catching the network science bug
2009/06/11
About 10 days ago I was asked by two friends (who do not know each other) for some information and literature on social networks. So after talking to them, I decided to document my self-study journey on social network analysis and the new(?) discipline that is called network science. I feel these two walk together hand in hand.
I first encountered SNA while reading the June 2007 Data Engineering Bulletin issue and especially Bernie Hogan’s “Using Information Networks to Study Social Behavior: An Appraisal” [pdf]. This must be the Data Engineering Bulletin issue that I have read the most. I remember being on vacation, having ideas flowing and calling Unique Fish in the middle of the night to discuss them.
It also happened that the next fall I was studying basic graph theory and I revisited the two Faloutsos3 papers on power laws and the Internet topology. I thought of toying around a bit more, but hey someone else had already written about “The Social Life of Routers” [pdf].
Digging some more, I came along the INSNA web site and their SOCNET mailing list (participation is free and the quality of conversations is excellent). From there I found out interesting stuff, the most interesting being: “Social Network Analysis“ (if you need a freely available book look at “Introduction to social network methods“), Mason Porter’s blog (which is fun to read anyway) Valdis Krebs‘ work (also @valdiskrebs) and some papers that I really liked, namely [pdf links]:
- “Catnets” (read also the Introduction, Preface and Postscript)
- “Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks” on the Watts and Strogatz model (There was even a workshop celebrating the tenth year since its publication)
- “The physics of networks“
- “Catching the network science bug” (and related commentary). From this paper I borrowed the title of this blog post
- Management Science: Special issue on Complex Systems
Last summer John Baras, while giving a presentation on the subject, suggested reading “Network Flows and Monotropic Optimization“ (and I have not regretted buying it) and Freeman‘s “The development of social network analysis“ is waiting next in line to be read.
The list could go on of course, but I’ll stop here.
Important disclaimer: The above is the product of my self-study effort on the subject. It is not to be taken as a suggested roadmap of systematic study in any way. After all it is a personal log of my journey on the subject, and can best be viewed as bookmarks with commentary.
Update 2009/06/12: Alexandra Marin and Barry Wellman posted: “Social Network Analysis: An Introduction” [pdf]
Engineering
2009/04/06
While reading Catching the “Network Science Bug”:
It is precisely the need to find “good” configurations under severe resource constraints that separates engineering from other disciplines.
I was reminded of two things:
- Scotty, and
- a discussion that I had years ago with a Navy ship engineer (only we called it old-school hacking)
Flows in Networks
2009/03/02
Jim Orlin writes that “Princeton Press will re-issue Flows in Networks in their Princeton Landmarks in Mathematics and Physics series”.
Until then (and since the title seems to be out of print) you can get the book from RAND where it is available in both PDF and dead tree format.
Network Flows and Monotropic Optimization
2008/09/29
Όταν παρακολουθείς μια παρουσίαση, περνάνε στο background κάποιες λεπτομέρειες -ίσως όχι ίδιες για όλους- που αποτελούν (τελικά) πιο σημαντικό κέρδος και από το ίδιο της το θέμα. Έτσι λοιπόν πριν ~1 μήνα όταν ο Γιάννης Μπάρας έκανε μια παρουσίαση στο NETMODE για τη δουλειά του στα social networks, ανέφερε εντελώς στα πεταχτά το βιβλίο “Network Flows and Monotropic Optimization” του R. Tyrrell Rockafellar.
Το βιβλίο το βρήκα στη βιβλιοθήκη του ΠΑ.ΠΕΙ. και πραγματικά είναι φανταστικό! Το πρόβλημα; Ο Wiley δεν το ξανατύπωσε από το 1984 που κυκλοφόρησε. Ευτυχώς μετά από επικοινωνία με τον συγγραφέα το βρήκα σε ένα μικρό εκδοτικό οίκο που κάνει (ενδιαφέρουσες) επανεκδόσεις.
Thank you Athena Scientific!
Update 2009/11/4: Από όταν άρχισα να διαβάζω το Connected μου έγινε ακόμα πιο κατανοητό γιατί ο Μπάρας προτείνει να το διαβάσει όποιος ασχολείται με social networks.
social networks
2008/07/14
Ο Guy Hagen γκρινιάζει (“I am grateful that this web 2.0 phenomenon has brought so much attention and prestige to the field of social network analysis but at the same time it has trivialized it.”) για την κατάχρηση του όρου “social network”. Στην πραγματικότητα αυτό που ο πολύς κόσμος ονομάζει social network, είναι ένα social network service:
- A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade. The resulting structures are often very complex.
- A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.
Και δεν είναι μόνο οι ορισμοί από το Wikipedia. Ο όρος social network πρωτοχρησιμοποιήθηκε από τον J. L. Moreno αρκετά πριν από το 1934 και το “Who Shall Survive?” (Πρέπει να σκέφτηκε τον όρο κάπου στα 1916). Αλλά όπως σημειώνει και ο Joshua O’Madadhain στο SOCNET:
“I don’t like this abuse^H^H^H^H^Hevolution of terminology either–and I intend to continue to make the distinction myself–but I wouldn’t hold out much hope of changing the common usage. There are a lot more of ‘them’ than there are of ‘us’. (Ask Eric Raymond or his associates how much success they’ve had in restoring the word “hacker” to the semantics it had prior to its current definition of “someone who breaks into someone else’s computer”.)”
Άλλωστε το έργο το έχουμε ξαναδεί.
[via SOCNET]
