Social network change detection
Encyclopedia
Social network change detection (SNCD) is a process of monitoring social network
s to determine when significant changes to their organizational structure occur and what caused them. This scientific approach combines analytical techniques from social network analysis with those from statistical process control
. SNCD can be used to detect when significant changes occur in a network. In application, it requires the use of statistical process control charts to detect changes in observable network measures. By taking measures of a network over time, a control chart can be used to signal when significant changes occur in the network.
This approach has been demonstrated to be effective on several real world data sets. A social network was created for a group of 24 Army officers going through a 1 year graduate program at Columbia University (McCulloh, et al., 2007). SNCD was able to detect the group's comprehensive exam and identified the most likely time of change to be the week that study questions were sent to the group. An open source social network of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was monitored using SNCD, and it signaled a change in the organization prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center (McCulloh, et al., 2007). SNCD has also been demonstrated to be effective on simulated data.
SNCD was initially proposed by Major Ian McCulloh, an assistant professor in the U.S. Military Academy's Network Science Center in 2006. Since then, SNCD has been presented at a variety of venues from NetSci2007 in New York City to the International Network for Social Network Analysis
annual conference in 2008, to the Military Operations Research Society
Working Group on emerging threats and social networks in 2008.
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
s to determine when significant changes to their organizational structure occur and what caused them. This scientific approach combines analytical techniques from social network analysis with those from statistical process control
Statistical process control
Statistical process control is the application of statistical methods to the monitoring and control of a process to ensure that it operates at its full potential to produce conforming product. Under SPC, a process behaves predictably to produce as much conforming product as possible with the least...
. SNCD can be used to detect when significant changes occur in a network. In application, it requires the use of statistical process control charts to detect changes in observable network measures. By taking measures of a network over time, a control chart can be used to signal when significant changes occur in the network.
This approach has been demonstrated to be effective on several real world data sets. A social network was created for a group of 24 Army officers going through a 1 year graduate program at Columbia University (McCulloh, et al., 2007). SNCD was able to detect the group's comprehensive exam and identified the most likely time of change to be the week that study questions were sent to the group. An open source social network of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was monitored using SNCD, and it signaled a change in the organization prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center (McCulloh, et al., 2007). SNCD has also been demonstrated to be effective on simulated data.
SNCD was initially proposed by Major Ian McCulloh, an assistant professor in the U.S. Military Academy's Network Science Center in 2006. Since then, SNCD has been presented at a variety of venues from NetSci2007 in New York City to the International Network for Social Network Analysis
International Network for Social Network Analysis
The International Network for Social Network Analysis is the professional association of social network analysis. The rapid increase in awareness of social networks, social network software, and social networking has led to lively discussions and influence beyond sheer numbers.-Membership, history...
annual conference in 2008, to the Military Operations Research Society
Military Operations Research Society
The Military Operations Research Society is a society for professionals active within defense applications of operations research in the United States...
Working Group on emerging threats and social networks in 2008.
See also
- Complex networkComplex networkIn the context of network theory, a complex network is a graph with non-trivial topological features—features that do not occur in simple networks such as lattices or random graphs but often occur in real graphs...
- Exponential random graph model
- Network probability matrixNetwork Probability MatrixThe network probability matrix describes the probability structure of a network based on the historical presence or absence of edges in a network. For example, individuals in a social network are not connected to other individuals with uniform random probability. The probability structure is much...
- Network scienceNetwork scienceNetwork science is a new and emerging scientific discipline that examines the interconnections among diverse physical or engineered networks, information networks, biological networks, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks. This field of science seeks to discover common principles,...
- Social network analysis