[this maybe be part 1 of a series x]
Last week I attended the Facebook Developer Garage (Jan-12) event in London. I went along to listen to Dr Bernie Hogan from the Oxford Internet Institute. Bernie is an industry friend and regular speaker at Local Social Summit (an annual event I help organise every year in London). I also went to see what the ‘local’ London Facebook dev community was up to these days and to see if I could spot any trends. I attend the FDGL events about 2-3 times year, but might start attending more in 2012. In terms of 2012, the event was well attended but the vibe was chilled and I didn’t spot any trend beyond the obvious excitement about FB Timeline. I suspect people are just waking up from the holiday season. 2012 is going to be a rocking year for social media, apps and Facebook in particular.
Dr Hogan’s talk was on using Social Network Analysis tools/techniques (SNA) and specifically a tool called NodeXL to download Facebook graphs – individual, for apps and for fan pages. He was inspiring people to use these graphs to gain insights and intelligence. The timing of Bernie’s talk was on the heel of Facebook releasing its own study on how information flows through networks. FB’s study echoed some of the insights from a seminal study by Mark Granovetter in the 1970’s. It was only back in November of last year that Dr. Hogan suggested to me that the Granovetter paper, The Strength of Weak Ties (get the full pdf here), was a must read.
Facebook’s data team posted up Rethinking Information Diversity in Networks. Two of the key conclusions from the study is:
The information we consume and share on Facebook is actually much more diverse in nature than conventional wisdom might suggest.
We are exposed to and spread more information from our distant contacts than our close friends.
I am very interested in the science of social media, and more specifically in social network analysis (SNA). I am interested in how we apply this to solving business, political, environmental and community problems. As well as create a better social UEX and a next gen of social apps. My interest is both commercial and for social good. I am starting to think SNA may be one of the key tools to help with a host of issues and challenges. The current “data analysis tsunami” we have around social data appears to only touch the surface with most talk about influencers, frequency and rank, but not getting into the deeper details of how and where information flow. As well as how to better manage networks as an end users and as a society.
For now I am just absorbing ideas from the Filter Bubble, the FB Study, Bernie’s Talk (embedded below), Mark Granovetter’s paper and my own field studies. I am trying to mash this up into some rules for Social Business. But first I need more data and these ideas need some time to ferment. I will report back when the brew is ready to share.
BTW – As part of the Local Social Summit event series I am helping organise half-day seminar on SNA in February – you can find our more info and sign-up HERE.
[Note to readers and self: this might be part 1 of a few post about this subject area, let’s see. I took a break from blogging but have intentions to do a bit more posting in 2012 as way to develop my own insights and knowledge. ]
