Which social network analysis software can optimize centrality metrics?
June 8, 2023 1:37 PM Subscribe
I'm hosting an event for 150 community leaders who live in a particular city. I want to use the event to weave these 150 people together into a more interconnected community. For example, before the event I will create a large poster that shows the event attendees and their connections with one another as revealed on LinkedIn. This poster will be a piece of artwork they can look at during the event. Upon entry to the event, I will also give each person something like a bingo card that they need to fill out during the event for a chance to win a prize. For example, one item on the card could be specific like, "Have a conversation with Sam Smith." Another could be more general like, "Have a conversation with an engineer in the renewable energy field." I love Kumu for visualization things like this, and it even shows metrics of connectedness. Is there software I could use that -- given a specific social network with specific nodes and connections -- it would recommend specific *new* connections to optimize certain connectedness metrics like degree centrality, betweenness centrality, etc.?
Best answer: How are you with Python and scripting generally? The excellent NetworkX can help you do this, but it’ll be at minimum a coding experience rather than a point-and-click thing.
posted by migurski at 2:17 PM on June 8, 2023
posted by migurski at 2:17 PM on June 8, 2023
Response by poster: >> I would find this visualization and gamification very unappealing
I hadn't considered that. The people I've shared this idea with who are introverted, said it would help them get out of their shell. Do you mind elaborating?
>> How are you with Python and scripting generally?
I used to be a software engineer, so I could make this work. Thank you!
posted by daniel.poynter at 2:31 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I hadn't considered that. The people I've shared this idea with who are introverted, said it would help them get out of their shell. Do you mind elaborating?
>> How are you with Python and scripting generally?
I used to be a software engineer, so I could make this work. Thank you!
posted by daniel.poynter at 2:31 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Icebreakers are fun.
Precision-engineered socialization... hard to say.
Probably the worst thing that can happen is that people ignore the prompts and do things the usual way.
I would enjoy different icebreakers throughout the event in smaller break-out groups. I would probably balk at being steered toward specific people based on external criteria.
The map is kind of cool though. Maybe keep it anonymous and make a before and after version to show off how well the event went. Of course, you would have to urge people to immediately add new contacts to LinkedIn.
posted by dum spiro spero at 4:09 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
Precision-engineered socialization... hard to say.
Probably the worst thing that can happen is that people ignore the prompts and do things the usual way.
I would enjoy different icebreakers throughout the event in smaller break-out groups. I would probably balk at being steered toward specific people based on external criteria.
The map is kind of cool though. Maybe keep it anonymous and make a before and after version to show off how well the event went. Of course, you would have to urge people to immediately add new contacts to LinkedIn.
posted by dum spiro spero at 4:09 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I would also find the visualization/gamification very off-putting. To me, scraping data from somewhere and bringing it into a different space seems very intrusive. You only mention LinkedIn, but as an attendee, as soon as you're using data that I didn't pretty explicitly provide, I'm going to be wondering how far you went in scraping that data, and what weird out-of-context "fact" about me is going to show up on a poster or on someone's bingo card. I'm a fairly private person, and I want more control over the kinds of information I share with people. I think you could mitigate that somewhat by asking attendees to provide the data (which could be as simple as a link to the social profiles they're comfortable with you using) and explaining what you plan to do with it.
As for the bingo aspect, I've been subjected to a lot of similar games at company offsites and always found it pretty miserable from both ends. It's awkward to run people through a checklist of whatever attributes you're looking for and, as a person from an underrepresented group in my industry, I hate being the square someone needs to check off on their bingo card, even it it's for something related to my achievements. I've spent enough time feeling like a box someone needs to check off. I've never really found it to foster any genuine connections, either. Maybe this it because it's always been with tech/engineer types, but as soon as you gamify something, people seem to start min-maxing the game instead of actually doing what the game was intended to do. Mileage may vary on that, though, especially if you have a group that's more actively interested in being there and connecting.
posted by duien at 4:19 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
As for the bingo aspect, I've been subjected to a lot of similar games at company offsites and always found it pretty miserable from both ends. It's awkward to run people through a checklist of whatever attributes you're looking for and, as a person from an underrepresented group in my industry, I hate being the square someone needs to check off on their bingo card, even it it's for something related to my achievements. I've spent enough time feeling like a box someone needs to check off. I've never really found it to foster any genuine connections, either. Maybe this it because it's always been with tech/engineer types, but as soon as you gamify something, people seem to start min-maxing the game instead of actually doing what the game was intended to do. Mileage may vary on that, though, especially if you have a group that's more actively interested in being there and connecting.
posted by duien at 4:19 PM on June 8, 2023 [2 favorites]
Could people opt-in to the suggestions? And, Tinder-style, you'd only get "Sam Smith"'s name (or whoever) if you both were okay with the organization giving out names like that? Or maybe the fact that they are already "community leaders" in some way makes them more public in general.
