design strategies, evaluation methods, and analytic tools. Issues such as universal accessibility & usability, privacy protection, and reliability will be discussed.

Attendees …
• discussed interesting and ambitious ways that federal, state, and local governments are using social media in decision-making,healthcare/wellness, energy sustainability, education, disaster response, community safety, scientific research, etc.

• explored how analytic tools like NodeXL (http://nodexl.codeplex.com/) can help systematically analyze social media initiatives and mine social media sites for useful information.

• identified the unique challenges of using social technologies in a government context and design strategies and policies that help overcome those challenges

Participants included:
 • Vladimir Barash, Doctoral student, Information Science, Cornell University
• John Bertot, Professor, iSchool, UMD
• Derek Hansen – Assistant Professor, iSchool, UMD and director of Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information (CASCI)
• Scott Golder, Doctoral student, Sociology, Cornell University
• Bradford Hesse, Chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB)
• Natasa Milic-Frayling, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research Cambridge
• Cynthia Parr, Director, Special Pages Group, Encyclopedia of Life, Smithsonian
• Jenny Preece – Dean, iSchool, UMD.
• Ben Shneiderman – Professor, Department of Computer Science, UMD, and founder of the Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL).
• Marc Smith – Chief Social Scientist, Connected Action Consulting Group, director of the Social Media Research Foundation

Slides available from:

http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/soh/workshop_hansen.shtml

Schedule

8:30 – 9:30am: registration and continental breakfast

9:30am: Introductions

10:00am: “Technology-Mediated Social Participation: Promoting a Research Agenda” Ben Shneiderman & Jenny Preece, University of Maryland

Ben Shneiderman at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

Jenny Preece at the HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop
10:30am: “Enabling Citizen Mapping of Government Networks with NodeXL” – Marc Smith & Derek Hansen, Connected Action and University of Maryland

Derek Hansen at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

10:50am: Break

11:00am: “Open Government, Social Media, and Information Policy: Constraints and Barriers” – John Bertot, University of Maryland

John Bertot at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

11:20am: “New Approaches to Collecting Public Input Online” – Joe Pringle, Forum One Communications

Joe Pringle - ForumOne - at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

11:40am: “Visualizing Social Data to Improve Diplomacy” – Leonard Lidov, Morningside Analytics

12:00 – 1:00pm: lunch

1:00pm: “Using New Media for Citizen Engagement: Experiences from the General Services Administration” – Leilani Martinez, Center for New Media & Citizen Engagement, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

1:30pm: “Supporting Lifelong Learning & Institutional Transformation with New Media” – Michael Edson, Web and New Media Strategy, Smithsonian Institution

1:50pm: “Says who? Legitimacy in Online Collective Action: Enthusiasts and Interest Groups in Wiki Government” – Scott Golder & Vladimir Barash, Cornell University

Derek Hansen, Scott Golder and Vladimir Barash at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

Scott Golder at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

Vladimir Barash at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

Vladimir Barash at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

2:10pm: “From Research of Social Media to Socially Mediated Research” – Natasa Milic-Frayling, Microsoft Research, Cambridge UK

Natasa Milic-Frayling at HCIL Government and Social Media Workshop

2:30pm: Break

3:00pm: “Health 2.0: Putting the Power of Open Science to the Task of Improving the Nation’s Health” – Bradford Hesse, Health Comm & Informatics Research Branch, National Cancer Institute

3:20pm: Wrap-up discussion

4:00pm: Depart

Technology-Mediated Social Participation: Promoting a Research Agenda

Jenny Preece and Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland

With support from the National Science Foundation, we have run two research agenda-setting workshops that clarify how social media can address national priorities.  The first, in Palo Alto, CA engaged companies and the second in the Washington, DC area reached out to government agencies.  Our report will describe the national priorities that can be addressed, deep science theories, technology challenges, and scope of educational changes needed in K-12, universities, professional training, and citizen awareness.

Enabling Citizen Mapping of Government Networks with NodeXL

Marc Smith & Derek Hansen, Connected Action Consulting Group and University of Maryland

Social network analysis can serve as a powerful analysis and visualization method to understand connections between people and institutions. Until recently, only those with advanced degrees and technical know-how have been able to perform social network analysis. We will introduce NodeXL, a plugin for Excel 2007, that allows non-technical experts perform social network analysis, particularly of social media networks of interest. We will discuss applications of NodeXL to government data and social media initiatives.

