1.

What is Social Network Analysis (SNA), and why is it significant in contemporary

society? Discuss its key concepts and goals briefly.

Social network analysis in general studies the behaviour of the individual at the micro level,
the pattern of relationships (network structure) at the macro level, and the interactions
between the two. Social networks are both the cause of and the result of individual behaviour.
Social networks provide and limit opportunities for individual choices, whereas at the same
time individuals initiate, construct, maintain, and break up relationships and by doing so
determine the global structure of the network. Which network structures and positions create
strong opportunities or, on the contrary, strong constraints depends on the instrumental value
of the relationships under study. Social capital is the opportunity structure created by social
relationships. In social network analysis a large number of measures have been developed to
characterize and compare network structures and positions in networks. Depending on what
determines differences in opportunity structures, the analysis can be focused on differences in
centrality, on the investigation of strongly connected clusters, of positions that are structurally
equivalent in networks, or of unique positions. Other measures enable the comparison of
network structures as a whole, e.g., the investigation of their effectiveness for goal
achievement. In addition, statistical network models can be used for testing structure against
null models, for parameter estimation and, more recently, for testing network effects of
different incentive structures.

2 Explain the relationship between social media and the formation and analysis of
social networks. How have social media platforms facilitated this process?

While the terms social media and social network seem to be interchangeable, they have
distinct differences. Essentially, social media is a platform for broadcasting information,
whereas social networking is a platform for communicating with one another. Social media is
a communications channel, whereas, in social networking, the communication has a two-way
nature. Let's dive deeper into the difference between social media and social networking.

When we think of the term media, it usually reminds us of traditional outlets, such as
newspapers, magazines and television. Yet, when you add social in front, the term takes on
an entirely different vibe. Social media adds a technology component -- as well as flexibility
-- when it comes to how a person consumes, shares and collaborates with what is being
presented. Thus, social media can best be described as an internet-based way to publish
or broadcast digital content that readers can fully interact with.

Anyone can publish social media. Traditional news media outlets, like CNN and Fox News,
publish their own content for digital consumption. Businesses and organizations do so as
well. Even your child's local soccer club can create social media for members to read, watch
and interact with.

Consider social networking in the context of who a user is receiving content from. First,
social networking requires a platform. Common examples of social networking sites or
platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Users join a social network
platform and begin connecting -- or networking -- with other users. This is done so users can
choose who they want to receive communications from. In some cases, communication is
one-way, while, in others, it's bidirectional or multidirectional.

3. Trace the evolution of social media technologies and their impact on communication.
Highlight key milestones in the development of social media platforms

The evolution of social media has been fueled by the human impulse to communicate and by
advances in digital technology. It is a story about establishing and nurturing personal
connections at scale.

In less than a generation, social media has evolved from direct electronic information
exchange, to virtual gathering place, to retail platform, to vital 21st-century marketing tool.

How did it begin? How has social media affected the lives of billions of people? How have
businesses adapted to the digital consumer lifestyle? How do marketing professionals use
social media? It’s all part of the story of social media’s ongoing evolution.

Introduction

A). Defining Social Media

The phrase "social media" has gained widespread use in the contemporary era of digital
connectedness. Since it permeates almost every part of our personal, social, and professional
life, it is a phrase that needs no introduction. Social media is a term that describes a collection
of online platforms and technologies that enable the production, distribution, and exchange of
knowledge, concepts, and multimedia material within an online user community. These
platforms open new opportunities for communication, engagement, and network building
across time and space for individuals, groups, and organisations.

At its core, social media is not only a collection of technology but also a cultural and societal
phenomena that has transformed the ways in which we communicate, express ourselves, look
for information, and travel through space. From Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and
TikTok, social media platforms have developed into potent instruments that have
democratised information distribution, stoked social and political movements, and altered the
nature of business and marketing. Comparable to understanding the quick change in human
communication in the digital age is the emergence of social media.

B). Importance of Studying Social Media Evolution

The development of social media is not just an interesting historical curiosity, but also a
crucial investigation into the core of our digital society. Studying social media's evolution
from its birth to the present day and beyond offers priceless insights into how technology
affects social interactions, interpersonal relationships, and human behaviour in general.

