Introduction to Dynamic Social Network Analysis

Overview

Currently there is an upsurge of interest in social networks and the associated tools. Articles appear weekly in major newspapers and magazines touting the latest value added by using social network analysis. New York Times Magazine touted the dynamic network analysis techniques developed by CMU for assessing terrorist groups one of the “ideas of the year” for 2004. Social network and dynamic network techniques can be and are being used to do a variety of things such as improve computer searches, marketing, location of self help groups, team design, and organizational performance evaluation. Many companies, such as Friendster and VisualPath, are developing tools to support the creation, maintenance and understanding of personal social networks. In other words, networks are all the rage.

What are social networks? Why should you care? What is going on in the area of social networks? How advanced is the field?

The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to the area of social network analysis.

Who Should Attend

This course is intended for anyone who wants a basic understanding of the area of social network and dynamic network analysis. It is designed to help managers understand when and how social network analysis and dynamic network analysis are applicable and how they can be used. This is not a technical course in how to use social network tools.

There are no technical pre-requisites of skills for this course.

Benefits

Gain a basic understanding of social network analysis

Gain an understanding of what social network analysis can be used for

Become an informed consumer of social network tools

Develop an understanding of how social networks effect you and your organization

Gain an understanding how social and knowledge networks inform each other

Introduction to how dynamic social network analysis can be used design and assess teams

Topics

What is Social Network Analysis

What is Dynamic Network Analysis

What can (and can’t) network analysis be used for

How do people use their social networks

How do social networks change

Linking social networks to knowledge networks

Identifying network elite – individuals who stand out

Using networks to identify points of influence

Using network analysis to assess teams

How advanced is the field of social networks

What tools are available

Days

2 days

Faculty

Kathleen M. Carley is a Professor in ISRI at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her Ph.D. in 1984 from Harvard University. Her research combines cognitive science, social networks and computer science. Her specific research areas are computational social and organization theory, group, organizational and social adaptation and evolution, dynamic network analysis, computational text analysis, and the impact of telecommunication technologies and policy on communication, information diffusion, disease contagion and response within and among groups particularly in disaster or crisis situations. Her models meld multi-agent technology with network dynamics and empirical data. She has developed a number of tools for extracting (AutoMap), analyzing (ORA), and reasoning about change in (Construct, DyNet) social and knowledge networks. Three of the large-scale multi-agent network models she and the CASOS group have developed are: BioWar – a city, scale model of weaponized biological attacks; OrgAhead – a model of strategic and natural organizational adaptation; and Construct – a model of the co-evolution of social and knowledge networks and personal/organizational identity and capability. She is the founding co-editor with Al Wallace of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, the founding president of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science, the author of over 200 articles and books, and has served on various national advisory panels including two National Academy of Sciences panels on simulation and the military.