Thanks to inspiration from Adam Perer, here is a Wordle.net picture of some of feedback text — a rough presentation of the ideas, topics and research goals submitted by a collection of attendees of a recent lecture on NodeXL at Harvard.  A recording of the slides and audio from the talk is available from the Harvard Program on Networked Governance website and also on the Government Innovators Network website.

A copy of the video that does not require registration is available here.

As people registered for the lecture some took the time to share their interests in network analysis and the NodeXL project.  The key themes and topics from these statements focus on studying the social network of various populations of interest including (in no particular order): governments, enterprises, migrants, terrorists, innovators, politicians, corporations, criminals, research literature, sick people and online communities.

Research goals were focused on tasks like:

• Map a complex set of relationships
• Find key people: bridge roles, sinks, sources, etc..
• Find “missing people”
• Measure cohesion of subgroups
• Map diffusion and change overtime
• Find network correlates of the adoption of innovation

This feed back will shape the kinds of features we explore in the NodeXL project.  What are your goals for exploring network data sets?  What questions are you trying to answer?  What kinds of network structures are of greatest interest?  How can NodeXL best support that exploration?

Your comments welcome!