1. Cultural and Societal Impact: The rise of social media is intricately connected to
broader societal and cultural shifts. Social media is a mirror reflecting how our values,
norms, and goals are changing, from affecting how we build and maintain
relationships to influencing political discourse and activity.
2. Technological Advancements: Social media development and technology progress go
hand in hand. Understanding the evolution of social media helps us foresee the
direction that technology will take, from the expansion of mobile devices to the
introduction of artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
3. Business and Marketing Dynamics: Social media has become a dominant force in the
business world. It has altered the way companies market their products, engage with
 customers, and measure success. Staying abreast of social media's evolution is
essential for businesses seeking to remain competitive in a digital age.
4. Privacy and Ethical Considerations: With great connectivity comes great
responsibility. The evolving landscape of social media raises ethical questions
regarding data privacy, misinformation, and the power wielded by tech giants. These
considerations have far-reaching implications for individuals, governments, and
organisations.
5. Future Possibilities: As we trace the evolution of social media, we also peer into the
future. What innovations lie on the horizon? How will social media continue to
transform our lives? These questions are not just academic; they shape the decisions
we make in our increasingly digital existence.

A). Early Forms of Online Communication

The journey of social media's evolution begins with the earliest forms of online
communication. While these systems were rudimentary compared to today's sophisticated
platforms, they laid the groundwork for the digital interactions we now take for granted.

In the 1960s and 1970s, during the infancy of computing, researchers and computer scientists
were already exploring ways to enable digital communication. One such system, the
Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS), allowed users to leave messages for each other on
shared computers. Although primitive by modern standards, CTSS was a groundbreaking
experiment that foreshadowed the digital conversations to come.

B). Bulletin Board Systems (BBS)

The true precursors to social media emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s with the advent of
Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). BBS provided a platform for users to dial into a computer
system via modems, where they could engage in text-based conversations, access files, and
participate in early online communities.

One of the earliest BBS, known as CBBS (Computerised Bulletin Board System), was
created by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess in 1978. It allowed users to post messages,
upload and download files, and engage in discussions on various topics. CBBS was a
watershed moment in the evolution of digital communication, as it introduced the concept of
online community interaction.

BBS/CBBS grew in popularity at this time, fostering the development of an early online
culture. Users could interact with people who share their interests, have conversations about
those topics, and perhaps make virtual friends. BBS opened the way for later-emerging
interactive and community-focused features of social media.

C). CompuServe and Prodigy

The development of digital communication was greatly aided in the 1980s and early 1990s by
two innovative online services, CompuServe and Prodigy. Many elements of contemporary
social media were predicted by the characteristics that these platforms provided.

In 1979, the 1969-founded online service CompuServe turned profitable. As well as access to
news and information, it offered email and discussion forums. Users were able to participate
in conversations on a range of subjects in particular on CompuServe's forums, which
promoted a feeling of online community and cooperation. One of the first examples of
internet chat, the service's CB Simulator, which allowed users to converse in real-time, was
first made available in 1980.

In 1988, IBM and Sears launched Prodigy, a joint venture that offered a range of services,
including news, forums, online shopping, email, and online purchasing. Users were able to
converse and share ideas thanks to Prodigy's community capabilities, which prefigured the
social engagement features that would later distinguish social media platforms.

D). AOL and the Emergence of Instant Messaging

The number of online services increased dramatically in the 1990s, with America Online
(AOL) emerging as a significant player. Instant messaging (IM), a function that would later
establish itself as a mainstay of other social media platforms, was made popular by AOL.

Users could communicate with friends and contacts in real-time using AIM, which was made
available by AOL in 1997. Rapidly changing the way people communicated online, AIM
swiftly became a cultural phenomenon. As a way of signalling the arrival of fresh
communications, the recognisable "You've Got Mail" announcement became a hallmark of
the digital age.

Instant messaging not only facilitated one-on-one communication but also enabled group
chats, paving the way for the chat rooms and group discussions that would later become
integral components of social media platforms.

E). The Genesis of Online Communities

Online communities are an idea that has grown along with the internet. These communities,
which were assisted by tools like Usenet and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), were frequently built
around common interests, pastimes, or geographical regions.

Users could join newsgroups (discussion groups) devoted to particular themes when Usenet
was founded in 1980. These newsgroups functioned as the first online communities where
people could interact, exchange knowledge, and discuss common interests.

In 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) introduced users to real-time chat rooms where they could
converse in groups. Due to IRC's decentralised structure, numerous chat rooms with a variety
of themes and target demographics have been developed.

These first-generation online forums served as the building blocks for the virtual social
environments that would later come to define social media platforms. They demonstrated the
inherently communal, collaborative, and sharing nature of humans in the digital sphere,
paving the way for the impending dramatic social changes.

