Workshops during the General Online Research 05 given by Pro. Dr. Chris Snijders

1.) title of the workshop:
Social network analysis and its application to Internet research
Prof. Dr. Chris Snijders (Eindhoven University of Technology)

2.) duration of the workshop:
90 minutes

3.)workshop fees:
40,- EUR (62,- CHF)/ 20,- EUR (31,- CHF)

4.) target groups:
Researchers / Ph. D. students with an interest in the application of social network analysis.

5.) Is the workshop prepared for an exclusively German language or an international audience?
international audience

6.) workshop language:
English

7.) Description of the content of the workshop:
The main claim of social network analysis is that the way in which people (or organizations) interact is not only determined by properties of and circumstances surrounding the person, but also by the way in which persons (or organizations) are connected to others. This general idea, that it is not so much who you are, but who you know, has a long history in social and behavioral sciences, but has recently received more and more attention. One reason for this is that the rise of the Internet makes the importance of “ties between actors” more prominent. For instance, whereas receiving help or information used to be a matter of having a supportive family or neighborhood, this has now become much more a question of being able to use the right on-line means. A second reason for the rising interest in effects of (and on) social networks is that proper analysis of such data are a bit more difficult than is usual, and software that can deal with such analyses has only become available in the past couple of years. The workshop will cover the general idea of social networks in more detail. Which kinds of questions can one answer using social network analysis? And: how should one go about answering these questions?

8.) goals of the workshop:
Getting acquainted with the basics of social network analysis, and its application in Internet research.
9.) necessary previous knowledge:

No specialized knowledge is necessary. The focus is on research applications more than on business applications. Some background in quantitative analysis is useful to appreciate the flow of the argument (though no fancy statistics will be covered in the workshop).
10.) literature that has to be read for participation:

11.) additional literature
Will be supplied or referred to during the workshop.

12.) information about the workshop organizer:
Chris Snijders is professor of Sociology at the Department of Technology and Policy of the Eindhoven University of Technology. His research interests include trust and cooperation problems (between persons as well as organizations), reputation, decision support systems, the Internet and its effects on daily interaction, methodology, and statistics.