Blog Assignment: Efficient fundraising campaigns for JaipurFoot

I have been a volunteer at JaipurFoot for a long time. It is world’s largest NGO, providing limb caliper fittings to the disabled for free. So far they have provided caliper fittings to over 1.3 million beneficiaries worldwide. The organization is headed by Dr. D.R. Mehta, a renowned bureaucrat advising Prime Minister of India in his days. Dr. Mehta has received numerous awards for his work and contribution. One of their inventions named JaipurFoot, co-developed with Stanford, was named among top 50 inventions by TIME magazine in 2009.

The organization caters to roughly about 60,000 new and revisiting amputees yearly. The NGO has a very efficient cost structure and supply chain. The organization is spearheaded and funded almost single handedly by Dr. Mehta, through unpredictable government grants, interest income from NGO’s corpus and, donations, mostly through his personal network.

The challenge/goal is to turn around the fundraising from a centralized network pivoting around Dr. Mehta to a more distributed network.

At 76, Dr. Mehta is aging and is concerned about the financial future of the organization. There are a couple of ways the organization is trying to address the situation. One way is to broaden their donor base to increase the corpus and two, a likely change in business model where they charge a minimum amount for each limb caliper fitting.

First Strategy: Gathering data to broaden the donor base would be relatively easy. The organization has a ready database of their donors. The donors can be categorized into two categories largely, i.e. one time donors and repeat donors. Network analysis can be used on repeat donors to identify:

a) Influencing groups: These people can be the Hubs/Pivots to propagate the mission of JaipurFoot. They would encourage people to establish stronger ties and donations for JaipurFoot. They can be encouraged to strengthen ties with passive groups/people. These groups/people can be identified by using a combination Whole-Network and Node Centrality Measures:·        

• High number of connections (Density)
• High influence and opinion leaders (out-degree centrality)
• Connected to most important/Influential nodes (Eigenvector)

b) Passive Groups: These groups/people can be encouraged to donate more and to form ties with other outliers and sub-groups to expand the donor base. They can be identified by:         

• Outliers who are almost information sink
• Weak-Ties (≥ 2 degrees of separation)
• Identify possible factions/components within the group and adjacent sub-groups

The same analysis can be done on one-time donors.

c) Collaborative groups: Dichotomized data of one-time donors and repeat donors can be combined and analyzed to:        

• Identify collaborators (2 for connections in both sets)
• Identify non-collaborators (1 for connection in either set only)

Additional surveys/interviews will have to be conducted to understand the reasons behind particular behavior of one-time donors and hence fine tuning the campaigns further.

Based on the outcome of this research campaign groups can be formed within the organization catering to specific groups, working on improving the ties between sub-groups, strengthening the ties between outliers and groups and adding more nodes to the group.

Second Strategy: Changing the business model to charge minimum amount from beneficiaries can be difficult. Understanding the willingness to pay of the beneficiaries can be very challenging as there is no ready database available about the willingness to pay among the beneficiary amputees. Surveying them would be a challenge, as they are often located in remote parts of the country and world. They are generally uneducated with very limited access to technology. This data can be collected on ongoing basis.  Some sample survey / interview questions could be around:

• How did they learn about JaipurFoot?
• Who influenced them to use JaipurFoot caliper fittings?
• Willingness to share the cost of the limb caliper on 50-50 sharing basis?
• Willingness to pay for caliper during refitting?

This survey data can be analyzed to:·         

• Find the influencers within group and outside group who helped the amputees establish a   contact with JaipurFoot (In-Degree and Out-Degree measure).
• Identify the coordinators (Betweenness)
• Understanding the risks of changing the business model based as the NGO has been running of free for all business model since 1968. Dr. Mehta is concerned that trust and recognition among beneficiaries can be damaged easily if the risks are not analyzed thoroughly.

I’m so glad to have taken the SNA course and look forward to sharing the insights with the NGO I have long volunteered with.

Vishal Kankaria

HULT International Business School

Blog Assignment: Sex. Sin & SNA ?

Blog Assignment: Sex. Sin & SNA ?                                             Using Social Network Analysis to bust human trafficking                                                                       Saurabh Timochin
________________________________________________________________________________________

Human trafficking, is perhaps one of the oldest industries that has thrived due to its ability to leverage its strong social networks. As society progressed into the internet era, hum*an traffickers have also taken advantage of the ability to connect with potential victims and strengthen their network.

