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Networks are everywhere: from social networks to the Web, from food webs to corporate alliances. This course introduces the basic concepts of network analysis and applies them, using software tools, to a variety of real-world networks. Students also model how networks grow and evolve and how processes such as information diffusion and coordination are affected by the structure of a social network.
learning objectives:
- empirically analyze real-world networks: Which nodes are central? Is there local structure?
- understand how networks form
- model processes on networks
grading scheme:
40% (4 homework assignments)
40% final
10% in class/online participation
10% student demo
reading:
PDFs of relevant book chapters and articles will be available on cTools.
software tools (free):
Pajek
Guess
NetLogo
guidelines:
students should bring laptops to class
problems sets are due wednesday evenings at 10pm
reading material should be read prior to lecture
If you're not in the honors program and would like to enroll in this course, please contact the instructor.
Can't wait for class to start? Experiment with some of the online demos.
| 9/8 |
network basics
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Pajek Ch1: Looking for social structure
MEJN sections 1-2
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| 9/10 |
centrality - individuals’ position in the network, intro to Pajek
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Pajek Ch. 6: Center and Periphery
Pajek Ch. 9 : prestige
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9/15
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visualization
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Wayne E. Baker and Robert R. Faulkner, The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry, American Sociological Review, Vol. 58, No. 6 (Dec, 1993)
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9/17
PS 1 due
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introduction to Guess
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GUESS documentation
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9/22
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network models: Erdos-Renyi and small world
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Watts & Strogatz, 'Collective Dynamics of Small World Networks', Nature, 1998
Travers and Milgram, 'An experimental study of the small world problem'
MEJN 6: The Small World Model |
9/24
PS 2 due
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diffusion
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Easley/Kleinberg Ch19: The Diffusion of Innovations
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9/29
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information networks |
Aral et al.
Lazer & Friedman
Davis
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10/1
PS 3 due |
network models: preferential attachment
robustness
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Barabasi and Albert, 'Emergence of scaling in random networks'
MEJN 7: Models of network growth
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10/6
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community structure |
Girvan & Newman: Community structure in social and biological networks, PNAS | June 11, 2002 | vol. 99 | no. 12 | 7821-7826
Easley/Kleinberg Ch3: Weak ties and triadic closure
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10/8
PS 4 due
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information retrieval and the web |
Easley/Kleinberg Ch 14: Link analysis and web search
Easley/Kleinberg Ch 13: The structure of the web
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| 10/13 |
student demos |
none |
10/15
take home final given out
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online communities
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none
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