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Seeing and Tuning Social Networks
Lisam writes "Jon Udell, in a fascinating column titled "Seeing and Tuning Social Networks", writes: "New forms of social software are one of the most hopeful green shoots erupting from a still-bleak technology landscape." Software is catching up with what we know about social networks: the greater the reach of your array, the more effective an actor you can be within an organization.In this column, Jon talks with two observers about software that maps social networks and their patterns..."
to the role of moderators on slashdot?
My life in the land of the rising sun.
to the trolls of slashdot
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
no amount of computer software is going to make up for real understanding of how societies work. Someone which sociologists are lacking in. You may call this a troll, but please go read up on sociology. It is just junk science.
Yeah, real fucking bright ray of hope. Why don't we all just kill ourselves now?
Software is catching up with what we know about social networks:
Clue: Nobody on this site knows shit about social ANYTHING
the greater the reach of your array, the more effective an actor you can be within an organization.
No kidding? Well spank my ass and call me Stacy!!! Here I was thinking the SMALLER the reach, the more effective I could be!
In this column, Jon talks with two observers about software that maps social networks and their patterns..."
Zzzzzzz.... Huh, what? Oh yeah! A computer interface for my who-fucked-whom chart! Just what I need! I'm going to...zzzzzzzzzz
-Mr. FullOfHate (still banned)
Every so often I'll have a little laugh at people who're unnaturally fearful of new tech of some form - but I try not to poke too much fun. Sometimes though, articles like this one come along and scare me by going waaaay over my head. I want to crawl away somewhere and hide now.
a grrl & her server
Nerds don't socialize, because socializing does not involve math, science, or computers. Especially computers.
Maybe this will finally explain why millions of people continue to buy and use Microsoft products.
it probably doesnt matter much to you if you are in an office/business/netowrk that doesn't require politics but any big business or univeristy requires that you be if not socialloy skillfull, at least adequate....telling a stupdi user that he is being, well, stupid will stop your career/job very quickly indeed if that stupid user is a dean or VP or something. this is a very underrated aspect of geekiness.
FreeBSD for the impatient.
Interesting article to read, but this is kinda of an obvious thing.
You need to make as many social connections as you can. This is especially important in business and when working within a large corporation.
This whole realm is already at least partially mapped out by a number of researchers. The ones referenced in the article are actually the least impressive of the lot, in my experience.
My personal pick for most notable researcher in this area is Joshua Epstein. He's with the Sante Fe Institute. The best book of the several he's written is:
Nonlinear Dynamics, Mathematical Biology
and Social Science (Santa Fe Institute
Series, Lecture Notes, Vol 4)
Joshua M. Epstein
Perseus Publishing
ISBN: 0201419882
It presents a number of mathematical models (games theory), including a variant of a Non-linear Richardson called "GloboCop", which does a fairly good job of modelling "core team" based Open Source software projects (IMO).
There has actually been a lot of work along these lines; the first I ever heard of it was an article in Analog Magazine's "Science Fact" column, entitled "Toward a Science of Psychohistory".
-- Terry
But that's my entire business model, and my VCs would crucify me.
Aren't those called Soap Operas?
What's that smell? Ah, that's my karma burning...
Otherwise it will really, REALLY suck. Big time.
Marketing bs. Software catching up with my network?
I'm not an actor. Pretend as much as you like, computers don't make mistakes. 1s and 0s do. My software don't pretend to understand people.
AFAK, the more my software pleases all the people, the more I am a monopoply. Software is a step, so are you free to climb this ladder? Hope so.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
What this article points to most of all, at least for me, is the need for better tools to map abitrary dynamic non-hierarchical networks. Social networks, interlinked buearocracies, realms of knowledge (that whole noosphere thing), the internet itself, the list goes on. There are specific projects about looking into one or another of these, but few share the tools they develop to do the analysis, and those that do tend to release things very specialized to whatever they're studying.
I know I for one am interested in collecting and mapping several datasets, for intellectual and practical gain, but lack the time, resources, knowledge and skill to develop full dynamic network visualization software (preferably in web-friendly form) all by my lonesome.
So, uh... Hey! You! Open source developers! Get to work, chop chop!
(to pre-emptively answer the 'why don't you start a project then?' question, I'm just an artist with geek tendencies who can write a little code, and I do mean a little)
----- I don't believe in wisconsin.
