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dg.o2005 Tutorial: Application of Social
Network Analysis in Digital Government Research
Presenters:
David Lazer,
Ines Mergel
Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University
Noshir Contractor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Tutorial home page
Scheduled: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, May 15 |
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Description:
Social network analysis is a developing paradigm in academia, business and
also in private lives. It spins across all kinds of academic disciplines,
such as sociology, anthropology, psychology, organization studies or
political sciences. It helps to map and measure of relationships and
communication or resource flows between people, groups, organizations,
computers or other entities. The nodes in the network are the people and
groups while the links show relationships or flows between the nodes.
Social networks are formed of social relations that consist of nodes
(represented by actors, players, agents, vertices or points) and are
connected by lines (ties, links or edges). The nodes can either consists
of individuals or collectivities, such as organizations, political units
(cities, nations, or societies). Social network analysis provides both
concepts and theories, but also statistical tools to visualize and analyze
the observed relationships.
Goal:
The target audience of the tutorial "Application of Social Network
Analysis in Digital Government Research" is any researcher interested in
the theory and analysis of relationships between computer networks,
organizational and institutional actors. This tutorial is intended to give
an overview of the existing theories, a brief introduction into the
analysis of network data using a common tool called UCInet and into
different visualization methods. Moreover, specific applications for
digital government researchers are presented. A Q&A session will end the
tutorial, in which researchers can address their specific research needs.
We will use existing, well-known and often reanalyzed data to show the
relevance of social network analysis in different fields of application.
In addition, we will use our own data from different studies in the area
of Digital Government to show the relevance of the method and enhance the
understanding of social network analysis. After this tutorial, attendees
will be able to analyze their own data using social network analysis
techniques. The lecturers will submit a list of introductory readings and
Internet resources on Social Network Theory and Analysis.
Outline:
Brief bios:
David Lazer is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy
School of Government, Harvard University and teaches classes on Social
Network Analysis. David is the Associate Director and Co-Principal
Investigator of the National Center for Digital Government, a NSF funded
research center. He runs the Cambridge Colloquium on Social Networks and
Complexity (see http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/complexity).
For more information about David see:
http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/David_Lazer
Contact:
David Lazer
Associate Professor of Public Policy
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JF Kennedy Street, T371
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496 0102
Email: david_lazer@harvard.edu
Ines Mergel is a
Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Center for Digital Government that is
located at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She has
recently finished her dissertation with the title: "The influence of
multiplex network ties on the diffusion of eLearning techniques "A social
network analysis". She holds a PhD from the University of St. Gallen,
Institute of Management, in Switzerland. In her research she focuses on
the social network relationships in the diffusion of innovative
technologies from a Social Sciences perspective.
Ines will be responsible for the second part of the tutorial and will give
an introduction on Social Network Analysis techniques and different kinds
of visualization techniques. For more information, resume, and a list of
publications see:
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/digitalcenter/people/mergel_bio.htm
Contact:
Ines Mergel
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JF Kennedy Street, T371
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-496 611
Email: ines_mergel@harvard.edu
Noshir Contractor (www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/nosh)
is a professor of speech communication and Director of the
Science of
Networks in Communities (SONIC) Group at the National Center for
Supercomputing Applications at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research program,
funded continuously for the past decade by NSF, is investigating factors
that lead to formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked
knowledge networks in 21st century organizational forms. His book titled
"Theories of Communication Networks" (co-authored with Professor Peter
Monge and published by Oxford University Press) received the 2003 Book of
the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the
National Communication Association.
Contact :
Noshir Contractor
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
244 Lincoln Hall
702 S. Wright Street
Urbana IL 61801
217-333-7780
nosh@uiuc.edu
See this page from DG.O 2005:
http://dgrc.org/dgo2005/program/tutorials/lazermergel_wrapped.jsp
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