May 1st, 2015 at LSU: NodeXL social media networks talk at the “Telling Stories and Using Visuals for Coastal Environmental Communication” workshop

02MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

The National Association of Science Writers has funded a workshop at Louisiana State University, on “Telling Stories and Using Visuals for Coastal Environmental Communication” on Friday, May 1, 2015. I will speak during a session on “Social Media Best Practices and Mapping for Science & Environmental Communication,” to give workshop attendees both theoretical and also a practical tutorial on using NodeXL and mapping social networks in the interest of effective science communication.

More information about the workshop can be found at https://showmethecoast2015.wordpress.com/.

For example, this is a network of connections among people who tweeted about Scientific Communication:

December 8 – 10, 2014, World Bank, Washington DC: INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION HUNTERS ALLIANCE (ICHA) – Network analysis for detecting fraud

26OctMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

THIRD BIENNIAL MEETING OF THE WORLD BANK GROUP’S

INTERNATIONAL CORRUPTION HUNTERS ALLIANCE (ICHA)

ENDING IMPUNITY FOR CORRUPTION

December 8 – 10, 2014, World Bank, Washington DC

I will speak about the value of a network perspective for the discovery of fraud and corruption in financial data at the December 9th session of the World Bank’s upcoming meeting of the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative.

“The World Bank Group’s International Corruption Hunters Alliance (ICHA) brings together heads and senior officials of corruption investigating bodies and prosecuting authorities, anti-corruption experts, academics, and representatives of international organizations from over 130 countries. The 2014 meeting of the Alliance will focus on fighting corruption – and the vast illicit outflows generated by corruption – by sharing know-how and experiences in the use of both traditional and alternative corruption fighting approaches.”

All financial transactions create a network as one person transfers money from one account to another. A list of transactions creates a web of connections with an emergent shape or pattern. Within these patterns are key positions occupied by people with special power in the network. Mapping these transaction networks can reveal the hidden traces of financial crime.

November 6 and 7, 2014: University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) symposium on The Future of Big Data in Lincoln, Nebraska

25OctMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will speak at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) at a symposium on The Future of Big Data in Lincoln, Nebraska, on November 6 and 7, 2014.

The event will feature presentations from academia, government, and the private sector, and workshops/lectures on topics related to big data. This event is open to the public.

Students and postdoctoral researchers are welcome to attend. The event should bring together people working in the computational sciences, federal agencies, and industry experts specializing in data management, analytics, and the future of information.

Agenda: Thursday, November 6

8:30 a.m. Welcome

8:45 a.m. Tim Hesterberg, Google
9:30 a.m. Valinda Scarbro Kennedy, IBM Academic Initiative, Relationship Manager
10:15 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. Jeffrey Gerard, The Climate Corporation
11:30 a.m. Jerry Roell, John Deere
12:15 p.m. Lunch; Tsengdar Lee, Project Manager, NASA
1:30 p.m. Two Concurrent Sessions:

Ag & Natural Resources

1:30 p.m. Adina Howe, Argonne National Lab Soil Microbiome
2:15 p.m. Natalia De Leon, Wisconsin
3:00 p.m. Heuermann Reception Lecture on Future of Agriculture
3:30 p.m. Heuermann Lecture on Future of Agriculture

Physics/Engineering/Social Sciences/Libraries

1:30 p.m. Carl Lundstedt, UNL/CERN
2:15 p.m. Heidi Imker, Ullinois (Libraries)
3:00 p.m. Break
3:30 p.m. Marc Smith, Social Media Research Foundation

5:00–7:00 p.m. Poster Session and Reception

Friday, November 7

8:30 a.m. Adam Glynn, Emory University, and Konstantin Kashin, Harvard; Big Data and Social Sciences
9:15 a.m. Jennifer Thoegersen, UNL Data Curation Librarian
10:00 a.m. Panel with representatives from federal agencies to discuss funding opportunities:

Philip E. Bourne, Ph.D., Associate Director for Data Science, NIH
Ian Foster, Ph.D., Director of the Computation Institute & Argonne Distinguished Fellow, Argonne National Lab
George Strawn (Director, Networking and Information Technology Research & Development; NITRD)

12:00 p.m. Lunch and Keynote Speaker (Animal Sciences)

1:00 p.m. Todd Mockler, Danforth Center
1:45 p.m. Henry Neeman, HPC, University of Oklahoma
2:30 p.m. Adjourn

June 27-29 2014: Networks in the Global World 2014, St Petersburg, Russia

08JunMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

NetGloW ’14: Bridging Theory and Method: American, European, and Russian Studies

June 27-29, St Petersburg, Russia

I will remotely participate in the conference “Networks in the Global World 2014. Bridging Theory and Methods: American, European and Russian Studies” taking place in St Petersburg, Russia, June 27-29 2014. The 2 day, single-track conference will also have pre-conference workshops including a day devoted to using the NodeXL social media network analysis application. The primary organizing institution and host is the Centre for German and European Studies, Bielefeld University and the St Petersburg State University.