I think that I (a fairly private person) would be very interested in the network diagram if it were unlabeled. Maybe with a few key indicators (number of unconnected components? longest path between two nodes in one component? Average path length, etc.) If the data was easy/fast enough to scrape, and the network drawer was fast enough, you could even have it in near-real-time (or at least, update every morning) to see whether people adding each other was really changing the network in a substantive way. (which would require a display other than a poster, maybe)
150-choose-2 is only ~10^4. If you were up for a little coding (or if one of your community leaders had access to a coder), you could literally cycle through every connection to find which one improved your metrics the most. Might be a fun little project if any of your groups were tech-y at all.
I don't see that kind of functionality in Kumu, but I literally just learned that word in your post. Somebody mentioned NetworkX upstream, which is good. I know SAS software (paid) has an operations research package with a good procedure for graph/network analysis called OPTGRAPH.
posted by adekllny at 5:56 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I think that I (a fairly private person) would be very interested in the network diagram if it were unlabeled. Maybe with a few key indicators (number of unconnected components? longest path between two nodes in one component? Average path length, etc.) If the data was easy/fast enough to scrape, and the network drawer was fast enough, you could even have it in near-real-time (or at least, update every morning) to see whether people adding each other was really changing the network in a substantive way. (which would require a display other than a poster, maybe)
150-choose-2 is only ~10^4. If you were up for a little coding (or if one of your community leaders had access to a coder), you could literally cycle through every connection to find which one improved your metrics the most. Might be a fun little project if any of your groups were tech-y at all.
I don't see that kind of functionality in Kumu, but I literally just learned that word in your post. Somebody mentioned NetworkX upstream, which is good. I know SAS software (paid) has an operations research package with a good procedure for graph/network analysis called OPTGRAPH.
posted by adekllny at 5:56 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
I attend a lot of conferences as part of my job. Seriously, there are years I'm at more conferences in a year than multiple people attend in a lifetime.
My role, when attending, is to take in information, network like crazy, post to social media, report back on what I've learned and (sometimes) help out the organization organizing the conference (although this is usually limited on on-the-fly unless I'm scheduled for booth duty which is very limited and very rare). I've already got WAY too much to do. I don't have time to fill in your bingo card. I don't have time to chase down people you think I should be speaking with or follow some silly instructions and then report back that I've done so. I certainly am not interested in having my interactions with other people somehow monitored and reported back remotely (everyone scans a QR code, for example when the meet). Nope. No way, no how.
It's bad enough now that every stinking conference has its own app that I have to download (instead of being given a good, old-fashioned, fully detailed paper agenda that I can make notes on and then take home and file and refer back to over the course of the following months or years) and in that in the apps are a bunch of social media type of functions: message people, leave graffiti on on our virtual wall, earn points for every presentation attended (based on badge swipes into and out of conference rooms that block doors and cause traffic jams, especially when you're trying to scoot from one room to the next in time to get a good seat). Conference communication already happens on LinkedIn and Twitter, I don't need to be following conference-specific social media as well, except, due to my job, I have to.
Theoretically, a map might be interesting to look at once, but how is it going to help me in the future? How will I be able to access it? (Will it go away when I delete the conference app? Can I pull the information out of it and insert it into my contact database?) You have to make it worth my while and nothing you've posted has made me think, "hmm, that would be really helpful to me when I attend the next conference."
posted by sardonyx at 6:57 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
My role, when attending, is to take in information, network like crazy, post to social media, report back on what I've learned and (sometimes) help out the organization organizing the conference (although this is usually limited on on-the-fly unless I'm scheduled for booth duty which is very limited and very rare). I've already got WAY too much to do. I don't have time to fill in your bingo card. I don't have time to chase down people you think I should be speaking with or follow some silly instructions and then report back that I've done so. I certainly am not interested in having my interactions with other people somehow monitored and reported back remotely (everyone scans a QR code, for example when the meet). Nope. No way, no how.
It's bad enough now that every stinking conference has its own app that I have to download (instead of being given a good, old-fashioned, fully detailed paper agenda that I can make notes on and then take home and file and refer back to over the course of the following months or years) and in that in the apps are a bunch of social media type of functions: message people, leave graffiti on on our virtual wall, earn points for every presentation attended (based on badge swipes into and out of conference rooms that block doors and cause traffic jams, especially when you're trying to scoot from one room to the next in time to get a good seat). Conference communication already happens on LinkedIn and Twitter, I don't need to be following conference-specific social media as well, except, due to my job, I have to.
