Comparitive Study of SNA

7/31/2019 Comparitive Study of SNA

1/17

A comparison of Social

Network Analysis (SNA) toolsObjective

To know about Social Network Analysisand its utility

To know about tools available for SocialNetwork Analysis

Comparison and finding the best ofthose tools


2/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsWhat is Social Network Analysis (SNA)?

First let us understand what a social network is?

A social network is a social structure made up ofindividuals (or organizations) called "nodes",which are tied (connected) by one or more

specific types of interdependency, such asfriendship, kinship, common interest, financialexchange, dislike, sexual relationships, orrelationships of beliefs, knowledge orprestige.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structurehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdependencyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestigehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestigehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interdependencyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_structure


3/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsNow let us arrive at the definition of SNA..

Social network analysis (SNA) viewssocial relationships in terms of network theoryconsisting ofnodes and ties (also called edges,links, or connections). Nodes are the individualactors within the networks, and ties are the

relationships between the actors. The resultinggraph-based structures are often very complex.There can be many kinds of ties between thenodes (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationshiphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(computer_science)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(computer_science)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_relationship


4/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsIn a refined way, the definition goes as follows:

Network analysis is the study of social relations among a set ofactors. It is a field of study -- a set of phenomena or data whichwe seek to understand.

In the process of working in this field, network researchers havedeveloped a set of distinctive theoretical perspectives as well.Some of the hallmarks of these perspectives are:

focus on relationships between actors rather than attributes ofactorssense of interdependence: a molecular rather atomistic viewstructure affects substantive outcomesemergent effects


5/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsWhat is Social Network AnalysisSoftware?

SNA software facilitates quantitativeor qualitative analysis of social

networks by describing features of anetwork, either through numerical orvisual representation.


6/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsNetworks can consist any information fromproject teams, class rooms, legislatures,

memberships or networking websites likeTwitter or Facebook or even on the Internet.

Network features can be at the level ofindividual nodes, dyads, triads, ties/and oredges or the entire network.


7/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsSNA software generates the features from raw networkdata formatted in an edge list, adjacency list, oradjacency matrix (also called socio matrix) aftercombined with (individual/node level) attribute data.

Some SNA softwares can perform predictive analysis.This includes using network phenomena such as tie to

predict individual level of outcomes using individual-level phenomena to predict the network outcomes suchas the formation of tie/edge.


8/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsWhat does SNA software consists of???

Network Analysis software generally consists

of either packages based on GUIs or packagesbuilt for scripting/programming languages.

GUI packages are easier to learn, whilescripting tools are more powerful andextensible.


9/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsWidely used GUI packages are:

UCINET (for statistical analysis of Networks witheasy-to-use visualization capabilities)

Pajek (freeware with extensive documentation)

GUESS,ORA,Cryptoscape (which are having morerich and extensible features)


10/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsCommonly used and well documented scripting toolsused for networking analysis include the

Starnet suite of packages for R statisticalProgramming language.

Igraph has the packages for R and Python

programming languages

SNAP package for large scale network analysis in C++


11/17

Now let us look into the some of the tools individually and theirutility and usage:

Tool Name Input Format/

Output format

Platform andLicense

details

AutoMap (for NetworkText Analysis)

.txt Any platform (in Java) Its a text mining tool thatsupports the extraction ofrelational data from textfiles

C-IKNOW (for surveydesign, data collection andvisualization)

.DL, graphML/ .txt, .DL,graphML

Mac, Windows and LinuxOS(freeware)

Its a powerful web-basedsoftware tool for socialnetwork analysis

Commetrix (for dynamicnetwork visualization andanalysis)

Commetric files, directimport data formdatabases)/csv tables,graphs

Any System supportingJava (free trail basedsoftware)

Its a software frameworkand tool for dynamicnetwork analysis andvisualization

Cryptoscape (for Generalcomplex network dataintegration)

GraphML,XGMML, GMLand KGML/Cryptoscapesession(.cys), Graph MLetc

Any Open source systemsupporting Java

An open source platformfor complex network dataanalysis, integration


12/17



Output format

Platform andLicense

details

DyNet (for data analysis) .agf(proprietary),.net(pajek),.txt/ same as input format

Proprietary software(starting from 3000$/user)

DyNet SE is a innovativesoftware tool to analysepools of complex datahaving relations.