This will be the 2nd Networks in the Global World conference (for information on the 1st one held in 2012 see http://www.ngw.spbu.ru). This conference series brings together researchers exploring cutting edge networks research from around the globe. In 2014 the focus is on linking theory and methods that integrate information, communication, semantic and cultural networks.

The primary goal of the NetGloW conference series is to bring together networks researchers from around the globe, to unite the efforts of various scientific disciplines in response to the key challenges faced by network studies today, and to exchange local research results – thus allowing an analysis of global processes. It is also crucial for us to support junior researchers’ orientation in the complex landscape of network science, and to encourage applications of network analysis by practitioners.

The idea of the 2014 event is to discuss the key current issues and problems of linking theoretical and methodological developments in network analysis.

The structure of the conference: June 27^th – workshops and seminar for practitioners; June 28^th & 29^th – presentations.

Confirmed invited speakers:

Jana Diesner, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Loet Leydesdorff, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tom Valente, University of Southern California, USA
Dimitris Christopoulos, MODUL University Vienna, Austria
Mario Diani, University of Trento, Italy
Peter Groenewegen, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wouter de Nooy, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Johanne Saint-Charles, University of Quebec at Montreal, Canada
Marc Smith, Connected Action Consulting Group, USA

The sessions of the conference will include the following:

Networks in Science, Technology, and Innovation: Traditional Approaches and Operationalization of New Theories
Words and Networks
Network Perspectives on Knowledge, Communication and Culture
Making Sense of Big Network Data: Testing Hypotheses on New Data
Social Movements and Collective Action as the Network Phenomena
Network Analysis of Political and Policy-making Domains

The conference will host workshops on the following network analysis software: ConText, Pajek, NodeXL, UCINet, RSiena.

The conference will include seminar Network analysis: How can it be used by globally operating practitioners?

Host: Center for German and European Studies (St. Petersburg State University – Bielefeld University).

Working language: English.

Abstracts (200 words) will be published as a part of conference programme. Full papers (2500 words) should be submitted prior to the event. Selected full papers will be published in peer-reviewed journal(s).

Free accommodation will be provided for MA and PhD students who submitted the best abstracts.

Fee: Participation in the conference is free of charge.

Further information about the conference and registration form can be found at www.ngw.spbu.ru or requested via e-mail: netglow@spbu.ru.

Upcoming 2014 NodeXL Talks, Workshops, and Training

13MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Upcoming talks, workshops and training for social media network analysis and NodeXL.

March 16, 2014: Predictive Analytics World, San Francisco.

Track 1: Social Media Analysis Think Link! Network Insights with No Programming Skills

March 18: Consortium for Service Innovation Annual Member Summit

April 2 – April 4, 2014, UCDC Center, Washington DC, USA, 2014 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction (SBP14)

April 24-24, 2014 The Next Web, Amsterdam

May 1-2, 2014: The Social Media & Web Analytics Summit

May 8th, 2014: 2014 SQL PASS Business Analytics Conference in San Jose.

May 19-23, 2014: International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota

June 27-29 2014: Networks in the Global World 2014. Bridging Theory and Methods: American, European and Russian Studies

May 19-23, 2014: International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems, Minneapolis, Minnesota

11MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

Third International Symposium on

Collaboration, Social Computing, New Media and Networks
(SoMNet 2014)
Call for
Papers and Participation
As part of the
2014 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems
(CTS 2014)
May 19-23, 2014
The Commons Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

In Cooperation with
ACM, IEEE, and IFIP

March 17, 2014 Predictive Analytics World – San Francisco: Think Link! Network Insights with No Programming Skills

05MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will present a workshop at Predictive Analytics World in San Francisco on March 17, 2014.

Track 1: Social Media Analysis
Think Link! Network Insights with No Programming Skills

Networks are everywhere but collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and gaining insights into connected structures can require advanced technical skills. This session presents a free, easy-to-use tool for network analysis that builds on the familiar Excel spreadsheet called NodeXL. If you can make a pie chart, you can get insights into networks. The tool makes it easy to collect data from a range of social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). Quickly create visualizations and reports on the shape of connected groups. Identify the key people, groups and topics in a community. Network analysis can reveal the hidden structures in streams of interactions.

March 16, 2014: PAWCON Workshop: The Big Picture on Big Data: Proven Methods You Need to Extract Big Value

05MarMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will present a workshop at Predictive Analytics World in San Francisco on March 16, 2014.

