Social network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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`Social network
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`A social network is a social structure made of nodes which are generally individuals or organizations. It
`indicates the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual
`acquaintance to close familial bonds. The term was first coined in 1954 by J. A. Barnes (in: Class and
`Committees in a Norwegian Island Parish, "Human Relations"). The maximum size of social networks
`tends to be around 150 people (Dunbar's number) and the average size around 124 (Hill and Dunbar,
`2002).
`The International Network for Social Network Analysis is the professional association of social network
`analysis. Started in 1977 by Barry Wellman at the University of Toronto, it now has more than 800
`.
`members and is headed by William Richards (Simon Fraser University) [1]
`Social network analysis (related to network theory) has emerged as a key technique in modern
`sociology, anthropology, geography, social psychology, information science and organizational studies, as
`well as a popular topic of speculation and study. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that
`social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in
`determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals
`succeed in achieving their goals.
`Social networking also refers to a category of Internet applications to help connect friends, business
`partners, or other individuals together using a variety of tools. These applications, known as online social
`.
`networks are becoming increasingly popular[2]
`
`Contents
`1 Introduction to social networks
`2 Applications of social network theory
`2.1 Applications in social science
`2.2 Popular applications
`2.3 Degrees of Separation and the Global Social Network
`2.4 Internet social networks
`2.5 Quantities in Social Network Analysis
`3 See also
`4 References
`
`[edit] Introduction to social networks
`
`Social network theory views social
`relationships in terms of nodes and ties.
`Nodes are the individual actors within the
`networks, and ties are the relationships
`between the actors. There can be many
`kinds of ties between the nodes. In its most
`simple form, a social network is a map of
`all of the relevant ties between the nodes
`being studied. The network can also be
`used to determine the social capital of
`individual actors. These concepts are often
`
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`Social network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
`
` All
`November 2006.
`text is available under the
`terms of the GNU Free
`Documentation License.
`(See Copyrights for
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`
`An example of a social network diagram
`
`displayed in a social network diagram,
`where nodes are the points and ties are the
`lines.
`The shape of the social network helps determine a network's usefulness to its individuals. Smaller, tighter
`networks can be less useful to their members than networks with lots of loose connections (weak ties) to
`individuals outside the main network. More "open" networks, with many weak ties and social connections,
`are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with
`many redundant ties. In other words, a group of friends who only do things with each other already share
`the same knowledge and opportunities. A group of individuals with connections to other social worlds is
`likely to have access to a wider range of information. It is better for individual success to have connections
`to a variety of networks rather than many connections within a single network. Similarly, individuals can
`exercise influence or act as brokers within their social networks by bridging two networks that are not
`directly linked (called filling structural holes).
`The power of social network theory stems from its difference from traditional sociological studies, which
`assume that it is the attributes of individual actors -- whether they are friendly or unfriendly, smart or
`dumb, etc. -- that matter. Social network theory produces an alternate view, where the attributes of
`individuals are less important than their relationships and ties with other actors within the network. This
`approach has turned out to be useful for explaining many real-world phenomena, but leaves less room for
`individual agency, the ability for individuals to influence their success, because so much of it rests within
`the structure of their network.
`Social networks have also been used to examine how companies interact with each other, characterizing
`the many informal connections that link executives together, as well as associations and connections
`between individual employees at different companies. These networks provide ways for companies to
` is a
`gather information, deter competition, and even collude in setting prices or policies. Netwiki
`scientific wiki devoted to network theory, which uses tools from subjects such as graph theory, statistical
`mechanics, and dynamical systems to study real-world networks in the social sciences, technology,
`biology, etc.
`
`[edit] Applications of social network theory
`
`[edit] Applications in social science
`Social network theory in the social sciences began with the urbanization studies of the "Manchester
`School" (centered around Max Gluckman), done mainly in Zambia during the 1960s. It was followed up
`with the field of sociometry, an attempt to quantify social relationships. Scholars such as Mark Granovetter
`expanded the use of social networks, and they are now used to help explain many different real-life
`phenomena in the social sciences. Power within organizations, for example, has been found to come
`more from the degree to which an individual within a network is at the center of many relationships than
`actual job title. Social networks also play a key role in hiring, in business success for firms, and in job
`performance.
