Social Network Analysis on Coursera

Jimmy Wu
Thiswasacourseaboutthevariousplacesinnatureweencountergraphnetworks,andhowtousean
algorithmicapproachtomakemodelsofthesephysicalanddigitalsystems.

Thefundamentalsofthecourse:whatarethedifferentwayswecanrepresentgraphsinmachinereadable
format,andhowcanweprogrammaticallymanipulatethesegraphs?Thecoursecoveredmatrix
representationandGraphModellingLanguage(GML)whichstoresalistofnodesandalistofedges.We
werealsointroducedtoabunchofusefulsoftwaretools.Wedidn'tgetitallatonceinthebeginning.
Throughoutthecourse,I'veusedGephi,anallpurposegraphvisualizerthatcancalculateallsortsofgraph
properties,NetworkX,aPythongraphlibrarywithalotofflexibility,andNetlogo,avisualizationpackage
whichcangeneratevariousgraphtopologiesandrunsimulationsonthem.

Afterthefundamentals,wegotanintroductiontorandomgraphs,tohelpusbuildintuitionforrecognizing
whydifferentnetworksmightbehavedifferentlyfromoneanother.Arandomgraphisbasicallyagraph
generatedbyarandomprocess.Forexample,youcouldspecifyanumberofnodes,andforeachpairof
nodes,youconnectthemwithanedgewithprobabilityp.ThisistheErdosRenyirandomgraph,the
simplesttoconceptuallygrasp.

OncewewereusedtotheideaofErdosRenyi,webeganlookingatgraphpropertiessuchasdegree
distribution,the"centrality"ofanode(whichisusuallymeasuredinthreedifferentways).Weweregiventhe
mathematicaldefinitionstopropertieslike"modularity"(theextenttowhichasubgraphisdensely
connectedwithinitselfwithveryfewlinkscomingoutofit)butwealsousedthesoftwaretogainanintuition
forwhateachpropertylookslikeinpractice.

Thenwecoveredgraphsgeneratedbyotherrandomprocesses.WelookedattheWattsStrogatzmodel
whichgeneratesagraphthatresemblessocialnetworks.Thesekindsofnetworkshavealowaveragepath
lengthbetweenanytwonodes.Thisiscalledthe"smallworld"effect,exemplifiedintherealworldbythe
factthatyouareprobablyconnectedtoanyotherhumanintheU.S.bysixdegreesofseparationorless.
WealsolookedattheBarabasiAlbertmodelwhichgeneratesagraphby"preferentialattachment",where
nodesofhighdegreearemorelikelytobeconnectedtoothernodesofhighdegree,andviceversafornodes
oflowdegree.Thiscausestheformationof"hubs"inthenetwork.

Withallofthesetypesofgraphs,weexaminedhowsusceptibletheyaretoattackfromagentswhoremove
edgesornodesbyadefinedalgorithm.Weexaminedhowdifferentlycolorednodescanspreadtheir
influencebycertainalgorithms.Lastly,itturnsoutthecourseinstructorhaslotsofindustryconnections,so
wegottowatchafewtalkswithothersinthefield,suchasresearchersatLinkedInandGoogle.

IwastakingacourseatOlinCollegecalled"IntrotoRandomGraphs"(taughtbyRehanaPatel)whileIwas
goingthroughthisMOOCandIthinkthatRehanascoursewascrucialtomycurrentlevelofunderstanding.
TheMOOCwasmosteffectiveinitsprogrammingassignments,whichallowedmetogetahandsonfeel
forhowgraphsworked.Themultiplechoiceassignmentsweremoreaboutdiggingforinformationandless
aboutbuildingmathematicalintuition,butIdidenoughofthatintheOlinclasstofeelconfidentaboutmy
understanding.Inclosing,thisMOOCisagreatexposuretoadeeptopic.