Social Network Analysis Project with T/MC and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC is accepting new members. If you would like to join, click here to request access from the Group Creator.
Social Network Analysis Project with T/MC and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC
So today is my first that i got my hands on the Inflow software that Veldis gave us. The software basically analyzes and maps relationships between people based on their commonality. My accomplishment today with the software is I am able to export a database filled with people's profile.
To do this:
Export the existing database to be an excel file and save it as ".CSV" format
Go to inflow, File>import>Node data
There you go, the software will show you all the nodes according on how many records you have in the excel.
The second process to mapping is to gather the "data link". At this point, this is something that I am not clear of and need to wait for Veldis to train us.
You need to be a member of Tutor/Mentor Connection to add comments!
Ok guys, so I spent several hours at Cabrini Connections tonight, and developed three maps.
The first two maps that I made examined the relationships between people within our project group. Rather than doing before and after the training, I chose two dates, one being today, March 30, 2010, and one being February 1, 2010, which is somewhat more hypothetically the period I first became aware of and willing to work on the project. For both maps I used the following scale:
0=no interaction
1=project participant, but have not met other participants
2=have met & interacted on Ning OR attended the training session
3=have met in person to work on the project
4=have developed a regular, ongoing relationship
*obviously, some of the data is guessed at because I was unable to ask questions to attain the data, but it assumes that everyone met at training except me.
Questions that would work to gather data to answer the above questions:
1. Who have you interacted with on the project?
2. What have you attended pertaining to the project?
3. What is your activity level on Ning (also attainable by looking at Ning)?
Maps:
SNA Group Relationships 03.30.10
SNA Group Relationships as of 02.01.10
Alright, so after completing those two maps, I wanted to look at the actual organizations that we are affiliated with that this project is bringing together. Because I have not met everyone, I limited this to Anne, Jonathan, Dan, me, and Vladis.
The scale I used was:
0=no interaction
1=recent light connection between orgs
2=stronger, but still recent
3=well established
The map I made turned out like:
I'm mildly not satisfied with this map. As I was leaving this evening, I realized that I should have not connected the university's to InFlow, but used Tutor/Mentor to connect them because I think that's a more accurate representation.
Please give me feedback! Anne, I really thought that you did a good job with yours. I think figuring out the scales and then how to ask questions that give us the right data is key. I think it would be good to start experimenting outside of our teeny group.
Good work Katie. I encourage you and Anne and others to look at the original blog article that Valdis wrote prior to the conference in November. When you update your maps, try to show the connections between Valdis, myself and Jean that were in place prior to Feb. 1 when you first made contact with T/MC.
Here's the progress I made on Monday, March 29, 2010.
Figure 1: Pre-training map of everyone
This illustrates how we were connected before the InFlow training day with Valdis.
Figure 2: Pre-training map of SNA project team
This is another scenario of Figure 1, simply hiding the nodes/people who won’t be working on the specific SNA project at Tutor/Mentor.
Figure 3: Post-training map of everyone
This illustrates the increased connections after the training day with Valdis.
Figure 4: Post-training map of SNA project team
This hides the people from the previous map who won’t be working on the Tutor/Mentor project.
NETWORK
All users are mapped to network 1 in this case.
An example of of using more than one network could be something like Network 1 = partnerships that existed before the conference; Network 2 = partnerships that were a result of contacts made at the conference; Network 3 = attended the same conference but reported no relationship. We would be able to hide/show/overlap these for different scenarios.
STRENGTH
Strength was rated 0-4.
0 = never met before
1 = part of the same project but have not met
2 = only interaction was at InFlow training
3 = have had subsequent interaction, or another connection (for example, same school)
4 = have an existing/ongoing relationship outside this project
I guessed at these relationships because we hadn’t done a survey. In reality, a survey would list all the names of people we’re interested in mapping and ask each participant to indicate/rate the strength of their connection to that person using the above scale. For our scenario, this is easy since the question we can ask easily correlates to a numbered scale (0-4).
In extrapolating to something like mapping the conference participants, I think multi-part questions in a survey will get us what we want.
We could list all participants with a series of checkboxes. For example:
__ I have no relationship with this organization
__ I have plans to partner with this organization as a result of conference connections
__ I have an existing relationship with this organization
If yes: ___ relationship was a result of conference connections
___ relationship was not a result of conference connections
How much interaction do you have with this organization:
__ Less than 6 times/year
__ More than 6 times/year
__ Monthly
__ Weekly
__ Daily
Translating these questions could be something like: Network 1 = partnerships that existed before the conference; Network 2 = partnerships that were a result of contacts made at the conference; Network 3 = attended the same conference but reported no relationship. We would be able to hide/show/overlap these for different scenarios.
Interaction would correspond to the strength ratings of 0-4.
Attached are the two different .csv files I used for pre- and post-training. The differences between the maps with everyone and just SNA project members was a matter of hiding nodes in InFlow.
Jonathan, my name is Katie Anderson, I'm from Dominican University (Graduate School of Library and Information Science). I'm really interested in helping. I haven't yet used the software, but Dan explained his visions for it. I really look forward to learning the full potential and helping to develop a project for it. I really like how you posted what you learned during your first training. I think if we continue to do so, it will help to share and improve what we know.