My personal pick for most notable researcher in this area is Joshua Epstein. He's with the Sante Fe Institute.
...
He's with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
MEEP! MEEP!
I suppose viewing it as a "network" is the only way that most Slashbots will ever understand social interaction.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." - George Bush
My company has been developing a system based on a similar idea for some months.( http://www.bigattichouse.com/peoplelinking/ )
The current site shows a web-based network using our engine, but our current software is actually a visual modeller for use by not-for-profits to manage their membership, volunteers, wants and needs.
meh
I'll say it also. Most sociology is just pseudo-science, or just junk.
at first i thought that "seeing and tuning social networks" would help me meet REALY HAWT chix0rz! but then i realized it was something else entirely.
damn.
my green shoot hasn't erupted from this still-bleak landscape in a lonnng time.
Someone didn't do their homework. Data visualization, network visualization, and social network visualization have been hot topics for a while.
patents pending
The usual thing: someone who doesn't know the field patents what someone skilled in the art should know.
Social Networks has been pretty slow to come to open source world. One of the few pieces of software I know that uses them is the R project, which now has some social network analysis tools.
For visualization, though, I'm currently unaware of any open-source tools. Krackplot has a free web interface, and there is a simple Java program that uses spring-based algorithms for node positioning, but I know of nothing open-source that uses Krackplot's simulated annealing algorithm.
In general, social network analysis can be very useful, but it's results are often subject to misinterpretation. For example, a social isolate in a business might be isolated for a good reason (they are doing research, for example), so you wouldn't want to tell them to integrate themselves more. But in general, it's a great tool to get another look at data you would not normally find out about.
I lost interest in the article -- but not the objective phenomena -- and didn't even finish it, when it became apparent it's bottom line is: trying to find interesting new ways to make dot.com $$ (go ahead; tell me I'm wrong).
People have to make a living -- but this is ideological -- an irrelevant to many of us.
EON condensed matter distributed-computing project.
they are then responsible for it's security. Period. Anything else is just neglegence and will get their pants sued off them.
never publically discuss the moderators on slashdot; else karma will get hit HARD (see parent)
My life in the land of the rising sun.
All I can see software like this doing is improving the "networking" of the current lower skilled workers and allowing the incompetant managers to remain in thier positions.
A skilled manager recognises which of his staff interact with other departments well, he may try to encourage them to interact with another department or manager, he doesn't need software to tell him such things.
What if Joe in IT's best mate is Bill from marketing, as such they form a good link between the departments, but Joe doesn't interact with accounting as he thinks John lazy and stupid. A skilled manager will pick up on something like this, software and a poor manager may try and persued Joe to network with John to the detriment of the department.
now this is what I need to find. a research gig.
social network analysis began in 1934 when the first sociogram was drawn by hand. the field grew in the 60s and 70s when mainframes began to crunch matrices to find cliques and figure out who was best connected. with a pc you can now do network visualization and network analysis in your bedroom using data from the web:
First Monday
for academic papers on social network analysis see their journal:
Connections
Thanks for the update; I haven't really followed his career, other than to read his publications.
The Brookings Institute is also well known for research in the area; I have a personal bias towards the Sante Fe Institute, specifically that they do a lot with Complexity theory.
-- Terry
Maybe you wouldn't get a gig in Hollywood, but you are indisputably an "actor" in the sense used by Bruno Latour to encompass all humans and whatever other entities might act so as to influence the data/knowledge. Latour's actor's do not even need to have intentions.
I ran into them in a Philosophy of Science course a decade ago, but nowadays you can just use a Google search.
-- Our systemic servants do not good masters make.
So I'm false. That's incredible, I thought you were.
Give me a break, Bruno Latour can know t h i s much.
Buy a Nintendo DS Lite
You should also try Wasserman and Faust's (1994) book on the subject. It is showing its age a bit, but remains the best single volume on the subject.
-Carter
Check out John Horgan's feature on SFI in Scientific American, "From Complexity to Perplexity" (Scientifc American, June 1995; the Web archive only seems to go back to 1996 now) and Melanie Mitchell's retort, ("Complexity and the Future of Science")
Both make for interesting reads on the Sante Fe Institute.
MEEP! MEEP!
What? Don't /. readers have anything +5 Informative/Funny to say about social networks??
Hang on - social networks & /. posters... social networks & /. posters...
Oh.
I get it now.