The goal of this workshop is to lower the barriers of using geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial mapping in social network analysis, and to explain what is possible with GIS and mapping in SNA.
Participants will learn to put social networks on maps and answer basic questions such as: Do nodes with high closeness centrality cluster together? Do different communities overlap in geographic space? Which places have mostly local or distant ties? Which nodes have the closest or most distant connections? How many nodes are in a certain part of the study area? Which nodes are spatial outliers? Which nodes are nearby but very disconnected? Which edges cross administrative units or natural features?
We will use a free, open-source, web-based tool called the Social Network Mapping Analysis (SNoMaN) for exploratory spatial data visualization (ESDA) in research and classroom use.
Participants will explore case studies of a networks of social impact organizations, GitHub collaborations, a U.S. Congressional network of vote agreements, spatial actor-movie networks, examples in published literature, and other examples of geographic node-edge structures. They will learn to plot nodes and edges on a map, filter by geographic selection, and stylize the map based on factors of interest such as node degree, edge distance, node type, cluster, etc. They will learn how to use cutting-edge visualization methods such as cluster-cluster plots, centrality-centrality plots, route factor diagrams, and perform a spatial cluster detection of network communities. They will also explore newly published optimization-based statistics such as k-fulfillment, and local and global network flattening ratios, as well as geo-based methods such as average nearest neighbor (ANN) clustering and spatial modularity detection analysis.
Participants will interactively compute and visualize spatial social network metrics, describe spatial distributions, explore associations, and learn to detect anomalies.
SECTIONS OF THE WORKSHOP
Introduction and demonstration: We will introduce basic concepts behind mapping a social network (e.g., how to pin your nodes to a location). Then we will do a demonstration/tutorial on the Social Network Mapping Analysis (SNoMaN) software and its functionality.
Hands-on guided session: This will be a hands-on guided analysis with directions, where participants can navigate the software to generate insights. We will encourage participants to pair up or work in small groups. The leader will assist participants and encourage interaction between pairs of participants.
Open exploration: Participants will get help formatting and exploring their own social network data, or use a built in dataset, with the SNoMaN tool.
Open mic session: During this session, participants will be invited to show the insights they derived about their own spatial social network data or their own exploration.
Closing thoughts: Participants can share thoughts or ideas with the group and how they may incorporate geographic space and GIS into their social network analysis in the future.
No experience or preparation necessary. This workshop is suitable for geo-beginners. We encourage participants to bring a laptop to this workshop to get the most out of the hands-on activities.