Traffickers have started to use social media for recruitment and to spread their network.
Technologies to piece together these elusive digital trails, may be where SNA(Social Network Analysis) can step in and help analyze trails of the traffickers and their victims .
Presently governments have difficulties with tracking technologies such as IP tracking, due to its limitations to monitor such activities and its limited effectiveness at PREDICTING a traffickers next move on a victim.



While getting information from victims may be tough and difficult for governments to share across borders, a simple date base of information such as:
a) outgoing and incoming phone calls of known traffickers
b) tracking social network activity and groups
c) identifying recruitment of "domestic laborers"

By analyzing these variables, a density analysis between each node could help visualize how far flung their networks really are. Upon reading various reports on how traffickers operate I believe that a typical SNA analysis would look something like this

 
Patterns will begin to emerge and through and a propinquity analysis, it will become easy to identify individuals connected beyond the obvious circle of associates (outlined in red)

If possible, feedback gathered from victims on how they entered the trade could be traced back,
an eigenvector analysis could help determine, how similar recruitment patters have been in the past.
 
 There are key nodes (individuals) in ever region that drive this industry. Unfortunately it is difficult to reach the main "drivers" of the industry and thus the flesh trade industry continues to thrive.

If an efficient SNA is put it place it would greatly help - profile, mark and then analyze all pawns in this unforgiving chess field.

SNA Against Bullying?

According to stopbullying.gov, "Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose." 

In  real life, the problem is not only in schools, but also outside of it. Can be felt in working environment also, and is can be seen in undergraduate and postgraduate education. Not because you are an adult, means that you are free of bullying in your life, it can happen anywhere. Thanks to different laws, the working place can be in a way protected from bullying. A real obstacle enters in education places, specially with young people, with children, where they are still in formation and education.


The problem is to identify it and work against it. Thanks to organizations like stopbullying.gov, this can be attacked and prevented in  some way. A good example is the National 4-H Conference in April of 2014, where 34 4-H youth from across the country arrived at the US Department of Education (ED) to participate in it.
The first point would be to identify the correct information needed to start creating the Network of people. It can start very superficial, with simple questions needed to see each student with Whom relates to. This is very important, because here it can be analyze how has power in the network and can be potential Bullies.


They have really good ideas and alternatives to attack bullying in schools that can be implemented, including mandatory trainings to teachers and school administrators.

Of course this is important to educate the adults that can control the situation in the moment, but what else can be done if we had unlimited resources, time, and access to information? How could we use Social Network Analysis to address Bullying?


The reciprocity of the network can identify the followers and followed ones, identify who is an outsider and a potential person to be bullied.

Also questions according to communication frequency can help with the strong or weak interaction within each person/node in the network. This can help to spot the centrality of a particular node (Bully / Bullied) that can be important to protect or educate to diminish this important issue that affects not only here in the United States but also around the world.

The SNA cannot help eliminating bullies in the educational institutions, but can help to create a diagnostic of the problem in it and address it in the correct way to diminish it in our society. Only education about power can eliminate it, but SNA can help diagnose it to prevent it or make a solution.



Nicolas Losada

How SNA Can Help Organization Identify Latent Problems of Integrity within their Employee Base

Business has never faced the type of ethical challenges that it faces in actual global economy.  Today’s complexities make people struggle in their ways to accomplish their goals, even if those ways imply making decision in the fine line between what is good and what is not. The big problem is that at the moment that only one employee acts for his one personal benefit, the whole company ethics and success is compromised. A good reputation might be the most important business’s assets. However, it is also the easiest to loose and the most challenging to maintain.

Since employees are usually hesitant to turn in their colleagues involved in unethical practices, the use of Social Network Analysis could not only help organization to identify latent problems of integrity and moral within their employee base, but also highlight the persons with good perceptions among their coworkers.

Since integrity is associated with values such as consistency, honesty, reliability, trustworthy, authenticity and respectful, questions that ask for people to identify who they think can represent those values within the organization can help to recognized subgroups of people that is highly notice by others, but also detect isolated points that could generate some alerts to do a further evaluation.

By asking employees the following questions the data required to do a first analysis can be obtained.

•         Which persons in your department will you trust them a secret?
•         Which persons in your department are the most reliable?
•         Who you consider the most ethical person in your department?

If the questions are asked in a positive way, I believe employees will be willing to share their opinions. Questions that look for point out a bad behavior might not be so easy to get.