Workshop: The Big Picture on Big Data: Proven Methods You Need to Extract Big Value

Date and Time: Sunday, March 16, 2014, Full day: 9:00Am – 4:30pm

Intended Audience: Managers, decision makers, practitioners, and professionals interested in a broad overview and introduction

Knowledge Level: All levels

Attendees will receive an electronic copy of the course notes and materials.

Workshop Description

“Big Data” is everywhere. The topic is impacting every industry and institution. Big excitement about big data comes from the intersection of dramatic increases in computing power and data storage with growing streams of data coming from almost every person and process on Earth. The pressing question is, how do we best make value of all this data – what should we do with it?

Working with big data effectively depends on understanding the sources of data and the issues in storing and analyzing it:

Where does big data come from?
How do you manage, store, and compute on big data?
What qualifies as “big”?

This one day workshop reviews major big data success stories that have transformed businesses and created new markets.

Dr. Smith will cover these revealing stories in order to illustrate the key concepts, tools, and value-proven applications driving the big data revolution.

“Big data” is a open buzzword – it could be defined as any amount of data you can’t afford to handle – but the big, newfound value achieved by computing at scale is no fad.

What you will learn:

Where does big data come from: Common sources of big data.
What makes data big: Velocity, Variety, and Volume!
How can we leverage it: Open tools and platforms for storing and analyzing big data.
The new paradigm: Today’s shift from hypothesis testing to a broad exploration for correlations is a revolutionary change in the way data is explored.
Best practices for analyzing big data: Key methods in data science, predictive analytics, and text analytics to analytically learn from data.
Social Data: Finding key connections in webs of people and events.
Applications of big data insights to business.
Future directions in big data: bigger, bolder, and better.

Schedule:

Workshop starts at 9:00am
First AM Break from 10:00 – 10:15am
Second AM Break from 11:15 – 11:30am
Lunch from 12:30 – 1:15pm
First PM Break: 2:00 – 2:15pm
Second PM Break: 3:15 – 3:30pm
Workshops ends at 4:30pm

2014 INSNA Sunbelt SNA Conference: February 18-23 – St. Petersburg, Florida

03FebMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

The INSNA Sunbelt social network conference will be held February 18-23 at the TradeWinds Island Resort on the island of St. Pete Beach.

There will be NodeXL related talks at the conference.

NodeXL: Network Analysis Made Simple
Tuesday February 18, 8:00am – 11:00am & 11:30am – 2:30pm

Marc Smith, Social Media Research Foundation
CITRUS Ballroom

Twitter Conversations as Network Structures: Typology and Measurements
Saturday February 22,

Itai Himelboim, Marc Smith, Ben Shneiderman, Lee Rainie

The conference schedule is available.

I hope to see you at the conference!

StrataConf 2014 – February 11-13, Santa Clara – Network Science Made Simple: SNA for pie chart makers

03FebMay 7, 2015 By Marc Smith

I will present at the 2014 Strata Conference in Santa Clara, CA on February 11, 2013.

Network Science Made Simple: SNA for pie chart makers

Marc Smith (Connected Action Consulting Group)

2:20pm Wednesday, 02/12/2014

Data Science
Ballroom ABNetworks are everywhere, particularly in social media. Understanding networks can quickly reveal the key people, groups, and topics that matter most. But the tools to collect, analyze, visualize, and gain insights into connected structures have remained complex. Now the free and open NodeXL application makes network analysis tasks as easy as making a pie chart. The Network Overview Discovery and Exploration add-in for Excel (2007, 2010, 2013) extends the familiar spreadsheet, enabling users to easily access networks from a range of data sources including Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, email, message boards, Wikis, blogs, and other repositories of connections. With simple automation tools, NodeXL users can calculate a range of network metrics, create a visualization, and generate a report highlighting key people, groups, and top URLs, hashtags, words and word pairs used in the discussion network. Network maps have revealed many of the hidden structures of social media, defining the major differences in the shapes and structures created as people link to one another.

I will also hold Office Hours at the event:

Office Hour with Marc Smith (Team NodeXL)

Marc Smith (Connected Action Consulting Group)
3:00pm Wednesday, 02/12/2014
Office Hour
Table A

If you have questions on social network analysis, meet with Marc to talk about:

NodeXL and related network analysis and visualization tools
How to collect, store, analyze, visualize, summarize and publish social network reports with just a few clicks (and no coding)
How to identify key influential people and subgroups within a conversation network
How to apply social network analysis to social media marketing
How to apply organizational network analysis to enterprise collaboration

Above is a map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted the term “strataconf” over the 7-day, 19-hour, 38-minute period from Sunday, 26 January 2014 at 21:53 UTC to Monday, 03 February 2014 at 17:32 UTC. The key people in the network at this point are: