Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World PDF
Preview Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World
ANALYZING SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS WITH NODEXL Insights from a Connected World ANALYZING SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS WITH NODEXL Insights from a Connected World SECOND EDITION Derek L. Hansen Ben Shneiderman Marc A. Smith Itai Himelboim Morgan Kaufmann is an imprint of Elsevier 50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions. 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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-12-817756-3 For information on all Morgan Kaufmann publications visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals Publisher: Katey Birtcher Acquisition Editor: Steve Merken Editorial Project Manager: Ali Afzal-Khan Production Project Manager: Punithavathy Govindaradjane Cover Designer: Miles Hitchen Typeset by SPi Global, India Dedication Derek: To Maren Hansen Itai: To Jonathan and Nadav Ben: To Jennifer Preece Marc: To my strong ties to Madeline, Eli, and Christine v About the Authors Derek L. Hansen (http://www.et.byu.edu/~dlh24/) computer-mediated collective action: the ways group is an associate professor of Information Technology dynamics change when they take place in and through & Cybersecurity at Brigham Young University. His re- social cyberspaces. Many “groups” in cyberspace pro- search and teaching focus on understanding and design- duce public goods and organize t hemselves in the form ing social technologies, tools, and games for the public of a commons (for related papers see http://connecte- good in areas ranging from education to citizen science daction.net/marc-smith). His goal is to visualize social to fitness to transcription of historical documents. He cyberspaces, mapping and measuring their structure, has received over $2 million in grants to help develop dynamics, and life cycles. He also oversees the Social and evaluate novel technical interventions, alternate Media Research Foundation (https://www.smrfoun- reality games, and educational simulations (called dation.org/), which is a nonprofit organization that Playable Case Studies) with highly talented faculty, stu- oversees the ongoing development of NodeXL Pro dents, and professionals from a variety of disciplines. He (https://nodexlgraphgallery.org/) and its use in re- completed his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s search and teaching. The Connected Action consulting School of Information where he was a National Science group (http://www.connectedaction.net) applies social Foundation-funded interdisciplinary STIET Fellow fo- science methods in general and social network analysis cused on understanding and designing effective online techniques in particular to enterprise and Internet social sociotechnical systems. media usage. He received a B.S. in International Area Ben Shneiderman (www.cs.umd.edu/~ben) is an Studies from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1988, emeritus distinguished university professor in the an M. Phil. in social theory from Cambridge University Department of Computer Science and founding direc- in 1990, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA in 2001. tor (1983–2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction He is a member of the Media-X research consortium at Laboratory (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil) at the University of Stanford University. Maryland. He was elected as a fellow of the Association Itai Himelboim is an associate professor at the for Computing (ACM), the American Association for University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the IEEE, and the and Mass Communication, Department of Advertising National Academy of Inventors. He received the ACM and Public Relations and a director of the SEE Suite—the SIGCHI lifetime achievement award and was elected as Social Media Engagement and Evaluation lab (http:// a member of National Academy of Engineering. He is seesuite.uga.edu). He completed his Ph.D. from the the lead author of Designing the user interface: Strategies University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and for effective human-computer interaction (6th ed., 2016). He Mass Communication, focusing on the intersection be- wrote Leonardo’s laptop: Human values and the new com- tween civil society and computer-mediated social net- puting technologies and the new ABCs of research: Achieving works. His research and teaching interests include social breakthrough collaborations. network analysis of large social media data related to Marc A. Smith is a sociologist specializing in the so- news, brands, politics, health, and international affairs. cial organization of online communities and computer- In his research, he examines the network structures mediated interaction. He leads the Connected Action that emerge when users interact on Twitter and other consulting group and lives and works in Silicon Valley, social media spaces, patterns of information diffusion, California. He is the coeditor, with Peter Kollock, of the emergence of network clusters as information echo Communities in cyberspace (Routledge), a collection of es- chambers, key information sources in these networks, as says exploring the ways identity, interaction, and social well as identifying key users and content that bridges order develop in online groups. His research focuses on these information silos. xi Contributors Md. Mahbub Or Rahman Bhuyan Department of Sociology Bryan M. Trude Department of Advertising & Public Rela- and Anthropology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United tions, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communica- States tion, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia Nina Cesare School of Public Health, Boston University, Howard T. Welser Department of Sociology and Anthropol- Boston, MA, United States ogy, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States Jen Golbeck College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States xiii Preface We live in the era of networks. Occasionally the aspi- Contributors to the foundation are distributed across rations of academic researchers are in harmony with the the United States, Europe, and Asia with links to others needs of software developers, entrepreneurs, and gov- around the world. Our members have created plugins ernment agency staffers. In our case, the authors brought and features for extending NodeXL, adding support for together complementary backgrounds in information language and content analysis, better visualizations, and studies, communications, computer science, and sociol- better reports and presentations. ogy, as well as a shared interest in the interdisciplinary NodeXL has continued to support the academic com- topics of human-computer interaction, network analysis, munity, who have used the tool to publish over 7000 social media, and information visualization. Together, articles citing NodeXL or the first version of this book. we have worked to build tools that broaden access to in- Scholars from dozens of disciplines ranging from com- sights into complex connected network structures. puter science to communications to digital humanities to Networks are a topic that is gaining interest from the history have used NodeXL to tell stories about the net- growing community of entrepreneurs who are coping works that underlie our society. They have also found with the success of social media commercial platforms NodeXL to be an invaluable tool in teaching social net- such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the equally work analysis to undergraduate and graduate students remarkable open source communities that produce valu- across the world. Its integration with the familiar Excel able resources such as Wikipedia. Social media is now spreadsheet program, built-in importers from social me- perceived of as a collection of complex networks which dia sites, and rich analysis and visualization features can be best understood by drawing on social science make it ideal for those starting to learn social network methods designed to help identify connections, influ- analysis. encers, and social roles. Meanwhile, NodeXL has transitioned from a pri- Tools for social media network analysis and visualiza- marily academic project into a viable commercial tool, tion have been emerging from many research groups and as companies have turned to NodeXL to understand startup companies. These pioneering network analysis how social media users are engaging with their brand, tools often require programming skills and knowledge of products, and competitors. There have been hundreds of technical network terminology, making it a challenge for thousands of downloads of NodeXL since its inception. those without programming skills to import and make Companies use NodeXL to identify thought leaders in sense of network data. Today measurements of networks new markets and recognize how they fit into the larger are a mature topic, but research questions remain on social media landscape. The ongoing success of NodeXL the best way to layout and cluster networks with algo- has allowed it to continue developing into an increas- rithms. Network innovation has expanded dramatically ingly sophisticated network and content analysis and vi- in the past decades, producing breakthroughs that ex- sualization tool that fills an important niche in the social panded the scale and level of insight into networks that network analysis landscape. are possible to capture. Similarly, strategies for filtering, The future of NodeXL looks bright, with a highly ac- visualizing, and decluttering networks have matured as tive research and development community that spans more users tackle a broader variety of problems with in- the globe, a growing number of users, and an excel- creasingly large networks. lent core team of developers. An increasing number of The authors have been fortunate to be part of a team YouTube videos, online tutorials, and supplemental ma- with unique skills that continue to develop the NodeXL terials are becoming available; though this book is by far tool. The project was originally funded by Microsoft the most comprehensive introduction to NodeXL avail- Research and for over 10 years it has been sponsored able. Updates continue to be pushed at least monthly, by the Social Media Research Foundation (http://smr- and it is spotlighted at numerous workshops and confer- foundation.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to ence presentations each year. New features and devel- the development of NodeXL and related tools. The SMR opments are designed to meet the needs of the NodeXL Foundation is focused on supporting scholarship related community members and questions or bugs are quickly to social media via tool building and research assistance. resolved when uncovered. xv xvi PREFACE The success of NodeXL has validated our initial goal actionable insights from social media analytics. of making social network analysis, especially of social Although we are pleased with what NodeXL users are media data, more accessible to the masses. Constant able to accomplish, we are humbled by the richness and feedback from researchers and practitioners using diversity of social media analytical possibilities. The op- NodeXL has helped us improve usability, envision portunities and challenges are substantial, which will new features, and raised our aspirations about what keep researchers and developers productively engaged we and our users could accomplish in terms of gaining for many years to come. Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the many people Sue Beckingham, Sheffield Hallym University who have made this document and the NodeXL proj- Steve Boland, Next in Non-Profits ect possible. First, the core members of the NodeXL Kirk D Borne, Booz Allen Hamilton design and development team include Harald Meier Katy Borner, Indiana University and Arber Ceni on whom we depend for their remark- Aras Bozkurt, Anadolu University able programming prowess, thoughtful discussions Marie Brugere, Social media expert about features, and always courteous help to us and Julian Chin, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign the NodeXL user community. In addition, Natasa Milic- Diane Cline, George Washington University Frayling from the University of Nottingham, Eduarda Noshir Contractor, Northwestern University Mendes Rodrigues from the UK Mobile Phone company James Cook, University of Maine, Augusta Giff Gaff, Cody Dunne at Northeastern University, Jana Rob Cross, University of Virginia Diesner at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Helen Darling, Sumfood and Jure Leskovec at Stanford University all have made Wayne deFremery, Sogang University significant contributions to the NodeXL project. We are Scott Dempwolf, University of Maryland grateful also to Adam Perer from IBM Research for his Daniel Erasmus, NewsConsole intellectual contributions to our grand adventure. We Randy Farmer, online community expert remain in debt to Tony Capone for his software develop- Liam Farrell, Author ment work in the initial years of NodeXL. Kyle Findlay, Kantar Analytics We also thank Emily Mason, Chad Doran, and Rachel Lise Getoor, University of California, Santa Cruz Collins, who collected datasets used in the book as part Scott Golder, Capital One of their coursework and came up with compelling anal- Ian Griffin, Executive Communications yses of them. Special thanks to Chris Wilson of Slate Jacob Groshek, Boston University Magazine for sharing the Senate 2007 voting data and Libby Hemphill, University of Michigan Jared Stewart for creating a comparable datasets for Bernie Hogan, Oxford University, Oxford Internet more recent years. Institute The students of several classes who were assigned Bill Johnston, Structure3C projects with NodeXL have been patient and forgiving David Kaplan, Global Investigative Journalism as we refined the rough edges. Many hundreds of thou- Network sands of people have downloaded NodeXL, and many Brian Keegan, University of Colorado have created research and business results using the John Kelly, Grafika tool. We appreciate the time and attention our users give Gohar Khan, Waikato University the tool and the project and hope they will continue to Leo Kim, Ars Praxia, Korea upgrade with us as the project grows. We are grateful Valdis Krebs, Orgnet to these and many other people for their efforts to make Cliff Lampe, University of Michigan NodeXL an easy and useful tool for understanding com- Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, University of Nebraska, plex networks. Omaha Ai Addyson-Zhang, Stockton University Graham Mackenzie, Scottish National Health Service Hayan Ajjan, Elon University Surgeon Julie Albright, University of Southern California Sorin Matei, Purdue University Wasim Ahmed, University of Northumbria Fil Menzcer, Indiana University Harith Alani, Open University Anne Merick, The Bravo Group Nasir Asar, Highpoint University Nasri Messarra, Saint Joseph University Diana Asher, University of California, Los Angeles Luisa Milic, Ideya.eu Brandy Aven, Carnegie Mellon University Aldo de Moor, Online Community Expert Vladimir Barash, Grafika Scott Moore, Online Community Expert George Barnett, University of California at Davis Miriam Notten, LaRed Consulting Daniel Bassill, TutorMentor Katherine Ognyanova, Rutgers University xvii
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