The Birth of Social Networking

A). Classmates.com and SixDegrees.com

With the introduction of websites like Classmates.com and SixDegrees.com, the idea of
social networking as we know it today started to take shape. These early pioneers established
the foundation for the upcoming social media revolution.
 1. Classmates.com (1995): Classmates.com was one of the first websites to focus on
connecting people with their former classmates and schoolmates. It allowed users to
create profiles, list their educational history, and search for others who had attended
the same schools. While it was relatively rudimentary compared to later social
networks, Classmates.com tapped into the nostalgia and desire to reconnect with old
friends.One of the earliest real social networking websites
was SixDegrees.com, which Andrew Weinreich started in 1997. User profiles could
be made, friends could be listed and messages could be sent. The phrase "six degrees
of separation" which postulates that everyone in the world is connected via a network
of acquaintances was the source of inspiration for the platform's moniker. Despite
eventually shutting down in 2001, served as a catalyst for the social networking craze.

B). The Rise of Friendster

The online social networking concept was widely promoted by Jonathan Abrams's platform
Friendster, which he founded in 2002. User profiles, friend requests, and the capacity to make
connections with other users via a network of friends are just a few of the features that were
introduced and would later become standards of social media.

During its zenith, Friendster had tens of millions of users. Friendster quickly ascended to
prominence, especially in Asia. It also had scalability problems and technical difficulties,
which limited its potential to expand. Despite these difficulties, Friendster was essential in
illustrating the possibility of human connection via digital networks.

C). MySpace: The First Social Media Giant

The first major social media platform was MySpace, which debuted in 2003. MySpace was
founded by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe and gave users the option to build incredibly
personalised profiles, share playlists, and connect with friends. Particularly among young
users and musicians, it swiftly became a cultural phenomenon.

MySpace's growth was fueled by both its role in the developing music industry and social
connections. MySpace was a popular venue for independent musicians and bands to share
their music and grow their fan bases. Social media's influence on the entertainment industry
was established by this combination of social networking and music marketing.
D). Facebook: Connecting the World

In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook from a dorm room at Harvard University with
the help of his fellow college roommates Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, Chris
Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz. The platform initially only served Harvard students, but it
swiftly spread to other colleges and, eventually, the general public.

By emphasising actual identities and employing university email addresses to verify user
accounts, Facebook transformed social networking. The "Wall" for posting messages and
updates, the "News Feed" for compiling content, and the "Like" button—which came to
represent approval across the board—were all implemented. Facebook is a very intimate and
linked network because of its focus on establishing connections with friends, family, and
acquaintances.

One of Facebook's defining features was its rapid global expansion. It went from being a
Harvard-centric platform to a worldwide phenomenon, transcending borders and languages.
By 2008, Facebook had surpassed MySpace in terms of active users, cementing its status as
the dominant social networking site.

E). The Impact of Mark Zuckerberg

The development of social media was significantly influenced by Mark Zuckerberg, the co-
founder and CEO of Facebook. His leadership and vision not only turned Facebook into a
worldwide behemoth but also had an impact on the development of social media as a whole.

1. Innovation and Acquisition: Under Zuckerberg's guidance, Facebook continued to

innovate, introducing features like Facebook Chat, Events, Groups, and Pages. The
platform's acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 expanded its reach
and influence even further.
2. Data Privacy and Ethical Concerns: However, Facebook's growth was not without
controversy. The platform faced scrutiny over issues related to data privacy, user
consent, and the spread of misinformation. These challenges underscored the ethical
and regulatory complexities that accompany the rise of social media.
3. Ongoing Impact: Mark Zuckerberg's commitment to connecting people and his
ambitious vision for the metaverse have positioned Facebook (now Meta Platforms,
 Inc.) at the forefront of the next wave of social media innovation, including virtual
reality and augmented reality experiences.

Mark Zuckerberg's transformation from a college student with a dorm room project to a tech
titan leading a multibillion-dollar company is an example of the significant impact that
individuals may have on the development of social media. By revolutionising how people
connect and communicate on a global scale, Facebook's success has also changed the digital
landscape. It prepared the ground for social media's ongoing development into a widespread
phenomenon with far-reaching effects.

Microblogging and Real-Time Sharing

A). The Emergence of Twitter

Microblogging services, which let users share quick, in-the-moment updates with their
followers, started to gain popularity in the middle of the 2000s. Twitter, a website created in
March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, was in the fore of this change.
The way individuals communicate has changed as a result of Twitter's(now X) ground-
breaking communication strategy.

