Oh My God!! The topic feels a little geeky…. Yeah but I can’t
help. Till now, we were entirely focusing on just people for Social Network
Analysis. Who is having maximum between-ness, maximum indegree, outdegree, what
is the density of the group. We even went miles high in analyzing who will be a
better fit as a developer, finance director, marketing professional etc.
Well it’s just the start and certainly not the end where we should think.
Two researchers Shashi Shekhar and Dev Oliver (spatial data scientists at the
University of Minnesota) went one step ahead and tried to analyze Social
Networks with two more variables. With persons, they added time and space. That
makes it Spatio-Temporal analysis of Social Networks. They published a paper
titled ‘Computational Modeling of Spatio-temporal Social Networks: A
Time-Aggregated Graph Approach’.
I agree with them as it’s the real future of SNA and also
responsible for future growth of organizations. Just think for a second that,
if an organization is able to answer some questions like-
- How is trust or leadership changing over time?
- Who are the emerging leaders in a group?
- What are the recurring changes in a group?
- How long is the tenure of a leader in a group?
For personal relationships-
- How long does it take to elevate the level of trust such as a relationship changing from visitor to friend?
Besides, the previous questions are equally responsible for
personal relationships as well.
These and others also can be answered through
Spatial-Temporal analysis of Social Networks. This is a continuing research and
some information can be gathered from the paper. Some organizations have
already started work on the subject.
I do not want to spoil your imagination so think high. Read
the paper and article for more information.
Links-
I hope that people who are interested in the SNA will work
on this aspect of social networks as well.
Sulabh Gupta [M14 Exchange Student]
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