The world has become highly interconnected and hence more complex than ever before. We are surrounded by a multitude of networks in our daily life, for example, friendship networks, online social networks, world wide web, road networks etc. All these networks are today available online in the form of graphs which hold a whole lot of hidden information. They encompass surprising secrets which have been time and again revealed with the help of tools like graph theory, sociology, game theory etc. The study of these graphs and revelation of their properties with these tools have been termed as Social Network Analysis.
  
Some of the surprising observations and beautiful discoveries achieved with Social Network Analysis are listed below. 

1. 6 degrees of separation: You can reach out to any person on this earth within an average of 6 hops. That means, "You know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows Justin Beiber (or Angelina Jolie or literally anyone on this planet.)".
2. The algorithm behind Google search: How does Google achieve such precise and valid search results? The underlying algorithm is fairly simple and relies totally on the network of web pages.
3. How do you get your dream job: Not through your best friends but through your acquaintances to whom you talk relatively less frequently! Sounds counterintuitive.
4. Link prediction: Can one predict who is going to be your next Facebook friend, or which product are you going to buy next on Flipkart, or which is the next movie you are going to watch on Netflix? Yes, it is possible.
5. Viral Marketing: Want to make your new product sell out quickly? How do you determine the people to whom you should be giving the free samples? Does that even matter? 
6. Contagion: Not only information but happiness, obesity, altruism, depression all spread from person to person.

As one can see through above examples, the study of networks has penetrated into all spheres of our life. The course revolves around thestudy of some well-known theories of social and information networks and their applications on real-world datasets. Not only does the course introduces you to the current advancement in the field, but paves a way for you to take this advancement one step further. 

Moreover, the course is highly programming intensive. Not to worry, we do not assume the students to know Python before hand and provide even the basic tutorials for this language. Hence, it is also a great way to learn this powerful programming language. The course takes you from the most basic functionality of Python to the most advanced one where the students are able to  code a real word dataset crunching algorithm on their own.

By the end of the course, you will 

• be well versed in the basic theories and popular results of social network analysis.
• be able to crunch the online available graph datasets and process them with the help of python networkx package.
• be able to visualize the graph datasets.

Towards the end of the course, a couple of ongoing research projects in this area will also be discussed. We also aim at providing the top scorers an opportunity to collaborate with us. So, please do write to us if you are interested to pursue research in this area.

 

PRE-REQUISITES: The course doesn’t assume any pre-requisites. We expect one has undergone a first course in basic programming. 
 

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: This is a much sought after field in computer science and many industries value/recognize this course. Today, social network analysis in being employed in private as well as public sectors. Some of the areas where it is used are

• Modeling the Networks of Organizations
• Understanding Customer Interaction 
• Development of Information Systems
• Digital Marketing
• Risk Management
• Banking
• Telecommunication Analytics
• Bioinformatics
• Criminal Intelligence
• Human Resources Development
• Designing Leader Engagement Strategies
• Community based Problem Solving
• Knowledge Management

What is an Online Community?

First my best definition:

An online community is a group of people with common interests who use the Internet (web sites, email, instant messaging, etc) to communicate, work together and pursue their interests over time.

Below you'll see that I've provided an illustration of how and why online communities can be valuable.

Online communities are communities first and online second. By this, I mean that we all live in and around real-world communities all the time- just forget the word online for now.

You live in a geographic community, you work within a professional community, you may go to church with a religious community and your friends represent a social community. Wherever people share common interests, there is a community.

However, you may never feel that you are a part of these communities. One reason may be geography- it simply isn't easy enough for the members of your community to get together in a single place. Secondly, there may not be an easy way for you to communicate and get to know the other community members. Lastly, it may be that no one else realizes the community exists.

Now, in terms of these real life communities, think about the possibilities if there were ways to overcome these obstacles.

• What if you were able to be an active member of these real-life communities?
• What if there was an easy way to find and get to know the other members?
• What if you could have discussions with them easily?
• What if you could compare notes and use other members as resources?
• Do you think you could learn from other members?
• Do you think you could expand your network of friends and associates?
• Do you think the whole community could benefit by working together?
• Do you think you would feel like you were a part of something special?

Online Communities provide real-world communities a place to come together using the Internet. By being a member of an online community, you benefit in many of the same ways you would a real world community- it's just that you use the Internet.

• Instead of traveling to a coffee shop or hotel, you meet at a web site
• Instead of having face-to-face discussion, you post messages to one another
• Instead of picking a time and place to meet, the community is always-on.
• Instead of depending on a physical location or resource to keep track of community events and activities, a web site can do it for you.

All-in-all, online communities are about people needing an easier and more accessible way to get together. In business or socially, online communities have the power to create lasting and productive relationships where none existed before. In the future, in many different forms, I believe that online communities will become a greater part of our lives.