ICPSR Course on Social Network Analysis

This week I am walking across the IU-Bloomington campus to attend the ICPSR summer course "Social Network Analysis: Theory and Methods."   

Although network analysis has been around for nearly a century, the confluence of digitized data and cheap computer processing has given rise to a virtually limitless number of applications.  For example, just to today I learned that the Google search algorithms rely on network analysis (measuring and calculating eigenvector and eigenvalues) to place the most salient web page on the top of the search list.  Similarly, network analysis produced the insight that social isolation is more predictive of heart disease than cigarette smoking.  (I need to read the the paper that produced this insight to ascertain if they chased down all the covariates of social isolation.)  Of course, there are vehicles such as facebook and myspace, which are fostering new and powerful (and observable) social networks.

I started the course with three social networking projects:  (1) lateral partnership movement among large law firms, (2) geographic connections between law firm branch offices, and (3) movement of law faculty between law schools (as I noted here, from 1928 to the present).  But after one day, I am beginning to even more applications.

This is my second summer taking an methods class at ICPSR.  From this limited frame of reference, I continue to be impressed with the organization, quality of instruction, seamless technology, and focus on practical application.  I am looking forward to a very fruitful week.

Comments

[Márton Gerő]

Check this pages, if you don't know yet:

wwww.insna.com
Our little hungarian page:): www.socialnetwork.hu, there are some english articles.

And see the books of John Scott, or, Paul Wassermann to the methods of SNA

Have a great time:)

[Daniel Katz]

I too am facinated by the potential legal scholarship that can be crafting using the Science of Networks. Along with another collegue here in Ann Arbor, I am engaged in network analysis of the federal judiciary. I hope to post a draft to the SSRN in the next few weeks.

By the way, a Great Page for those interested:
http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

Best,
Dan

[jack]

its nice move to acknowledge everyone about the this program...

[Urlaub in Germeny Auf Sylt]

Ein Kompliment für diese tolle Seite.
Eigentlich bin ich durch Zufall darauf gestoßen und dachte mir,
einen netten Eintrag und viele Grüße zu hinterlassen.
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Vielleicht schauen sie mal auf meiner Homepage vorbei!

[Marlon]

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here again! love to see this site

[reiner]

thx for this article. good work!