1. 140 Characters: Twitter's defining feature was its strict limit of 140 characters per
tweet, a constraint that encouraged concise and immediate communication. This
character limit was later expanded to 280 characters, but the brevity of tweets
remained a hallmark of the platform.
2. Real-Time Updates: Twitter introduced the concept of the "timeline," where users
could see a chronological stream of tweets from the accounts they followed. This real-
time nature made Twitter an ideal platform for breaking news, live events, and
conversations as they unfolded.
3. Retweets and Mentions: The introduction of retweets (RT) and mentions
(@username) facilitated engagement and the sharing of content. Users could amplify
messages they found interesting or important by simply retweeting them to their
followers.

B). The Power of Hashtags

Twitter's innovation extended beyond its format; it introduced the concept of hashtags in
2007. A hashtag, represented by the # symbol, allowed users to categorise and discover
tweets related to specific topics or events. This simple addition had a profound impact on
online discourse and information dissemination.

1. Trending Topics: Hashtags made it possible to track trending topics, allowing users
to see what the global Twitter community was discussing at any given moment. This
feature turned Twitter into a real-time barometer of public sentiment and news events.
2. Social Movements: Hashtags became instrumental in organising and amplifying
social movements and activism. Movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, and
#ArabSpring used hashtags to mobilise supporters, share stories, and raise awareness
about critical issues.
3. Branding and Marketing: Hashtags also became a central tool for branding and
marketing campaigns. Companies and organizations created branded hashtags to
engage with customers, promote products, and run contests or giveaways.

C). Twitter's Role in Social Activism

Twitter emerged as a powerful tool for social activism and political engagement, enabling
individuals and groups to connect, mobilize, and effect change.

1. Arab Spring: During the Arab Spring uprisings in 2010 and 2011, Twitter played a
central role in coordinating protests and sharing information. Activists used hashtags
like #Egypt, #TahrirSquare, and #Jan25 to communicate globally.
2. #BlackLivesMatter: In order to spread awareness about racial injustice and police
brutality, the #BlackLivesMatter movement was launched in 2013. The hashtag
functioned as a focal point for activists and sparked numerous conversations and
demonstrations.
3. Political Campaigns: Twitter also became a critical platform for political campaigns
and elections worldwide. Politicians, including former U.S. President Donald Trump,
used Twitter to communicate directly with their supporters and make policy
announcements.
4. Global Protests: From the Occupy Wall Street movement to protests in Hong Kong,
Twitter provided a platform for activists to document events, share stories, and
organise demonstrations.
D). Instagram and the Visual Social Media Revolution

While Twitter dominated real-time updates and text-based communication, another platform
was ready to transform social media through graphics. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
introduced Instagram in October 2010 as a photo-sharing software. Because of its
straightforward design and focus on visual material, Instagram soon became a popular choice.

1. Photo Sharing: Instagram allowed users to share photos and apply filters to enhance
their visual appeal. This focus on aesthetics transformed everyday moments into
shareable art, and Instagram became a platform for creative expression.
2. Stories and Video: Instagram expanded its offerings with features like Stories, which
allowed users to share ephemeral content that disappeared after 24 hours, and IGTV,
which supported longer-form video content. These additions competed with platforms
like Snapchat and YouTube.
3. Influencers and Branding: Instagram gave rise to the influencer marketing
phenomenon. Individuals with large followings, known as influencers, partnered with
brands to promote products and services. This trend reshaped the advertising and
marketing landscape.
4. Visual Storytelling: Instagram's visual nature encouraged storytelling through images
and captions. It became a platform for documenting travel, lifestyle, fashion, and
food, providing users with a curated glimpse into the lives of others.

Instagram's development served as a powerful example of the influence of visual content on

social media. In contrast to the real-time, text-centric nature of sites like Twitter, it also
signalled a shift towards more manicured and aspirational depictions of life. These changes
signalled the evolution of social media platforms and the ways in which people exchange
information about their lives and interests online.

4. Define "technologies of collaboration" within the context of social media. How do

these technologies enable collaborative interactions among users?
Collaborative technology is a tool or software designed to facilitate working in groups and
holding real-time meetings in the office and remotely. This technology can reduce the costs
and time associated with facilitating group work or performing tasks that require
collaboration between different departments

For example, designating roles and responsibilities, sharing documents and checking and
approving different elements of a project. These tools may enable more coordinated group
problem-solving across an entire team's workflows. Businesses, companies and organisations
of different sizes can benefit from utilising these technological innovations to solve modern
workforce challenges and improve efficiency.