Open Government, Social Media, and Information Policy: Constraints and Barriers

John Bertot, University of Maryland

Much movement and discussion surrounds the use of social media technologies by the federal government in order to create a more open, transparent, and participatory government.  Since the inauguration of the Obama Administration, government agencies have been required to engage in open dialogs, create open government plans, and otherwise use a range of social media technologies.  But these efforts belie an antiquated and contradictory information policy environment that hampers innovation and use of a range of participatory technologies by government agencies such as twitter, facebook, and YouTube.  Though agencies currently are using these technologies, there are a number of policies (e.g., laws, memos, administrative code) that prevent agencies from truly engaging in innovative uses and practices through social media technologies.  This presentation identifies selected policy conflicts and considerations that need resolution for federal government agencies to be able to successfully engage the use of participatory technologies.

New Approaches to Collecting Public Input Online

Joe Pringle, Forum One Communications

Federal government agencies are experimenting with social media, crowdsourcing, and other collaborative approaches to soliciting, collecting, and responding to public input.  This includes everything from formal rulemaking comment collection to ideascale events to online brainstorms such as USAID’s recent Global Pulse event.  Chris will highlight common online approaches to using social media and collaborative approaches for collecting input, provide some examples about who is doing what, what’s working, what’s not working, and why.

Visualizing Social Data to Improve Diplomacy

Leonard Lidov, President, Morningside Analytics

This talk will focus on how Dr. Lidov’s firm, Morningside Analytics, uses data visualization to understand public diplomacy, both in and outside government.  Morningside’s signature “dot-maps” picturing “Attentive Clusters” in the blogosphere have been featured in the media and opened business development doors in DC (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124658422588090107.html ), but they are just one of several innovative approaches the firm uses to help clients understand how its network analyses can improve their understanding of how messages move in the online “Link Economy.

Using New Media for Citizen Engagement: Experiences from the General Services Administration

Leilani Martinez, Center for New Media & Citizen Engagement, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)

This presentation will discuss several new media initiatives overseen by the Center for New Media & Citizen Engagement, part of the General Services Administration of the federal government. These will include discussions of developing tools, methods, and best practices related to using new media by government to engage citizens. Examples will include a citizen engagement tool used by 23 agencies to gather input for their open government plans, the Citizen Engagement Platform, and FedSpace, a secure intranet and collaborative workspace for government employees and contractors.

Supporting Lifelong Learning & Institutional Transformation with New Media

Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy, Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution’s Web and New Media Strategy that talks about an updated digital experience, a new learning model that helps people with their “lifelong learning journeys,” and the creation of a Smithsonian Commons-a new part of the Smithsonian’s digital presence dedicated to stimulating learning, creation, and innovation through open access to Smithsonian research, collections and communities. This talk describes the commons concept in the context of 21st century knowledge creation and the methods and drivers of organizational change.

Says who? Legitimacy in Online Collective Action: Enthusiasts and Interest Groups in Wiki Government

Scott Golder and Vladimir Barash, Cornell University

With the expansion of the World Wide Web, online communities have emerged focused on government and civic activities. These communities allow a wide user base to participate in everything from election campaigns to opinion polls to the legislative process (by making it easier for individuals to interact with members of local, state and federal government). The emergence of these communities has led to a greater citizen participation but has also opened up new venues for special interest groups to sway public opinion. For instance, politically oriented communities (dailykos, the free republic) advertise links to popular opinion polls and encourage their members to vote in such polls en masse, creating a cascade of skewed opinion. We explore the issues related to creating venues of open (often unregulated) online participation in the government process, and the role special interest groups play in these venues.

From Research of Social Media to Socially Mediated Research

Natasa Milic-Frayling, Principal Researcher and Director of Research Partnership, Microsoft Research, Cambridge UK

We are witnessing the ultimate assimilation of computing technology by the masses: millions of online users have adopted social media as part of their daily routine. At the same time, researchers are striving to understand the principles of sustaining social media and the implications the new practices have on research itself. In this presentation we discuss insights about two important aspects. First is the delicacy of social media design where seemingly small changes can cause a dramatic difference in the character of the online community. This applies to both UI features that facilitate interaction and the reward mechanism that administrators introduce to motivate specific behaviours. Second is the emergence of new methodologies that leverage the principles of social media. They are adopted by groups of individuals to achieve their common objectives. We illustrate how, for example, the issue of scale can be addressed through the use of games to mobilize a community of practice.

