Exlporing your Networks - Assignment 3

Social networks are a peculiar phenomenon to research. However due to the rise of digitization, the internet, globalization and consequently the rise of social networking website, more and more people are able to create ties beyond geographical and social boundaries.

According to Borgatti et al (2009), “One of the most potent ideas in the social sciences is the notion that individuals are embedded in thick webs of social relations and interactions.” This idea can be seen in real life in networking.  One of the most prominent online examples is Linkedin. For example my own Linkedin Network shows  the people with whom I share a social relation and with whom I interact. Each cluster is based on a different shared factor, which is indicated by different colours.

At the beginning of 2014 Linkedin launched a new service based on the social relations and interactions, and more specifically the theory of ‘six degrees of separation’ which is based on the small world problem by de Sola Pool  & Kochen (1978).  The six degrees theory says that “because we are all linked by chains of acquaintance, you are just six introductions away from any other person on the planet” (Smith, 2008).  Linkedin’s feature allows users to see how exactly they are connected to another person as well as the degree by which they are connected, helping to visualize the thick web of social interactions and the practical results thereof.

However, how can you yourself visualize your linkedin network? Well that can be done quite easily through a programme called Socilab. This is a website which will create a nodes cloud to show all of your connections (up to 500 of them). This offers a fast look at overall connections.  In Socilab you can choose to colour the nodes either by industry, country or location.

One way to analyse your output is through the ‘ego networks’ method (Hanneman & Riddle, 2005). This method suggest that every node can be considered as an ‘ego’. The ego can be any type of entity as long as it has a node in the network.  If you take a single step in any direction from a node, you encounter what Hanneman and Riddle refer to as a "N-step neighborhood".

By knowing your position and the position of others in the overall network you can see who In your network has a brokerage role between yourself and another ego, or even how you yourself acts as a broker between nodes. The possible roles one can take on in brokerage are (1) coordinator, (2) consultant, (3) gatekeeper, (4) representative and (5) liaison. By knowing where you stand in a network helps you to create understanding of the world around you and your role in the world both online as well as offline.

So now that you know a bit more about networks, maybe it’s time you visualized your own network and how it can help you further.

P.S. Because of the structure of the table generated by Socilab it is not effective to create a clear visualization on Tableau as each person is labled as a dimension as well as a measure.

Borgatti, S. P., Mehra, A., Brass, D. J., & Labianca, G. (2009). Network analysis in the social
                sciences. Science, 323(5916), 892-895.

de Sola Pool, I. and Kochen, M. (1978). Contacts and influence. Social Networks, 1(1), pp.5-51.

Hanneman & Riddle (2005). Introduction to social network methods- Chapter 9, Ego Networks.
                Online http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman/nettext/C9_Ego_networks.html

Smith, D. (2008). Microsoft proves there are just six degrees of separation between us. [online]
                the Guardian. Available at:
                http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2008/aug/03/internet.email [Accessed 28
                Nov. 2015].