Collaboration tools can enable organisations to bring remote employees into virtual teams to
perform various tasks. Businesses and fellow employees from across the world may join
these virtual spaces to communicate, share their data and work on projects at their
convenience. These software tools usually involve the use of the Internet to operate.
Collaborative technologies can reduce the requirement for face-to-face conversation and can
boost productivity.

5. Discuss the transformation of traditional communication patterns due to the

influence of social media. Provide examples of how people use social media for
communication and collaboration.

As communication and information travel faster and faster, the world seems to get smaller
and smaller. As a result, this changes how the world communicates, especially with today’s
obsession with social media networks.
Before social media, we were extremely limited in our means to interact with others and we
were limited largely to the people that we knew in-person. There were things we (those my
age and older) had to deal with that millennials do not have to – your significant other’s
parent answering the phone when you called, waiting for a letter in the mail, waiting a week
to get your pictures that you sent off to be developed, and so on.
The internet and social media has drastically changed the way people all over the world
interact and communicate.
One of the biggest changes in the way that we interact, due to social media networks, is
the sheer number of people that we can interact with.
Because of social media networks, we are now able to interact with thousands of people all
over the world – this is why we see people who have thousands of Facebook friends or tens
of thousands of Twitter followers. Without social media, that would be impossible. Social
media networks allow us the opportunity to share opinions with a far wider audience.
Another big change that has occurred is that there is now no filter on the way we speak.
In the past, unless you spoke to people directly, you had no way to get your message across
regardless of your freedom of speech. Now we can use social media to get our messages out
to thousands or even millions of people uncensored.
Two Examples:
Social media has also changed the way that we interact, mainly the way we have lost some
of our social skills. Some people are completely incapable of carrying on a normal
conversation or interacting with people in person because of the dependency of social media.
Social networks are becoming one of the dominant ways we communicate. Snapchat or
Instagram, anyone?? People are more obsessed with checking their smartphone every 2
minutes than engaging in meaningful conversation with their child or spouse. Social media
and technology are double-edged swords. It’s awesome to have and can really help us, but it
also distracts us to the point of being blind and deaf to everything else going on.

6. What methods and metrics are commonly used to measure social networks? Why is
measuring network properties like centrality and density important?

Examples of common methods of measuring "centrality" include betweenness centrality,

closeness centrality, eigenvector centrality, alpha centrality, and degree centrality. Density:
The proportion of direct ties in a network relative to the total number possible.
Centrality is a general term that relates to measures of a node’s position in the network. There
are many such centrality measures, and it can be a daunting task to wade through all of the
different ways to measure a node’s importance in the network. Here, we will introduce just a
few examples.

4.1.1 Degree and Strength

Let’s start with the most straight-forward centrality metric: degree centrality. Degree
centrality is simply the number of edges connected to a given node. In a social network, this
might mean the number of friends an individual has. We can calculate degree centrality with
a simple function:

degree(g)

## 23820 23726 23831 23763 23772 23770 23771 23777 23774 23860 23779 23773

## 4 4 4 4 6 8 10 7 8 9 4 11

## 23862 23857 23871 23853 23732 23734 23756 23759 23768 23758 23781 23815

## 11 2 3 4 3 1 6 6 6 7 4 4

## 23809

## 4

Let’s visualize what this means by varying the node sizes proportional to degree centrality.

set.seed(10)

de=igraph::degree(g)

plot(g, vertex.label="", vertex.color="gold", edge.color="slateblue", vertex.size=de*2,

edge.width=E(g)$weight*5)
In weighted networks, we can also node strength, which is the sum of the weights of edges
connected to the node. Let’s calculate node strength and plot the node sizes as proportional to
these values.

set.seed(10)

st=graph.strength(g)

plot(g, vertex.label="", vertex.color="gold", edge.color="slateblue", edge.width=E(g)

$weight*5, vertex.size=st*5)
Compare the relative node sizes when plotting by degree vs. strength. What differences do
you notice?

