Social Network Analysis for Social Aspect

Vision:

In tough times like losing a loved one, SNA could be beneficial in trying to contact people with an important message. It could be tough to find people that the person was in contact with that would want to attend the funeral. I know from personal experience that trying to find out who my father was in contacted with from his past life was difficult for my mom. We all knew that he knew some people across the nation but he didn't talk much about them. There could be issues like privacy but of course consent must be given in order to do such analysis. It would make things easier to arrange funeral dates to accommodate anyone who wants to attend. 

SNA:

Social Network Analysis measures the social structures of an individual (in my case) and sees what the connection is. Of course finding that individual's egonet is a great first step. Is it one sided? How is the closeness or betweeness (how much contact between them two or more?) These are just some of the questions that SNA could answer and find out whether or not if some of these connections are important or not. Even if someone doesn't know that person but somehow was influenced by his works could possible want to pay their respect. SNA could find these connections and expose such influence or lives that have been touched by them. It would be such a warm feeling for the family of the lost one to see the impact the person has made. 

SNA Complications:

Some of the complications we had in class would also be some of the problems doing this type of analysis. Problems like what type of data to use, does it start to invade others' privacy that are connected to that person, what qualifies as a strong connection, what makes that connection important or is it just business, or even just one sided. This going to be a long and extensive analysis to get it right or will take a long time to get the right/more information needed. The grieving family might not want to be hassle with this. No matter if all the information could be accessed, there still could be some personal information that can't be accessed and only certain people know. 

SNA Recommendations:

-I would say use data from all aspect of communication like social media or in their professional network. When I mean social media I mean all forms like Twitter or Instagram and combining the date to see if some connection is more than online presence. Also email can play a big part of the analysis as well. This could help in deciding who was just only a FaceBook friend, suppose to a friend in real life. Something as big as losing a loved one is pretty important for everyone that is connected to that person instead of finding out on your own. 

-Centrality measures will play a key part of the analysis. First, is just the immediate connection from that person. The 1st degree, closeness, betweeness, and even the eigenvector all play an important role in deciding whether or not to send a message to these connections. The more information we know about the connection, the better. As for the second connections, it gets a little more complicated. More information is needed on this analysis like how was he or she impacted indirectly from this person. Even though they might not have a direct connection with the person that died, they still might have been impacted greatly by that person and want to pay their respects. It can also help the grieving family to see that the life that was lost meant more than a family member. 

-Patience is key and important to this analysis on both sides: the team who is analyzing the data and the family wanting to send the message through his connections. It is going to be a lot of work and time is a key factor. It depends whether the family wants on how long to wait. I propose that the family decides on the time frame whether if it's 1 week or 2 weeks of analysis. Some might want to get the service done as quickly as possible or take the time to see who could attend the funeral. 

Conclusion:

Overall, I think SNA could be used in many different ways. This is just one way to ease the process of getting a message out to the people who really cared or touched by this person. There are a lot of variables that could happen or just by assuming that the connection means something more. The most important thing though is to get the message out and to decipher something complicated. It is a tool to see beyond something more than social media and professional connections. I believe it could work wonders with this kind of event.