Health 2.0: Putting the Power of Open Science to the Task of Improving the Nation’s Health

Bradford Hesse, Chief, Health Comm & Informatics Research Branch, National Cancer Institute

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/27/may-28th-2010-workshop-government-applications-of-social-media-networks-and-communities-university-of-maryland-human-computer-interaction-lab-hcil/feed/ 0 Visualizing the connections among twitter users who tweet “oil spill” with NodeXL http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/06/visualizing-the-connections-among-twitter-users-who-tweet-oil-spill-with-nodexl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=visualizing-the-connections-among-twitter-users-who-tweet-oil-spill-with-nodexl http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/06/visualizing-the-connections-among-twitter-users-who-tweet-oil-spill-with-nodexl/#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 20:40:22 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2936 Oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara

The oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a topic of great concern to many people in twitter.

2010 - May - 3 - NodeXL - twitter oil spill 2

This is the map of connections among people who tweeted the term “oil spill”.  There are lots of isolated authors, people who tweeted “oil spill” but are not connected to anyone else who said the same phrase.  The “giant component” is relatively sparse, there is no dense core of “oil spill” people yet.  This is in contrast with many topics where a large, highly interconnected cluster of people defines the “center” of the discussion.  This term remains highly diffuse.

This is the map of connections among people who tweeted the term “BP”.

2010 - May - 4 - NodeXL - twitter bp

The BP map also has a large population of isolates, people who are not part of  a “BP” related conversation but have said the term. A small core of highly interconnected users is forming in the “BP” hashtag space but in contrast to a term like “solar”, there is still little cohesion and density in its core.

This is the map of connections among people who tweeted the term “solar”.

2010 - May - 4 - NodeXL - twitter solar

This is a topic with a more dense core of highly interconnected Twitter users who share the use of the string “solar” in their tweets.  Ranks of isolates are also present in this topic space but the giant component is more internall connected and cohesive.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/06/visualizing-the-connections-among-twitter-users-who-tweet-oil-spill-with-nodexl/feed/ 2 May 12, 2010: Princeton Club of Northern California – Silicon Valley Luncheon: Making Meaningful Maps of Social Media Networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/03/may-12-2010-princeton-club-of-northern-california-silicon-valley-luncheon-making-meaningful-maps-of-social-media-networks/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=may-12-2010-princeton-club-of-northern-california-silicon-valley-luncheon-making-meaningful-maps-of-social-media-networks http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/03/may-12-2010-princeton-club-of-northern-california-silicon-valley-luncheon-making-meaningful-maps-of-social-media-networks/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 17:00:39 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2757

I will be speaking at the Princeton Club of Northern California on May 12, 2010.

Event Date Time Location RSVP
Silicon Valley Luncheon: Making Meaningful Maps of Social Media Networks 5/12 12-1:30 Palo Alto Krim Stephenson’97
As more and more of our lives take place online, we leave behind ever more data about ourselves and our relationships with others. Technical advances are making lasting changes in both our relationships and our concept of privacy. As more and more of our personal and professional interactions take place in digital spaces, we leave behind ever more data about ourselves and our relationships with others. That data can be used to generate “social maps” that visually depict patterns of contribution and connection between individuals, yielding results that are often powerful and surprising. What do social maps like this tell us, and how can they help us understand and improve our organizations? What are the social and ethical issues raised when employers, insurers, and the government can track whom we associate with, and use that data to predict our actions?

In this talk, sociologist Marc Smith, Chief Social Scientist for Connected Action Consulting Group (http://www.connectedaction.net/), a provider of social media analysis platforms and services, will describe and demonstrate these new technologies and some ways of thinking about their implications. Marc Smith is a member of the team that developed NodeXL, a tool for tracking and visualizing social data, and the co-author along with Ben Shneiderman and Derek Hansen of the upcoming book Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world.

Registration fee includes lunch.