4.1.2 Betweenness

Let’s now do the same for betweenness centrality, which is defined as the number of
geodesic paths (shortest paths) that go through a given node. Nodes with high betweenness
might be influential in a network if, for example, they capture the most amount of
information flowing through the network because the information tends to flow through
them. Here, we use the normalized version of betweenness.

be=betweenness(g, normalized=T)

plot(g, vertex.label="", vertex.color="gold", edge.color="slateblue", vertex.size=be*50,

edge.width=E(g)$weight*5)
You can see that there are three nodes that have qualitatively higher betweenness values than
all other nodes in the network. One way to interpret this is that these are nodes that tend to act
as “bridges” between different clusters of nodes in the network (but of course, this is only
sample data).

What does this say about the importance of these nodes? Well, that depends on the network
and the questions–in particular how you might quantify ‘importance’ in your network.

Here’s a short list of some commonly-used centrality measures:

Centrality
Measure Function Description

degree degree() Number of edges connected to node

strength graph.strength() Sum of edge weights connected to a node (aka weighted degree)

betweenness betweenness() Number of geodesic paths that go through a given node

closeness closeness() Number of steps required to access every other node from a given node

eigenvector eigen_centrality() Values of the first eigenvector of the graph adjacency matrix. The value
Centrality
Measure Function Description

centrality for vertices that are connected to many other vertices that are, in turn, c
many others, etc.

4.1.3 Assembling a dataset of node-level measures

So now we know the basics of how to get centrality measures. For data analysis, we will
likely want to measure and compare measures of node centrality with other traits. This will
require putting together a dataframe that combines vertex attributes and centrality measures.

Let’s say we want to assemble a dataset of node centrality for our sparrow network. Let’s use
the three centrality measures we already introduced:

names=V(g)$name

de=degree(g)

st=graph.strength(g)

be=betweenness(g, normalized=T)

#assemble dataset

d=data.frame(node.name=names, degree=de, strength=st, betweenness=be)

head(d) #display first 6 lines of data

## node.name degree strength betweenness

## 23820 23820 4 3.333333 0.0000000

## 23726 23726 4 3.333333 0.0000000

## 23831 23831 4 3.333333 0.0000000

## 23763 23763 4 3.333333 0.0000000

## 23772 23772 6 1.333333 0.1123188

## 23770 23770 8 2.683333 0.0000000

Let’s plot the relationship between degree and strength

plot(strength~degree, data=d)

Obviously, these are correlated, since strength is simply the weighted version of degree.

How about the relationship between betweenness and strength?

plot(betweenness~strength, data=d)
These are not well correlated, since they describe something different…

4.2 Network-level measures

4.2.1 Size and density

Let’s start by getting some basic information for the network, such as the number of nodes
and edges. There are a couple of functions to help you extract this information without having
to look it up in the “object summary” (e.g., summary(g)). Using these functions, you can
store this information as separate objects, e.g., n for # nodes and m for # edges.

n=vcount(g)

m=ecount(g)

## [1] 25

## [1] 70

Since we now have the network size and the number of edges, we can calculate the
density of the network. The definition of network density is:

density = [# edges that exist] / [# edges that are possible]

In an undirected network with no loops, the number of edges that are possible is exactly the
number of dyads that exist in the network. In turn, the number of dyads
is n(n−1)2�(�−1)2 where n = number of nodes. Withthis information, we can calculate the
density with the following:

dyads=n*(n-1)/2

density=m/dyads

density

## [1] 0.2333333

Of course, there is a pre-packaged function for calculating density, called edge_density():

edge_density(g)

## [1] 0.2333333

4.2.2 Components

When networks are ‘fully connected’, you can follow edges from any given vertex to all other
vertices in the network. Alternatively, networks can be composed of multiple components
that are not connected to each other, as with our sample network above. We can get this
information with a simple function (output not shown).

components(g)

## $membership

## 23820 23726 23831 23763 23772 23770 23771 23777 23774 23860 23779 23773

## 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

## 23862 23857 23871 23853 23732 23734 23756 23759 23768 23758 23781 23815

## 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

## 23809

## 2

##
## $csize

## [1] 5 20

##

## $no

## [1] 2

The output shows the node membership, component sizes, and number of components.

4.2.3 Degree distributions

Degree distribution—i.e., the statistical distribution of node degrees in a network—is a

common and often powerful way to describe a network. We will play around with this more
when we talk in depth about ‘random graphs’, but the specific degree distribution can help
distinguish networks with specific properties (e.g., ‘scale-free networks’).

