Social Network Analysis (SNA)

Introduction to complex networks

Grau en Ciència de Dades | Escola Tècnica Superior d’Informàtica | Universitat Politècnica de València
 Sources

●
Albert László Barabási: Network Science course, Cambridge
University Press, 2016.
– Chapter 01, Chapter 02
●
Carlos Castillo: Network Science course, Universitat Pompeu
Fabra, 2021

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 Contents
1. Complex systems, networks and social networks
2. Examples of networks
3. History of network science
4. Characteristics, impact and applications of
network science
5. Bibliography on network science
6. Datasets repositories

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

 Wikipedia definition
●
Network science is an academic field which studies
complex networks such as
– telecommunication networks, computer networks,
biological networks, cognitive and semantic networks,
and social networks
●
considering
– distinct elements or actors represented by nodes
– the connections between the elements as links

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex 4

networks
STRUCTURE OF AN ORGANIZATION

: departments
: consultants
www.orgnet.com
: external experts Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex 5
networks
 Complex systems

●
Many interconnected parts
of the same or related nature
●
Complicated arrangement
of connections
●
Emerging properties can shed
light on its behavior

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 Behind every complex system
there is a complex network
●
Connections between neurons in the brain
●
Interactions between genes and proteins
●
Infrastructure of telecommunications and electricity
●
Commerce/trade networks
●
Family/friendship ties in human and non-human
animals
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
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 Social networks are complex networks
●
Social network analysis
Study of the empirical structure of social relations and
associations that may be expressed in network form
●
It encompasses many disciplines
sociology anthropology human geography history
social psychology political science biology demography
economics communication science organizational studies
●
Theory and methods used for complex networks are fully
applicable to social networks
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
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 Examples of social structures

Knowlege networks Chains of affection

Commerce and industry Working relationships
Political structures Socialization organizations
Art networks Human collaborations
Kinship Desease dissemination
Social media networks Etc., etc., etc.

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

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 Internet and the social networks
●
Internet emerged as a huge scenario for information exchange
✔
Social media have showed great impact in social relationships
✔
The WWW is essential in our day-to-day lives
✔
E-commerce is also a well established tool for business
●
Many social network studies are nowadays focused on analytics
of individuals’ behavior in Internet
✔
In a popular register, networks of individuals affiliated to a social
media are also known social networks.
●
Goal: to identify local and global patterns, locate influential
entities, and examine network dynamics
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Examples of networks

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

BUSINESS TIES IN US BIOTECH-INDUSTRY

Nodes:
Companies
Investment
Pharma
Research Labs
Public
Biotechnology

Links:
http://ecclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/Movie
Collaborations
Financial
R&D 12
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
INTERNET ROUTING

13
HUMAN DISEASE NETWORK

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 Human brain: neurons ≃ 90 x 109

https://health.uconn.edu/cell-analysis-modeling/microscopy-facility-2/https://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0004006
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 Regions in the human brain

Network representation of brain connectivity. The thickness of the lines represent the
strength of connection between different brain areas. Important 'hubs' are marked as circles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Network_representation_of_brain_connectivity.JPG 16/50
 Gene networks
Several types are used by scientists
Gene expression is the process by which
information from a gene is used in the
synthesis of a functional gene product that
enables to produce protein or non-coding
RNA, and ultimately affect the phenotype
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
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 Co-expression of genes
Gene co-expression analysis
is a data analysis technique
that helps identify groups
of genes with similar
expression patterns

|V|=500 in this plot

, Klein, U., Dalla-Favera, R., & Califano, A. (2005). Reverse engineering of regulatory networks in human B cells. Nature genetics, 37(4), 382.
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 Human
gen-disease
network

The gen LMNA is

associated with
Lypodistrophy and
Charcot-Marie Tooth
disease

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/21/8685 19/50
 Colors and sizes:
indegree
Moreno’s
sociograms

●
Early 1930s
●
Children in 2nd grade
●
Who would you like
to sit with?

http://www.martingrandjean.ch/social-network-analysis-visualization-morenos-sociograms-revisited/
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 Zachary’s
Karate Club

Karate club that

split into two
clubs
(led by 1 and 34)

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

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 Dolphins in a fjord in New Zealand
●
Research following a
school of dolphins in
the wild (2003)
●
Observing dolphins
swimming together
●
Found long-lasting
associations
●
Research has been
repeated with other
non-human animals
(e.g., sheep)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0651-y
I really like dolphins 22/50
 Chains of affection

●
Early 2000s
●
Adolescents in high
school
●
A “special romantic
relationship”

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Bearman, P. S., Moody, J., & Stovel, K. (2004). Chains of affection: The structure of adolescent romantic and sexual networks. American journal of sociology, 110(1), 44-91.
A “nonromantic sexual relationship” in the past 18 months

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Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
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 1,000
Somali
Users of
Facebook

https://kimoquaintance.com/2011/08/22/what-can-we-learn-about-somalis-from-their-facebook-networks/
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 400,000 Twitter Users

https://dhs.stanford.edu/gephi-workshop/twitter-network-gallery/
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 Exercise
●
Find examples of networks, just indicating:
– Name
– Number of nodes (approximately)
– Number of edges (approximately)

Answer in Nearpod Collaborate

https://nearpod.com/student/
Code to be given during class

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History of network science

History of network science

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

History of network science

Graph theory: 1735, Euler

Social Network Research: 1930s, Moreno

Communication networks/internet: 1960s

Ecological Networks: May, 1979.