In terms of measures:

◼  Density: can reflect how balance is the organization around integrity. At more connections more people is perceived as acting in an ethical way.

◼   Degree: will help to distinguish the persons more recognize in terms of integrity for their coworkers.

◼   Eigenvector: identify who other persons are connected with the ones more value.

◼   Isolated points: as alerts of people that need further evaluation.

The amplified universe of global stakeholders with competing value interests and value systems, require that companies create processes to clarify, integrate and reinforce their ethical business conduct guidelines. In addition, to create the right mechanisms to have a sense of what employees perceived or know about their colleagues but don’t share with the management teams.

Blog assignment: How can Social Network Analysis can improve data resources to Non-Profits for funding request?

As a Social Media Consultant for a Non- Profit organization I find myself with a challenge every day, trying to create posts based on emotional stories of poor kids in Latin America struggling to go to school, in the hopes of finding new donors that will help to support our initiatives as well as making stronger ties with our current benefactors.  

It is not a secret that the growth of our NPO  depends on its network position, along with having collaborative relationships with other organizations sharing the same structure. However, my aha! moment took place after taking my elective class "Social Network Analysis and Social Media classes" with Professor Tunnar. I understood that it is very important to understand networks simply starting by analyzing our own network, composed by people and organizations online. It never occurred to me that analyzing our connections with current benefactors and employees as well as asking the right questions to people, will lead us to find the "go to person". Our network is filled with people who want to help with a cause, and our organization is filled with people whose values are aligned to the company's value which aim to help people. Therefore, if we analyze closely we have plenty of opportunities to increase our funds by using and visualizing our own networks.

So and easy way to start the process of looking for new benefactors and using the support of social media and online resources, we could start by defining a process to find new connections. For example, we can begin by asking to our donors and employees who do they think is the to go person. Since, the organization that I work for is located in a small town, there is a chance that people suggest the same "to go person or organization", a clue that can lead us to the right person. In addition, it is very important to identify patterns and ties between the people.  ( See example below)

Other important point is based on formulating the right questions in order generate insights. For instance, questions such as What people or organizations, online bloggers are in our system? , What are their role? Are they connected or not? etc can be helpful. 

Additionally, another way to conduction a SNA study can be done through social media and asking our followers to share post and reach more people everyday.

Finally, after reading and learning about this topic I can conclude that a SNA will help my company to identify the proper interviewees and help to recognize patterns that will lead us to approach new donors and generate better funds for our causes.

The links below give further information about this topic:

http://www.coyotecommunications.com/outreach/osn.html

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/12/guest-post-by-steve-waddell-systems-mapping-for-nonprofits-part-ii.html

Blog assignment: Using SNA in chemical industry to enter new markets

I come from a family business background based in India. The nature of business is manufacturing and selling different types of chemicals to a variety of organizations locally and globally. There are numerous companies that use chemicals in their products and manufacturers like us supply the chemicals. It is a highly competitive market with several large companies and a huge number of small players. The main challenge is to tap new markets in the already mature markets. The chemical industry is a vast industry with a large network.

The question that arises is how to recognize the next growth in this market and to expand my company’s network?

Social Network Analysis helps to find a solution to this problem.

Using the social network analysis, I can list the companies that use the chemicals in their products and also their current suppliers. I can then map the list of chemical manufacturers and the chemicals they produce. The next step would be to link the companies and manufacturers. By doing this, I can find out which manufacturer is supplying which company and so on. I can look at the network density between the company and manufacturers and also can look the suppliers of the chemical in which my company is specialized and then approach the company to generate sales for my company. By this way, I can develop a network that helps me understand the current market situation and also tap the potential market.

The data required to draw this network are:

·      The company list that uses chemicals
·      The chemical manufacturers list
·      Chemical product list produced by each manufacturer
·      Supplier list of each manufacturer
·      Degree of connection between the company and the manufacturer

The list of manufacturers and the companies could be generated. It is also viable to find the product list of the manufacturers. But, the real challenge lies in the generation of supplier list. It is hard to find the customer list of each manufacturer, as the number of players is huge in this industry. It requires a large amount of effort to gather data of each manufacturer.

Once the network map is generated, it can be used to find the potential market and I can then focus my sales to get new accounts. Thus Social Network Analysis will help me grow my company in a highly competitive market without even starting a price war with other manufacturers.