Theoretically, a map might be interesting to look at once, but how is it going to help me in the future? How will I be able to access it? (Will it go away when I delete the conference app? Can I pull the information out of it and insert it into my contact database?) You have to make it worth my while and nothing you've posted has made me think, "hmm, that would be really helpful to me when I attend the next conference."
posted by sardonyx at 6:57 PM on June 8, 2023 [3 favorites]
Best answer: As for the bingo aspect, I've been subjected to a lot of similar games at company offsites and always found it pretty miserable from both ends. It's awkward to run people through a checklist of whatever attributes you're looking for and, as a person from an underrepresented group in my industry, I hate being the square someone needs to check off on their bingo card, even it it's for something related to my achievements.
A company I worked for did this at an off-site, but asked us to provide a surprising true fact about themselves. I submitted "my mother once uncovered an actual honest-to-god government conspiracy", and then had to leave early, which meant it turned up on a bunch of bingo cards and my co-workers never got closure over who the hell that was.
posted by Merus at 7:09 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
A company I worked for did this at an off-site, but asked us to provide a surprising true fact about themselves. I submitted "my mother once uncovered an actual honest-to-god government conspiracy", and then had to leave early, which meant it turned up on a bunch of bingo cards and my co-workers never got closure over who the hell that was.
posted by Merus at 7:09 PM on June 8, 2023 [1 favorite]
>> I would find this visualization and gamification very unappealing
I hadn't considered that. The people I've shared this idea with who are introverted, said it would help them get out of their shell. Do you mind elaborating?
As someone who once had to work through a lot of shame about my low level of connection to others, the connection poster would have felt to me back then like a public display of how much of a loser I was compared to all the other people in the room. Mortifying.
posted by daisyace at 7:27 AM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
I hadn't considered that. The people I've shared this idea with who are introverted, said it would help them get out of their shell. Do you mind elaborating?
As someone who once had to work through a lot of shame about my low level of connection to others, the connection poster would have felt to me back then like a public display of how much of a loser I was compared to all the other people in the room. Mortifying.
posted by daisyace at 7:27 AM on June 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone.
FYI, out of eight people who replied, just two people responded to my question about what software I might use.
For example: "How can I build a treehouse for my kids?"
Answer: "Why would you want to do that? Treehouses are terrible."
;p
posted by daniel.poynter at 2:44 PM on June 9, 2023
FYI, out of eight people who replied, just two people responded to my question about what software I might use.
For example: "How can I build a treehouse for my kids?"
Answer: "Why would you want to do that? Treehouses are terrible."
;p
posted by daniel.poynter at 2:44 PM on June 9, 2023
Just pointing out that people who didn't answer the "what software" question are actually answering your other request: I hadn't considered that. The people I've shared this idea with who are introverted, said it would help them get out of their shell. Do you mind elaborating?
posted by sardonyx at 7:47 PM on June 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 7:47 PM on June 9, 2023 [3 favorites]
As a stalking victim who has people blocked on LinkedIn, you would be putting me in danger if you did this. Please do not reveal people’s connections just because you perceive it as publicly available data. I would be livid.
posted by Bottlecap at 10:18 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Bottlecap at 10:18 PM on June 9, 2023 [2 favorites]
As a sociologist by training, there are no easy tools to do this, but my last RA liked gephi. Also as a sociologist, this is INCREDIBLY CREEPY, so please don’t do it.
You might be interested to know that we have a ton of public voter data, but canvassing door knockers quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to use most of that data when actually talking to people.
As another example, I did a research interview where my coauthor had looked the guy up and was like “Oh, I see from Hoovers that you used to be in the X business.” I was practically kicking him under the table as that unnecessary comment was not taken well at all and took me smoothing things over for a while to reestablish rapport. Luckily not the end of the world, but yeesh.
Now you might not be in a context bound by human research ethics, like I am, but I hope you can still take to heart that this is probably not a great idea unless it is completely and transparently an opt-in thing, because many people will definitely find it creepy and that could even cause reputational damage to you and/or the host organization. (And heck, I didn’t even get into the specific privacy needs like someone dealing with a stalker.)
posted by ec2y at 4:34 AM on June 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
You might be interested to know that we have a ton of public voter data, but canvassing door knockers quickly realized that it was a terrible idea to use most of that data when actually talking to people.
As another example, I did a research interview where my coauthor had looked the guy up and was like “Oh, I see from Hoovers that you used to be in the X business.” I was practically kicking him under the table as that unnecessary comment was not taken well at all and took me smoothing things over for a while to reestablish rapport. Luckily not the end of the world, but yeesh.
Now you might not be in a context bound by human research ethics, like I am, but I hope you can still take to heart that this is probably not a great idea unless it is completely and transparently an opt-in thing, because many people will definitely find it creepy and that could even cause reputational damage to you and/or the host organization. (And heck, I didn’t even get into the specific privacy needs like someone dealing with a stalker.)
posted by ec2y at 4:34 AM on June 11, 2023 [2 favorites]
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