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

History of network science

Number of cites

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

History of network science

The emergence of network maps:

Movie Actor Network, 1998;

World Wide Web, 1999.
C Elegans Neural Wiring diagram, 1990
Citation Network, 1998
Metabolic Network, 2000;
Protein-protein Interaction (PPI) network, 2001

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Characteristics, impact, and applications
of network science

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Characteristics of network science

Interdisciplinary and universality

The architecture of networks emerging in various domains of science,
nature, and technology, including social relationships, are more similar
to each other than one would have expected, a consequence of being
governed by the same organizing principles.

Empirical
In the real world, everywhere you look at is plenty of networks.
Network science is based on the observation of real networks.
Network analysis is data-driven.
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
Characteristics of network science

Quantitative and mathematical

Graph ans statistical tools allow to model and analyze complex
systems.

Computational
Algorithms help to compute large amount of data from networks
for analyzing and visualizing networks.

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Impact of network science

August 14, 2003: 9:29pm EDT | 20 hours before August 15, 2003: 9:14pm EDT | 7 hours after

Blackouts. Reality failures follow reproducible laws,

that can be quantified and even predicted using the tools of network science
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
Impact of network science

Keith Shepherd's "Sunday Best”. http://baseballart.com/2010/07/shades-of-greatness-a-story-that-needed-to-be-told/

The “Social Graph” behind Facebook

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
Impact of network science

https://itnews.iu.edu/articles/2014/complex-networks-researcher-at-iu-fighting-crime-with-mobile-phone-data.php
Impact of network science

https://theintercept.com/2018/08/16/chicago-police-misconduct-social-network/
Impact of network science

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Impact of network science

Vespignani - Virus spread simulation tree

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YstB9VWDUqE
Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
Impact of network
Applications science
of network science

✔
Drug design and disease treatments
✔
Brain study
✔
Pandemic follow up and forecast
✔
Routing design in Internet
✔
Intra- and inter-organization issues in society
✔
Financial and market dependencies among companies
✔
Social influencer detection and measurements
✔
Biologic very diverse applications
✔
etc., etc....

HELP to understand and forecast complex systems’ behavior

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks
Impact of network science

In this course we will learn

To identify networks and characterize them

To describe a network in formal terms
To visualize different networks
To calculate metrics and their usefulness
To operate with network algorithms and programming
To find important nodes and communities
To make discoveries or help others to make them

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Bibliography on network science

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

BOOKS

Handbook of Graphs and Networks: From the P. Csermely, Weak Links: The Universal Key to the
Genome to the Internet (Wiley-VCH, 2003). Stability of Networks and Complex Systems (The
Frontiers Collection) (Springer, 2006), rst edn.

S. N. Dorogovtsev and J. F. F. Mendes, Evolution M. Newman, A.-L. Barabasi, D. J. Watts, The Structure
of Networks: From Biological Nets to the Internet and Dynamics of Networks: (Princeton Studies in
and WWW (Oxford University Press, 2003). Complexity) (Princeton
University Press, 2006), rst edn.

L. L. F. Chung, Complex Graphs and Networks (CBMS

S. Goldsmith, W. D. Eggers, Governing by Regional Conference Series in Mathematics) (American
Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector Mathematical Society, 2006).
(Brookings Institution Press, 2004).

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

BOOKS

R. Pastor-Satorras, A. Vespignani, Evolution and

Structure of the Internet: A Statistical Physics T. G. Lewis, Network Science: Theory and Applications
Approach (Cambridge University Press, 2007), rst (Wiley, 2009).
edn.

F. Kopos, Biological Networks (Complex Systems E. Ben Naim, H. Frauenfelder, Z.Torotzai, Complex
and Interdisciplinary Science) (World Scientic Networks (Lecture Notes in Physics) (Springer, 2010),
Publishing Company, 2007), rst edn. rst edn.

B. H. Junker, F. Schreiber, Analysis of Biological M. O. Jackson, Social and Economic Networks

Networks (Wiley Series in Bioinformatics) (Wiley- (Princeton University Press, 2010).
Interscience, 2008).

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Datasets repositories

(there are many many more...)

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Datasets repositories

* Gephi (include links to other network data repositories)

https://github.com/gephi/gephi/wiki/Datasets

* Network Repository

http://networkrepository.com/

* Stanford Large Network Dataset Collection

http://snap.stanford.edu/data/

* UCI Network Data Repository

https://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/resources.php

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks

Datasets repositories

* AMiner Datasets for Social Network Analysis

https://aminer.org/data-sna

* Mark Newman’s Network Datasets

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/netdata/

* Barabasi course datasets

http://www.networksciencebook.com/translations/en/resources/data.html

* Carlos Castillo course datasets

https://github.com/chatox/networks-science-course/tree/master/practicum/data

Social Network Analysis (SNA): Introduction to complex networks