Social Network Analysis in AdvancedMiner consists of the following stages:
In order to build a network for analysis or visualization, a PhysicalData object is required, pointing to a database table in which the network structure is stored.
Each row in the network structure table corresponds to one edge (connection between nodes) in the network. Each network node is assumed to have a unique identifier value. By default a directed network is created. The table must contain two variables, one with the identifier of the source node, and one with the identifier of the target node. Optionally, a variable with edge weight can also be specified. By default, all adges are assumed to have the same weight equal to 1.0.
To add a PhysicalData object to the Metadata Repository, select Projects window. Next select an alias and a table from the database.
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository in theTo add an SNABuildSettings object to the Metadata Repository select
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next select the SNABuildSettings object.The SNABuildSettings requires a LogicalData object referencing the PhysicalData object for the table which specifies the network structure. To add LogicalData, select
from the settings object's context menuFinally, it is necessary to select the columns with source and target node identifiers, and (optionally) the weight column. This can through in the SNABuildSettings object's Properties window.
To add a SNABuildTask object to the Metadata Repository select SNABuildTask object.
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next selectThe SNABuildTask requires
Adding PhysicalData. Select
-> from the SNABuildTask object's context menu and select the PhysicalData object pointing to the table with the network's edges.Adding SNABuildSettings. Select
-> from the SNABuildTask object's context menu and select the SNABuildSettings object.Adding Network. Select
-> from the SNABuildTask object's context menu and type in the name of the object in which the network will be saved.To build the network, execute the SNABuildTask object.
In some scenarios it may be necessary to filter down a network object so as to obtain a network of smaller size. AdvancedMiner's SNA module provides a network filtering mechanism designed especially for this purpose.
To filter a network, a database table is required. Each row of this table corresponds to one node of the input network and it must contain a column with a node identifier. Node identifiers must be the same as those used for building the input network. Filtering is performed by evaluating a boolean expression for each node of the input network. This expression uses attributes from the provided table.
Data used for filtering is provided using a PhysicalData object.
To add a PhysicalData object to the Metadata Repository, select Projects window. Next select an alias and a table from the database.
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository in theTo add a SNAFilterSettings object to the Metadata Repository select SNAFilterSettings object.
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next selectThe SNAFilterSettings requires a LogicalData object referencing the PhysicalData object for the table with node data. To add LogicalData, select
from the settings object's context menu.Next open the attributeUsageSet node attached to the SNAFilterSettings and select NODE ID as the usage for the attribute with node identifiers. It is also possible to select appropriate logical attribute classes for other columns in the data table. The attribute's logical class determines the type of filtering expressions in which it can be used.
Finally, enter the filtering expression as the value for the Filter in the SNAFilterSettings object's Properties window.
See the Network filtering / Usage section for details on configuring the SNAFilterSettings object.
To add an SNAFilterTask object to the Metadata Repository select
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next select the SNAFilterTask object.The SNAFilterTask object requires the follwoing components:
Optionally, it is possible to provide the following elements:
After the SNAFilterTask is properly set up, it can be executed. The specified output network and data tables will be created.
Network analysis is the core part of working with Social Networks in AdvancedMiner. The SNA module offers numerous algorithms dedicated to analysing data associated with individual network nodes in the context of their network neighbourhood, community or the network as a whole.
The SNASettings object is used to configure all the analysis algorithms which will be applied to the network.
To add a SNASettings object to the Metadata Repository select SNASettings object and enter the name for the object to create.
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next selectIt is possible to configure the SNASettings object with a LogicalData object which represents a table with data to use for analysis and an array of analysis algorithms.
To add an algorithm, select algorithms node's context menu and choose the algorithm to add. Any number of algorithms can be added; it is also possible to add multiple algorithms of the same kind with differnt settings.
from theEach of the algorithms has its own set requirements. See the Method description and Usage / Network analysis sections in the chapter devoted to the SNA module for more information about the available algorithms and how they are configured.
The SNATask object is responsible for executing the analysis algorithms according to the settings provided with the SNASettings object.
To add an SNATask object to the Metadata Repository select
-> from the context menu of the Metadata Repository. Next select the SNATask object.The SNATask object requires the follwoing components:
Optionally, it is possible to provide the following elements:
In order to create a visualization for a network, make sure that the corresponding Network object is loaded and select
from its context menu. A VisualizationTask and VisualizationStatiscs object will be created in the metadata repository.Visualization is capable not only of displaying the network itself, but also representing in various forms variables and statistics associated with network nodes or subnetworks, such as communities, node roles or other nominal or numerical variables. In order to display this additional information attributes from complementary data tables can be added to the VisualizationTask. The rows of these tables should correspond to nodes in the network and each table should have an attribute with node's identifier, which should be identical to the identifiers used in building the network.
To add data from complementary table to the visualization, select
from the context menu of the node under the NetworkVisualtion node. A dialog window will open, in which it is possible to select the database alias, table, attribute with node identifiers, as well as classes for variables in the table.To open the visualization load and open the VisualizationTask which has been created in the repository by clicking on it twice.
Adjusting layout. To adjust the layout select the Layout tab in the navigator. Three types of layout are available: ForceDirected, OpenOrd and Random. To apply a given layout, select the appropriate option from the Layout combo box, set the available parameters and click the button.
Partitioning the network. To configure network partition select the Partition tab in the navigator. The network can be partitioned according to the values of a NOMINAL or INTEGER attribute. Nodes with different nominal value are displayed with different colors. To apply partitioning, select an attribute from the Attribute combo box and click the button.
Ranking nodes. It is possible to visualize the ranking of nodes according to the values of a numerical attribute. Ranking can be displayed as node size or node color. It is also possible to adjust how the displayed ran changes by modifing the growth curve in the tab's chart box. To rank nodes, select an attribute from the Attribute combo box, adjust the curve in the chart box, and (in case of color ranking) select colors corresponding to minimal and maximal values, and click the button.
Adding labels. It is possible to display the values of a selected attribute on network nodes. To display the labels, select an attribute from the Attribute combo box, adjust label size and click the button.