Date: Wednesday 5/12
Time: 12-1:30
Location: Offices of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Palo Alto
Address: 650 Page Mill Road
Contact: Krim Stephenson ’97
415 730-5746
]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/05/03/may-12-2010-princeton-club-of-northern-california-silicon-valley-luncheon-making-meaningful-maps-of-social-media-networks/feed/ 0 Bernie Hogan’s Facebook Social Network Data Provider and Visualization toolkit http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/25/bernie-hogans-facebook-social-network-data-provider-and-visualization-toolkit/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bernie-hogans-facebook-social-network-data-provider-and-visualization-toolkit http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/25/bernie-hogans-facebook-social-network-data-provider-and-visualization-toolkit/#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:00:28 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=1662 My colleague at the Oxford Internet Institute, Bernie Hogan, is working on tools that collect personal Facebook network data and visualize the connections among your friends.  These tools now interoperate with NodeXL through the GraphML XML file format. Here is the new link: http://namegen.oii.ox.ac.uk/fb/downloadNet.php?type=graphml

Here is an example: http://twitpic.com/9rvfq

2009 - September - Bernie Hogan - Facebook Network Visualization

It provides a good illustration of the ways a person’s social network is clumped into clusters built around life phases, workplaces, educational institutions, teams and locations.  As people move through more of these stages of life during the Facebook era (and often before) they accumulate these clusters.

Facebook or other contact and friend management systems might could leverage this clustering to organize the presentation of contact information streams.

Bernie recently announced on the SOCNET list that he has updated his script for downloading your Facebook network.

“Features:

1. Its faster. (Presently orders of magnitude faster than Nexus, Touchgraph or ORA).
2. It gives nice feedback during the download.
3. It has less bugs!
4. It gives you the output as a file you can right-click and save rather than copy-paste.
5. IDs are names.”

Bernie writes that phase two of his project is underway.

Bernie is planning a demo at the Sunbelt social network analysis conference in Italy in 2010.

Bernie is the author of the Facebook chapter in our forthcoming book Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world available from Morgan-Kaufmann in July 2010.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/25/bernie-hogans-facebook-social-network-data-provider-and-visualization-toolkit/feed/ 1 Contrasting “ashtag” with “ashcloud” Twitter networks with NodeXL http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/18/contrasting-ashtag-with-ashcloud-twitter-networks-with-nodexl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=contrasting-ashtag-with-ashcloud-twitter-networks-with-nodexl http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/18/contrasting-ashtag-with-ashcloud-twitter-networks-with-nodexl/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:26:29 +0000 Marc Smith http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2800 The eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland has created disruption of air traffic around the world and particularly through Northern Europe.  A similar eruption of tweets has followed, focused around a series of hastags including “#ashtag”, “#ashcloud”, and “#volcano”.

The #ashtag network is highlighted by well known technology bloggers.

2010 - April - 16 - NodeXL - Twitter - ashtag

In contrast the map for the tag “#ashcloud” is dominated by the UK and Scottish travel and Foreign office twitter accounts.

2010 - April - 18 - NodeXL - Twitter - ashcloud multiline tooltip

This image features a minor but useful tip for building multi-line tooltips.  This can help pack a lot of information about a Node into the tooltip.  To build a multi-line tooltip use the “&CHAR(10)&” feature to glue other columns of data together along with labels.

Add a column to the Vertices worksheet and paste something like this into it:

=”Twitter user: “&Vertices[[#This Row],[Vertex]]&” – Followers:”&Vertices[[#This Row],[Followers]]&CHAR(10)&”Description: “&Vertices[[#This Row],[Description]]&CHAR(10)&”Last tweet: “&Vertices[[#This Row],[Tweet]]

Which creates a tooltip with multiple lines containing the Twitter User name, the number of their followers, a new line containing their user description followed by their last tweet on another line.  Any concatenation of columns contents can be assembled in this way.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/18/contrasting-ashtag-with-ashcloud-twitter-networks-with-nodexl/feed/ 3 Mapping the Twitter networks of #Chirp with NodeXL http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/16/mapping-the-twitter-networks-of-chirp-with-nodexl/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mapping-the-twitter-networks-of-chirp-with-nodexl http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/16/mapping-the-twitter-networks-of-chirp-with-nodexl/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:59:28 +0000 admin http://www.connectedaction.net/?p=2793 The Twitter Chirp conference attracted tweets from many technology leaders and bloggers.  Here is a ranked list of the top most “between” people who tweeted the term “chirp” in the last day.

2010 - April - 15 - NodeXL - Twitter - chirp top betweenness authors

A complete social network map, with edge thickness proportional to the number of network connections (follows, replies, mentions) that link the two participants is here:

2010 - April - 15 - NodeXL - Twitter - chirp with edge weights

The zoomed version highlights the key players in the network and the tighter connections that surround the account for Twitter founder “Ev”.

]]> http://www.connectedaction.net/2010/04/16/mapping-the-twitter-networks-of-chirp-with-nodexl/feed/ 1