We could simply look at the degree distribution as a histogram of degrees:

hist(degree(g), breaks=10, col="gray")

However, if we wanted to compare the degree distributions of different networks, it might be

more useful to plot the probability densities of each degree: i.e., what proportion of nodes has
degree = 1, degree = 2, etc. We can do this by using a pre-packaged function
called degree.distribution(). Try this out:

pk=degree.distribution(g)

plot(pk, pch=19)

4.2.4 Average path length & Diameter

In network jargon, a “path” is typically a shorthand for “geodesic path” or “shortest path”—
the fewest number of edges that you would have to go on to get from one node to another.
The average path length and the ‘diameter’ (maximum path length) can be useful measures of
the network. The average path length can be considered the average “degrees of separation”
between all pairs of nodes in the network, and the diameter is the maximum degree of
separation that exists in the network.

You can calculate path lengths with or without the edge weights (if using edge weights, you
often simply count up the weights as you go along the path). The igraph package includes a
convenient function for finding the shortest paths between every dyad in a network. Here,
makes sure you specify the algorithm = “unweighted” (output not shown):

paths=distances(g, algorithm="unweighted")
paths

This matrix gives us the geodesic path length between each pair of nodes in the network. We
can describe the network using some characteristics of the paths that exist in that network.
However, you will notice that this matrix contains a bunch of cells that are “Inf” (i.e.,
infinity). This is because the network is not connected, and you can’t calculate path lengths
between nodes in different components.

How should we measure the average path length & diameter of a network with multiple
components? There are two common solutions. First is to ignore pairs of nodes that are in
different components and only measure average lengths of the paths that exist. This solution
doesn’t really make sense for the diameter–the diameter of an unconnected network should
be infinity. The second solution is to measure each component separately. Let’s do each of
these in turn.

Option 1: To calculate the average path length while ignoring pairs of nodes that are in
different components, we can first replace the “Inf” with “NA” in the path length matrix.
Next, we want just the “upper triangle” or “lower triangle” of this matrix, which is lists all the
geodesic paths without duplicates.

7. .Describe the process of mapping social networks and the visual representations
used in Social Network Analysis, such as sociograms and network graphs.

Network Theory

We’ll start with a brief intro in network’s basic components: nodes and edges.
Example Network

Nodes (A,B,C,D,E in the example) are usually representing entities in the network, and can
hold self-properties (such as weight, size, position and any other attribute) and network-based
properties (such as Degree- number of neighbors or Cluster- a connected component the node
belongs to etc.).

Edges represent the connections between the nodes, and might hold properties as well (such as
weight representing the strength of the connection, direction in case of asymmetric relation or
time if applicable).

These two basic elements can describe multiple phenomena, such as social connections,
virtual routing network, physical electricity networks, roads network, biology relations
network and many other relationships.

Real-world networks

Real-world networks and in particular social networks have a unique structure which often
differs them from random mathematical networks:
Source: Huang, Chung-Yuan et al. “Influence of Local Information on Social Simulations in
Small-World Network Models.” J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul. 8 (2005)

 Small World phenomenon claims that real networks often have very short paths
(in terms of number of hops) between any connected network members. This
applies for real and virtual social networks (the six handshakes theory) and for
physical networks such as airports or electricity of web-traffic routings.
 Scale Free networks with power-law degree distribution have a skewed
population with a few highly-connected nodes (such as social-influences) and a
lot of loosely-connected nodes.
 Homophily is the tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar
others, which results in similar properties among neighbours.

Centrality Measures

Highly central nodes play a key role of a network, serving as hubs for different network
dynamics. However the definition and importance of centrality might differ from case to case,
and may refer to different centrality measures:

 Degree — the amount of neighbors of the node

 EigenVector / PageRank — iterative circles of neighbors
 Closeness — the level of closeness to all of the nodes
 Betweenness — the amount of short path going through the node
Illustration of various centrality measures. Source — Arroyo, D.. “Discovering Sets of Key
Players in Social Networks.” Computational Social Network Analysis (2010)

Different measures can be useful in different scenarios such web-ranking (page-rank), critical
points detection (betweenness), transportation hubs (closeness) and other applications.

Building a Network

Networks can be constructed from various datasets, as long as we’re able to describe the
relations between nodes. In the following example we’ll build and visualize the Eurovision
2018 votes network (based on official data) with Python networkx package.
We’ll read the data from excel file to a pandas dataframe to get a tabular representation of
the votes. Since each row represents all of the votes of each country, we’ll melt the dataset to
make sure that each row represents a single vote (edge) between two countries (nodes).

