Networks & Knowledge Sharing

New Terms…Old Turns…

Six Degrees of Separation The Strength of Weak Ties Small and Clustered Worlds Ego-centred Networks Power Law Distribution

Today we increasingly recognize that nothing happens in isolation. Most events and phenomena are connected, caused by, and interacting with a huge number of other pieces of a complex universal puzzle. We have come to see that we live in a small world, where everything is linked to everything else. We are witnessing a revolution in the making as scientists from all different disciplines discover that complexity has a strict architecture. We have come to grasp the importance of networks.

Barabasi (2003): 7

LINKED…

Networks?

The Basic Network Principle

N*N-1/2

30 * 29 / 2 = 435

How can this be managed?

Making the NetWork

Web site

Mailing Lists

Extranet

ID/Password

Subscribe / Unsubscribe

World

Network

Core

Making the NetWork

The Strength of Weak Ties

Granovetter, M.S. (1973) The Strength of Weak Ties American Journal of Sociology Volume 78 Issue 6 (May 1973) pp. 1360-1380

Node

Dyad

Ego

Cluster

Scale-Free

Zone

Degrees of SeparationThe Spice Girls & Monica Lewinsky

1. The Spice Girls were in Spice World with George Wendt

2. George Wendt was in Cheers with Ted Danson

3. Ted Danson was married at Martha’s Vineyard and Bill Clinton attended

4. Bill Clinton knows Monica Lewinsky

The University of Virginia’s Oracle of Bacon

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/

SMALL AND CLUSTERED WORLDS

 

Very many nodes with only a few links

A few hubs with a large number of links

POWER LAW DISTRIBUTION 

Continents of a Directed Network

TUBES

TENDRILS ISLANDS

CENTRAL CORE

IN CONTINENT OUT CONTINENT

Scale Free Network: Internet by IP Address

Internet Traffic

VOICES NETWORK

Network Terminology #1Activity The level of direct connections within the network.

Betweenness The degree of influence over what flows in the network.

Boundary Spanners Spanners are more central than their immediate neighbours whose connections are only local, within their immediate cluster.

Closeness The shortest path to all others.

Cluster Analysis Finding cliques and other densely connected clusters.

Degrees The number of direct connections of a node.

Degrees of Separation The number of direct connections between two randomly selected nodes. (See How Does Six Degrees of Separation Work?)

E/I Ratio Finds which groups in the network are open or closed to others.

Links Relationships or flows between nodes.

Network Terminology #2

Network Centralisation The stability of the network.

Nodes People and groups within the network.

Peripheral Players Connected to networks that are not currently mapped.

Poisson Distribution The majority of nodes have the same number of links as the average node.

Structural Equivalence Determines which nodes play similar roles in the network.

Structural Holes Clusters of nodes that are not connected but should be. Structural holes can be viewed as areas of advantage and opportunity.

Small Worlds Node clustering and short path lengths that are common in networks exhibiting highly efficient small world

behaviour. (See Small World)

NETWORK ROLES

Central NodesHold the network togetherAre an important source of expertiseMay become bottlenecks which hold the entire network back

Knowledge BrokersAre critical connections between diverse knowledge sources and specific kinds of expertiseKeep the network from fragmenting but may become bottlenecks

Peripheral NodesAre an under-utilised resourceFeel isolated from the networkHave a higher likelihood of leaving the network

Boundary SpannersAffect knowledge flow across boundaries (e.g., functional, hierarchical, geographical or organisational)Are broken down into Gatekeepers (control the knowledge flow coming into the network) and Representatives (facilitate the flow of knowledge from the network)

NETWORK BREAKDOWNS

FunctionalBreakdowns between divisions of responsibility

HierarchicalBreakdowns between members at different levels of development and/or understanding

GeographicalBreakdowns between geographically separated locations

OrganisationalBreakdowns around interpreting scenarios, between teams or among leadership networks