Class 4 reading

Q1. Describe the three types of networks and give an example.

Three network types are
1. Full, partial, and Egocentric networks: Egocentric networks reveal
connections that are linked to one particular individual. For eg. my Linkedin
network. Full network in this context is all people on Linkedin and the
connections between them. Partial network would refer to a subsection of full
network. For eg. group of people in Linkedin who are or have been employed
with an organization.
2. Unimodal, Multimodal, Affiliation networks: Unimodal networks include
only one type of vertex (say individuals). So a unimodal network will show
connections between individuals. A multimodal network includes connections
between many different types of vertices such as individuals, companies they
work for, city in which they reside, interests etc. Affiliation network is a
bimodal network which is a type of multimodal network. This type of network
includes only two types of vertices for eg. individuals and sports they like.
This reveals affiliation of people with sports. So no two individuals are directly
connected to each other and no two sports are directly connected to each
other. This bimodal network can be separated in two unimodal networks a)
network between individuals (where two people are connected because they
both play a sport together); b) affiliation to affiliation network (where a pair of
sports will be connected if many people play both sports).
3. Multiplex networks: These networks reveal the type of connection between
individuals. For eg. a group of people may be connected because they
exchange work emails and tag each other on facebook. In this case there will
be two types of connections [a) formal email relationship; b) informal
relationship through tags].
Q2. What is network density?
Network density is a metric that reveals interconnectedness between different
vertices in a network. As the reading mentions, this calculated as count of the
number of relationships observed to be present in a network divided by the total
number of possible relationships that could be present.
Q3. What is betweenness centrality?
Betweenness centrality measures how often a particular vertex is on the shortest
path between two other vertices. In crude terms, it identifies who is the broker in
a network.

Source: Analyzing social media networks with Nodexl Derek L. Hansen, Ben
Shneiderman, Marc A. Smith