Then, we will build a directed graph using networkx from the edgelist we have as a pandas
dataframe. Finally, we’ll try the generic method to visualize, as shown in the code below:
Eurovision network loading from excel file

nx.draw_networkx(G) outcome on Eurovision 2018 votes network

Visualization

Unfortunately the built-in draw method results in a very incomprehensible figure. The method
tries to plot a highly connected graph, but with no useful “hints” it’s unable to make a lot of
sense from the data. We will enhance the figure by dividing and conquering different visual
aspects of the plot with a prior knowledge that we have about the entities:

 Position — each country is assigned according to its geo-position

 Style — each country is recognized by its flag and flag colors
 Size — the size of nodes and edges represents the amount of points

Finally, we’ll plot the network components in parts:

The new figure is a bit more readable, and giving us a brief overview of the votes. As a
general side-note, plotting networks is often hard and requires to perform thoughtful tradeoffs
between the amount of data presented and the communicated message. (You can try to explore
other network visualization tools such as Gephi , Pyvis or GraphChi).

Information Flow

Information diffusion process may resemble a viral spread of a disease, following contagious
dynamics of hopping from one individual to his social neighbors. Two popular basic models
are often used to describe the process:

Linear Threshold defines a threshold-based behavior, where the influence accumulates from
multiple neighbors of the node, which becomes activated only if the cumulative influence
passed a certain threshold. Such behavior is typical to movie recommendations, where a tip
from of one of your friends might eventually convince you to see a movie, after hearing a lot
about it.
Linear Threshold activation function. Source: The Independent Cascade and Linear
Threshold Models. P. Shakarian, A Bhatnagar, A Aleali, E Shaabani, R Guo — Diffusion in
Social Networks, 2015

In the Independent Cascade model, each of the node’s active neighbors has a probabilistic
and independent chance to activate the node. This resembles a viral virus spread, such as in
Covid-19, where each of the social interactions might trigger the infection.
8. Explore the concept of modeling social networks. How do mathematical and
computational models contribute to understanding network dynamics?

With the exponential growth of online social network services such as Facebook and Twitter,
social networks and social medias become more and more important, directly influencing
politics, economics, and our daily life. Mining big social networks aims to collect and
analyze web-scale social data to reveal patterns of individual and group behaviors. It is an
inherently interdisciplinary academic field which emerged from sociology, psychology,
statistics, and graph theory. In this article, I briefly survey recent progress on social network
mining with an emphasis on understanding the interactions among users in the large dynamic
social networks. I will start with some basic knowledge for social network analysis, including
methodologies and tools for macro-level, meso-level and microlevel social network analysis.
Then I will give an overall roadmap of social network mining. After that, I will describe
methodologies for modeling user behavior including state-of-the-art methods for learning
user profiles, and introduce recent progress on modeling dynamics of user behaviors using
deep learning. Then I will present models and algorithms for quantitative analysis on social
interactions including homophily and social influence.Finally, I will introduce network
structure model including social group formation, and network topology generation. We will
introduce recent developed network embedding algorithms for modeling social networks with
the embedding techniques. Finally, I will use several concrete examples from Alibaba, the
largest online shopping website in the world, and WeChat, the largest social messaging
service in China, to explain how online social networks influence our offline world.

9. Provide real-world applications of SNA, including its use in sociology,

marketing, and epidemiology.

The applications of such analysis include marketing influence maximization, fraud detection
or recommender systems. There are multiple tools and techniques that can be applied on
network datasets, but they need to be chosen wisely, taking into account the problem's and the
network's unique properties.

By representing data as networks, network analysts can identify patterns, relationships, and
even predict future behavior. Network analysis has a wide range of applications,
from understanding the spread of diseases to identifying key players in social networks.

Social network analysis has also been applied to understanding online behavior by
individuals, organizations, and between websites. Hyperlink analysis can be used to analyze
the connections between websites or webpages to examine how information flows as
individuals navigate the web.

10.Explain how insights from Social Network Analysis can inform decision-
making processes in various domains.
Network analysis can provide insights into the structure, dynamics, and performance of a
system to help you make better decisions in complex environments. This type of analysis can
identify the critical nodes and links that affect the system's outcomes, such as bottlenecks,
hubs, or bridges.

Individuals can use social networking to announce and discuss their interests and concerns
with others who may support or interact with them. Businesses can use social networking to
build a brand, sell products, grow a customer base, and strengthen customer relationships and
service