1. © Copyright QinetiQ www.QinetiQ.com Social Network Analysis Mark Round +44 (0) 1684 89 4450 MDRound@QinetiQ.com Date: 04 Dec 2007 Location: BCS North London Branch

2. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 2 ‘Social Networks’ xkcd.com

3. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 3 reproduced with permission from John Robb, GlobalGuerillas.com GlobalGuerillas.com

4. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 4 Origins of SNA

5. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 5 Simplified SNA process Collate Prepare Analyse Visualise Plan & Collect Interpret Advise DYNAMICS: infer missing data why links form growth processes vulnerabilities robustness METRICS: central links central actors roles & positions subgroups centralisation INTEL & ADVICE: group structure lines of influence stabilisation points intervention points options NETWORK MODEL INFORMATION: Data mining results Entity extraction Bayesian analysis RAW DATA: interview data survey results observations system logs SOCIOGRAMS

6. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 6 What are you trying to explain? –variation in success, e.g. performance? –homogeneity, in attitudes, beliefs or practices? Why does tie structure matter? Is it because they are: –pipes, or –girders What is the currency? Paperbacks, parcels, viruses, ideas, gossip? –How does each diffuse: is it ‘copied’ or ‘moved’? –What logic guides the routing of them? Borgatti, S.P. & Foster, P.C. The Network Paradigm in Organizational Research: …. Journal of Management, 29(6) (2003) 991–1013 Borgatti, S.P., Centrality and Network Flow' Social Networks, 27, (2005) 55-71Centrality and Network Flow' Plan: What to ask before conducting an analysis

7. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 7 Collect Collect/collate: relationships traced in system logs ORGANISATIONAL DATA called, emailed, sought help from, invited, met with, shared a space with, …

8. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 8 Prepare/Visualise: varieties of actors & relationships

9. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 9 Data: QinetiQ info flow questionnaire Caveat: Borgatti (2005) On the robustness of centrality measures under conditions of imperfect data, Social Networks, 28, 2 Analyse: betweenness (centrality) – I…

10. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 10 AB DATA: QinetiQ staff, Problem- Solving questionnaire Analyse/Interpret: discovering brokers (boundary spanners)

11. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 11 Analyse: betweenness (centrality) – 7/7 attacks Jordan, F. personal communication

12. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 12 m-slicing results: Case Study: JFCOM MNE4 Week 1 [Planning] IWS m-slice 96: single network component Components Control Knowledge Support Planning Assessment Execution Interagency Group Command Interpret: structures & underlying processes © Copyright QinetiQ

13. SNA Overview 13 m-slicing results: Case Study: JFCOM MNE4 Week 3 [Execution] IWS m-slice 84: single network component Components Control KnowledgeSupport Planning Assessment Execution Command Comp’ts integrated; Inter-agency distrib; WG appears; EBP still central Execut’n on a limb MNIG gone native. (but, caution…) WG © Copyright QinetiQ

14. SNA Overview 14 Collaboration tool logs, MNE4 Wk3 (link_wt>50) IWS (blue), vs. random network (pink): ‘bimodal’ - suggests robustness to both targeted attack & random failure Interpret: Assessing robustness: JFCOM experiment: results Robustness to targeted attack & random failure - rare

15. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 15 Removal of top 20% (degree) - small increase in diameter Interpret/Advise: robustness - simulated attack Collaboration tool logs (IWS/Wk3-GT50) Simulated attack fails to disconnect network

16. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 16 Difficulties in inferring causality – e.g. groups affect individuals, and vc. vs. Dynamic (predictive) modelling: statistical models, simulations Multi-modal networks (e.g. documents-people-groups-organisations) Missing data / overlapping networks (email vs. chat vs. observations) ‘Valued’ links – extracting value from weighted data Fragility & over-use of some measures Impact of spatial dimension Danger of cognitive bias in analysts Design and synthesis of networks (absence of a) Library of networks (network corpus), for ‘diagnosis’ Analysis of very large networks Analysis tools are academic: powerful, borderline-usable, data formats… Challenges & opportunities in SNA, in these domains

17. © Copyright QinetiQ SNA Overview 17 Network analysis tools (yellow) and formats (blue) ! © Copyright QinetiQ

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