EveSim (EveSimulator) XML, Simcase/XML Any System supportingJava

The EveSimulatorprovides a simulationframework for biologicallyinspired P2P systems

GraphViz (graphvisualization software)

Graph viz(.dot)/.bmp,fig,.gd files

Linux, MaC, Windows(Open source)

Its a open source forgraph visualization framework. It has several main

graph layouts

Igraph (for analysis andvisualization for very largenetworks)

.txt, graphml, .net/.txt, .dot,

.net etcWindows, Linux, and Mac Igraph is a c Library for

the analysis of largenetworks. It includesimplementation of classicgraph theory problems

and analysis


13/17



Output format

Platform andLicense

details

iPoint (for analysis andvisualization of socialnetworks based on age,gender and location andsentiment)

Take any valid XML/XML Windows, Linux and Mac(commercial)

iPoint monitors andanalyzes consumergenerated media, the fullprivacy of author ismaintained whilecollecting data.

Java Universal NetworkGraph (JUNG) framework(for network and graphmanipulation)

Built-in support forGraphML, Pajek andsome text formats/assame as input

Any open source havingBSD license andsupporting java

JUNG is a java API andlibrary that provides acommon and extensiblelanguage for modeling,analysis and visualizationof networks

libSNA (for basic networkstatistics) .csv/.csv Any Open sourcesupporting python It is the premier opensource library forconducting SNA research,it is written in python

Network overviewdiscovery exploration for

excel (NodeXL)

Email,.csv(text), .xls,.xslt, .net(pajek)/same as

input

Windows XP/Vista,freeware(MS-PL)

NodeXL is a free andopen Excel 2007 add-in

and C#.net library fornetwork analysis


14/17



Output format

Platform andLicense

details

NetMiner (all-in-onesoftware for NetworkAnalysis andVisualization)

.xls, .csv, .dl(UCINET),

.dat/ same as inputMicrosoft Windows(commercial software)

NetMiner is a software toolfor exploratory analysisand visualization of largenetwork data

ORA (for Social NetworkAnalysis and NetworkVisualization)

DyNetML, .csv/same asinput

Windows (freeware fornon-commercial use)

Its a dynamic meta-network assessment andanalysis tool containinghundreds of socialnetwork and dynamicnetworks

Pajek (for analysis of largescale social networks)

.net, .paj,

.dat(UCINET)/xml and

same as input

Windows , Linux, Mac(freeware for non-

commercial use)

A widely used program fordrawing networks, Pajek

also has significantanalytic capabilities.

R (for social networkanalysis within RProgrammingenvironment)

R will read almost anydata format file/same asinput

Windows, Linux and Mac(Open Source)

R consists severalpacakages relevant forsocial network analysis italso includes igraph and

other network data


15/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsStill the list goes on..

Visual representations of social networks are

important to understand network data andconvey the result of interpretation of networkdata, With respect to visualization, networkanalysis tools are used to change the layout,color, size and other properties of networkrepresentation.


16/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsProblems with Network Analysis

The field of network analysis is conventionally criticized for being

too much methodological and too little theoretical. Critics say thatthere are few truly network theories of substantive phenomena.This is not a well-considered argument, however, because whenexamples of network theories are presented, critics say 'that's notreally a network theory'.

A real problem with network analysis in the past has been theinability to test hypotheses statistically, because the data are bytheir very nature autocorrelated, violating assumptions ofindependence (random sampling) built-in to most classicalstatistical tests.


17/17


Network Analysis (SNA) toolsProblems with Network Analysis

A continuing problem is the lack of sufficient computing resources tohandle large datasets. It is often a problem to bound a social network. If

we are looking at needle-sharing among drug users, we can artificiallybound the network at some arbitrary boundary, such as city orneighborhood, but this distorts the data. Yet we cannot let the networkget too large because we cannot process the data.

To conclude, for a complete network analysis to be done, the networkdata should be complete. Also each and every software has its distinctusage and utility. Since the data is available is large variety of formats acommon package or application may not be suitable, its dependent onthe way the data is extracted or captured from the source and maintainedin the format.

Comparitive Study of SNA

Documents

Transcript of Comparitive Study of SNA