`Social network theory is an extremely active field within academia. The International Network for Social
`Network Analysis
` is an academic association of social network analysts. Many social network tools for
`scholarly work are available online (like "UCINet"
` or the "network"
` package in "R"
`) and are
`relatively easy to use to present graphical images of networks.
`Diffusion of innovations theory explores social networks and their role in influencing the spread of new
`ideas and practices. Change agents and opinion leaders often play major roles in spurring the adoption of
`innovations, although factors inherent to the innovations also play a role.
`Socio-technical systems is loosely linked to social network analysis, and looks at relations among
`individuals, institutions, objects and technologies.
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`[edit] Popular applications
`The so-called rule of 150, states that the size of a genuine social network is limited to about 150
`members (sometimes called Dunbar's number). The rule arises from cross-cultural studies in sociology
`and especially anthropology of the maximum size of a village (in modern parlance most reasonably
`understood as an ecovillage). It is theorized in evolutionary psychology that the number may be some
`kind of limit of average human ability to recognize members and track emotional facts about all members
`of a group. However, it may be due to economics and the need to track "free riders", as it may be easier in
`larger groups to take advantage of the benefits of living in a community without contributing to those
`benefits.
`[edit] Degrees of Separation and the Global Social Network
`The small world phenomenon is the hypothesis that the chain of social acquaintances required to connect
`one arbitrary person to another arbitrary person anywhere in the world is generally short. The concept
`gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of separation after a 1967 small world experiment by
`psychologist Stanley Milgram which found that, if two random US citizens could be connected, then they
`were connected by at most, six acquaintances at any given time (the vast majority of pairs in this study
`could not actually be connected). Current internet experiments continue to explore this phenomenon,
` and Columbia's Small World Project
`. As of
`including the Ohio State Electronic Small World Project
`2005, these experiments confirm that about five to seven degrees of separation are sufficient for
`connecting any two people through the internet.
`[edit] Internet social networks
`Main article: Social network service
`See also: List of social networking websites, Motivations for contributing to online communities
`The first social networking website was Classmates.com, which began in 1995. Company of Friends, the
`online network of Fast Company, the pre-eminent "new economy" business magazine, launched shortly
`after, in 1997 and introduced business networking to the internet. Other sites followed, including
`SixDegrees.com, which began in 1997, Epinions which introduced the circle of trust in 1999, followed by
`European equivalents Ciao.com, Dooyoo and ToLuna. It was not until 2001 that websites using the Circle
`of Friends online social networks started appearing. This form of social networking, widely used in virtual
`communities, became particularly popular in 2002 and flourished with the advent of a website called
`Friendster. There are over 200 social networking sites. The popularity of these sites rapidly grew, and by
` Google has a social network called
`2005 MySpace was getting more page views than Google. [3]
`orkut, launched in 2004. Social networking began to be seen as a component of internet strategy at
`around the same time: in March 2005 Yahoo launched Yahoo! 360°, their entry into the field, and in July
`.
`2005 News Corporation bought MySpace. [4]
`In these communities, an initial set of founders sends out messages inviting members of their own
`personal networks to join the site. New members repeat the process, growing the total number of
`members and links in the network. Sites then offer features such as automatic address book updates,
`viewable profiles, the ability to form new links through "introduction services," and other forms of online
`social connections. Social networks can also be organized around business connections, as in the case of
`LinkedIn.
`Blended networking is an approach to social networking that combines both offline elements (face-to-face
`events) and online elements. MySpace, for example, builds on independent music and party scenes, and
`Facebook mirrors a college community. The newest social networks on the Internet are becoming more
`focused on niches such as art, tennis, football (soccer), golf, cars, dog owners, and even cosmetic
`surgery. See also Social computing.
`Most of the social networks on the internet are public, allowing anyone to join. Organizations, such as
`large companies, also have access to private social networking applications, known as Enterprise
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`Relationship Management. They install these applications on their own servers and enable employees to
`share their networks of contacts and relationships to outside people and companies.
