Social Network Analysis (352-0-20)

Instructors

Noshir Contractor

Meeting Info

Technological Institute L211: Thurs 3:30PM - 6:20PM

Overview of class

Digital technologies are transforming how we learn, organize, innovate, mobilize, trade, travel, date, and play. This course introduces "network thinking" to examine how our social networks enable and constrain our attitudes and behaviors, personally and professionally, as individuals and collectives. The course will discuss how social networks concepts, theories, and methods help us map, measure, understand, and leverage social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat), enterprise social media (e.g., Slack, Teams), recommender systems (e.g., Amazon, Netflix, Spotify), financial transaction networks (e.g., Venmo, PayPal, Zelle), sharing economy websites (e.g., Uber, Airbnb, Instacart, Upwork) and dating websites (e.g., Tinder, Grindr, Match, eHarmony). The course has no formal prerequisites but will be most beneficial to students who have had some quantitative training, such as an introductory statistics course, and experience with, or interest in learning, how to run basic (point and click, cut and paste) software to visualize and analyze networks. The primary goal of the course is not to do programming for social network analysis (SNA) but to interpret and gain actionable insights from the network analysis results.

Associated Classes

DIS - Frances Searle Building 1421: Fri 12:00PM - 12:50PM

DIS - Frances Searle Building 3417: Fri 3:00PM - 3:50PM