Thanks for taking this role Jonathan. As we talk about what we're doing I hope other interns and volunteers will want to add their own time and talent. Or, you'll learn to apply this concept to your own network, in Chicago or in other places. We've a lot to learn.
As you figure out how to create the "data link" which would enable us to show the relationships between the different people in the database, we also need to figure our how Valdis exports the visuals to his blog and other work. Is there a "save" feature that stores projects he is working on? Is there an export feature that turns charts to jpg formats that can be posted in blogs or ppt presentations?
As you learn this you'll be able to create jpgs and upload them to this Ning site to show what we are working on.
Replies
The first two maps that I made examined the relationships between people within our project group. Rather than doing before and after the training, I chose two dates, one being today, March 30, 2010, and one being February 1, 2010, which is somewhat more hypothetically the period I first became aware of and willing to work on the project. For both maps I used the following scale:
0=no interaction
1=project participant, but have not met other participants
2=have met & interacted on Ning OR attended the training session
3=have met in person to work on the project
4=have developed a regular, ongoing relationship
*obviously, some of the data is guessed at because I was unable to ask questions to attain the data, but it assumes that everyone met at training except me.
Questions that would work to gather data to answer the above questions:
1. Who have you interacted with on the project?
2. What have you attended pertaining to the project?
3. What is your activity level on Ning (also attainable by looking at Ning)?
Maps:
SNA Group Relationships 03.30.10
SNA Group Relationships as of 02.01.10
Alright, so after completing those two maps, I wanted to look at the actual organizations that we are affiliated with that this project is bringing together. Because I have not met everyone, I limited this to Anne, Jonathan, Dan, me, and Vladis.
The scale I used was:
0=no interaction
1=recent light connection between orgs
2=stronger, but still recent
3=well established
The map I made turned out like:
I'm mildly not satisfied with this map. As I was leaving this evening, I realized that I should have not connected the university's to InFlow, but used Tutor/Mentor to connect them because I think that's a more accurate representation.
Please give me feedback! Anne, I really thought that you did a good job with yours. I think figuring out the scales and then how to ask questions that give us the right data is key. I think it would be good to start experimenting outside of our teeny group.
Figure 1: Pre-training map of everyone
This illustrates how we were connected before the InFlow training day with Valdis.
Figure 2: Pre-training map of SNA project team
This is another scenario of Figure 1, simply hiding the nodes/people who won’t be working on the specific SNA project at Tutor/Mentor.
Figure 3: Post-training map of everyone
This illustrates the increased connections after the training day with Valdis.
Figure 4: Post-training map of SNA project team
This hides the people from the previous map who won’t be working on the Tutor/Mentor project.
NETWORK
All users are mapped to network 1 in this case.
An example of of using more than one network could be something like Network 1 = partnerships that existed before the conference; Network 2 = partnerships that were a result of contacts made at the conference; Network 3 = attended the same conference but reported no relationship. We would be able to hide/show/overlap these for different scenarios.
STRENGTH
Strength was rated 0-4.
0 = never met before
1 = part of the same project but have not met
2 = only interaction was at InFlow training
3 = have had subsequent interaction, or another connection (for example, same school)
4 = have an existing/ongoing relationship outside this project
I guessed at these relationships because we hadn’t done a survey. In reality, a survey would list all the names of people we’re interested in mapping and ask each participant to indicate/rate the strength of their connection to that person using the above scale. For our scenario, this is easy since the question we can ask easily correlates to a numbered scale (0-4).
In extrapolating to something like mapping the conference participants, I think multi-part questions in a survey will get us what we want.
We could list all participants with a series of checkboxes. For example:
__ I have no relationship with this organization
__ I have plans to partner with this organization as a result of conference connections
__ I have an existing relationship with this organization
If yes: ___ relationship was a result of conference connections
___ relationship was not a result of conference connections
How much interaction do you have with this organization:
__ Less than 6 times/year
__ More than 6 times/year
__ Monthly
__ Weekly
__ Daily
Translating these questions could be something like: Network 1 = partnerships that existed before the conference; Network 2 = partnerships that were a result of contacts made at the conference; Network 3 = attended the same conference but reported no relationship. We would be able to hide/show/overlap these for different scenarios.
Interaction would correspond to the strength ratings of 0-4.
Attached are the two different .csv files I used for pre- and post-training. The differences between the maps with everyone and just SNA project members was a matter of hiding nodes in InFlow.
Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
SNA-pretraining-group_links.csv
SNA-posttraining-group_links.csv
Jonathan, my name is Katie Anderson, I'm from Dominican University (Graduate School of Library and Information Science). I'm really interested in helping. I haven't yet used the software, but Dan explained his visions for it. I really look forward to learning the full potential and helping to develop a project for it. I really like how you posted what you learned during your first training. I think if we continue to do so, it will help to share and improve what we know.
Welcome to the team, I am looking forward to work with you.
As you figure out how to create the "data link" which would enable us to show the relationships between the different people in the database, we also need to figure our how Valdis exports the visuals to his blog and other work. Is there a "save" feature that stores projects he is working on? Is there an export feature that turns charts to jpg formats that can be posted in blogs or ppt presentations?
As you learn this you'll be able to create jpgs and upload them to this Ning site to show what we are working on.