`A recent development of social network is the integration of marketplace element in it, known as the
`Social Marketplace
`
`[edit] Quantities in Social Network Analysis
`Betweenness
`Degree an individual lies between other individuals in the network; the extent to which a node is
`directly connected only to those other nodes that are not directly connected to each other; an
`intermediary; liaisons; bridges. Therefore, it's the number of people who a person is connected to
`indirectly through their direct links. See also Betweenness
`Centrality Closeness
`The degree an individual is near all other individuals in a network (directly or indirectly). It reflects the
`ability to access information through the "grapevine" of network members. Thus, closeness is the
`inverse of the sum of the shortest distances between each individual and every other person in the
`network. See also Closeness
`Centrality Degree
`The count of the number of ties to other actors in the network. See also degree (graph theory)
`Centrality Eigenvector
`Eigenvector centrality is a measure of the importance of a node in a network. It assigns relative scores
`to all nodes in the network based on the principle that connections to nodes having a high score
`contribute more to the score of the node in question.
`Centralization
`The difference between the n of links for each node divided by maximum possible sum of differences.
`A centralized network will have much of its links dispersed around one or a few nodes, while a
`decentralized network is one in which there is little variation between the n of links each node
`possesses
`Clustering Coefficient
`The clustering coefficient is a measure of the likelihood that two associates of a node are associates
`themselves. A higher clustering coefficient indicates a greater 'cliquishness'.
`Cohesion
`Refers to the degree to which actors are connected directly to each other by cohesive bonds. Groups
`are identified as ‘cliques’ if every actor is directly tied to every other actor, ‘social circles’ if there is less
`stringency of direct contact, which is imprecise, or as structurally cohesive blocks if precision is
`wanted.
`Constraint
`Contagion
`Density
`Individual-level density is the degree a respondent's ties know one another/ proportion of ties among
`an individual's nominees. Network or global-level density is the proportion of ties in a network relative
`to the total number possible (sparse versus dense networks).
`Integration
`Path Length
`The distances between pairs of nodes in the network. Average path-length is the average of these
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`distances between all pairs of nodes.
`Radiality
`Degree an individual’s network reaches out into the network and provides novel information and
`influence
`Reach
`The degree any member of a network can reach other members of the network. See also reach.
`Structural Equivalence
`Refers to the extent to which actors have a common set of linkages to other actors in the system. The
`actors don’t need to have any ties to each other to be structurally equivalent.
`Structural Hole
`Static holes that can be strategically filled by connecting one or more links to link together other points.
`Linked to ideas of social capital: if you link to two people who are not linked you can control their
`communication.
`
`[edit] See also
`
`Augmented Social Network (Links people, organizations and concepts)
`Actor Network Theory
`Knowledge management
`Value network
`Community of Practice
`Social Web
`Network analysis
`Six degrees of separation
`Small world phenomenon
`Social networking service
`Social Networking Software (SNS)
`Mobile social network
`INSNA
`Social Pyramid
`Motivations for Contributing to Online Communities
`Sexual network
`Social contract
`Social safety net
`Socio-technical systems
`Virtual community
`Global brain (An emerging intelligent network)
`MoSoSo (Mobile Social Software)
`YASNS (Yet Another Social Networking Service)
`FOAF (Friend of a Friend)
`Mathematical Sociology
`Virtual organization
`
`[edit] References
`
`Freeman, L.C. (2004) The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of
`Science. Vancouver: Empirical Press.
`Hill, R. and Dunbar, R. 2002. "Social Network Size in Humans." Human Nature, Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 53-
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`72.[5]
`Scott, J. (2000). Social Network Analysis: A Handbook 2nd Ed. Newberry Park, CA: Sage.
`Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social Networks Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge:
`Cambridge University Press.
`Wellman, B. and Berkowitz, S.D. (1988). Social Structures: A Network Approach. Cambridge:
`Cambridge University Press.
`
`Categories: Social networks | Online social networking | Networks | Systems | Systems theory | Self-
`organization | Community building | Determinants of health | Sociology
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