Blog Assignment : Social Network Analytics could make Urban farming more sustainable?

With increasing urbanization, can urban framing create local and sustainable farming practices?

Objective: With the increasing trend of people shifting their home to the cities, how can urban farming help to meet the  food needs of an increasing urban population with the help of Social network analytics?

Urban farming and its increasing importance: By 2030, 6 in every 10 people would live in an urban area. With over seven billion mouths to feed, human farming exerts a tremendous toll on the plant, from drawing water to city pollution, and from energy use to habitat loss. At the same time, there is also a growing set of solutions, from organic agriculture to integrated pest management.

A large group of people around the world is taking a look at urban farming, which offers to make the food as local as possible. By growing food near where we live, we can decrease the "food miles" that comes long-distance transportation.

Thus by saving the transportation cost, we can also get fresh produce that money can buy.

Urban farming adds greenery to cities, makes the city cooler by providing shades and counters the unpleasant heat island effect. Garden plots help people to reconnect themselves with the Earth and help to gain a greater appreciation from the food originates. This also helps to reduce the plastic packaging and carbon footprint of the food that we consumers. 

Although urban planners have a long way to go to build urban farms, we can envision soaring vertical farms, which would eventually produce what we need from a close distance from home.  One of the classic examples of urban city farming is the InterContinental New York  Barclay Hotel, which includes an apiary. The Honeybees produce honey that is used in the hotel kitchen and the bees fly to pollinate plants that as far as 5 miles away. The better part of urban farming is that it can bring jobs to underserved and depressed urban areas.

Challenges

One of the challenges of Urban farming is space constraints, land in cities is quite expensive and gardens tend to contribute to rising rents. Urban soils can be loaded with lead, arsenic and other toxins requiring remediation or replacement before planting can be done safely. Cramped conditions can limit yields and getting enough water or sunlight can be a huge concern at times.

Due to these conditions, there could be a need for different urbanites to grow different crops in different parts of the cities. This would call the need for efficient farming techniques and also a collaborative network of exchanging farming products between urban dwellers. Many of them would find it challenging to grow certain vegetables due to the soil conditions and limitation of space. Therefore, they would like to buy products from neighboring city dwellers so that they can enjoy local product. 

There are several needs that one would want to have:

1) Urban dwellers or volunteers who can readily help to deliver the groceries within the city

2) A collaborative social network of what kinds of framing products are grown in the city for an efficient and sustainable urban farming.

Social Network Analysis helps to make important  decisions for the application of grocery delivery and collaborative farming in the city. These questions can be answered by the following questions.

   1. Whether collaborative network would lead to an increase in collaborative farming among the urban dwellers inorder to sustain the business?

    2.  Whether the grocery delivery model would be a viable model especially in a fast paced city like New York?

Since the urban farming model is yet to catch up in major cities, am going to consider certain hypothesis and the corresponding SNA measures.

Hypothesis 1: The connection of urban farmers within a city is well networked and shares the farm produce among each other

Social Network measure: Network density

Hypothesis 2 : Urban farmers are located close to each other and are easily available to sell their products. This would avoid long supply chain issues and save on time.

Social Network Measure: Closeness

Hypothesis 3:  Urban delivery dwellers do a good service that people network them to their neighbours.

Social Network Measure: Eigen Values

By applying the application of SNA techniques, one can conclude some of the following outcomes:

1) Having a very high network density helps the urban farmers to connect with each other. This would lead to greater collaboration of farmers along with their neighbours. Having a strong network results in more sustainable and larger farm produce for the city. This also helps business to grow faster as with a larger network density, there would be more people recommending products to each other.

2) A high degree of closeness means that they are well connected within the network and removing the urban delivery dwellers would cause significant communication as well as coordination problems. This also ensures that supplies can be delivered on time with much supply chain losses.

3)Eigenvector centralities tell how well is an individual connected to the parts of the network with the highest connectivity.This is especially important when we need to have a connection between the urban delivery dwellers and the urban farmers. A clear identification of Eigenvector values would help to ensure good starting points for the business model.

So what can be concluded?

As we foresee Urban farming, it would be equally important to create a strong ecosystem of collaborative urban farming and grocery delivery team who could help to ensure that Urban farming becomes a sustainable and successful model.The possibilities are endless and the system can turn out be efficient model. The outcome would be very positive, creating job opportunities among the urban population and making the cities a better place to live in.