This is a link to a video about a gentleman named Bruce Bueno de Mesquita who has used mathematical models to successfully predict future political events often in great detail. As part of his methodology, he maps out who the key players in a decision are, how they influence each other, and what their positions are. It occurred to me that SNA might also have some applications to the business of predicting future political decisions. There is clearly a lot of power in SNA that can unlock data about how people are connected to each other, who they talk to the most, and how strong the ties are between people that are important factors in how decisions are made within an organization. I assume that such predictive models could also be taken to the level, which would be modeling how a organization's decision might change if certain people in the organization are convinced to change their positions. This could be invaluable data for lobbyists, diplomats, activist investors, politicians, business people, and many others trying to improve the chances of a more amenable outcome based on their own interests.
- Ravi
1 comment:
Very interesting, Ravi. Actually, you downloaded a program called Key Player when you downloaded Ucinet. Look in the folder for it. It does exactly what you suggested: picks the key players out of a network.
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