“Imperfect” is the new “perfect”?

“Why use messy pen-paper-and-checkers-pieces – can’t you do it on the computer?”
At a Brown Bag Seminar at the World Bank, Regina Birner (IFPRI) and I presented how we used Net-Map to understand innovation systems in Ethiopia. As for the quasi inevitable question afterwards… see above.  “Inevitable” not because it was the World Bank but because [...]

Researcher, Facilitator, Advocate?

I just talked with a colleague who wants to do some Net-Map research about water governance in a big irrigation project in Africa, where commercial interests and small farmer needs clash. She has a number of different goals with her research, ranging from “getting a PhD” through “doing high quality exciting research” to “facilitating a [...]

Do you know how to use EgoNet?

Or do you know where to find a manual? EgoNet is an open source software for collecting network data online and I’d love to use it. But unfortunately it’s not really intuitive and I just can’t figure it out. If you know how to use it, I’d be grateful for some hints!

Similar people – different people

Social network analysts find this again and again:
1. Most networks have the tendency to age towards homophily. That means: The longer a network is active, the more it tends to consist of similar people.
2. Heterogeneity and boundary spanning between different kinds of networks lead to innovation.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Because [...]

The structural logic behind corruption

When discussing corruption, a lot of people from less corrupt systems talk about blatantly corrupt systems and you can hear a condescending undercurrent of: “These amoral corrupt people…” in their assessment of the situation. As if it was always the decision of this one corrupt individual to take or give bribes. And, understanding where they [...]

Scale Free Thinking

Most of what I write (here and elsewhere) is rather concrete, drawing from real world examples, own experience, pushing some hands-on ideas. That’s because most of my learning is people-to-people learning, through hearing stories, making experiences and linking unusual things to each other.
However, every once in a while  I read something that is more on [...]

Facilitation would be so easy, if it wasn’t for the participants…

If I could choose between a day spent with my computer and a day spent facilitating a loud group of disagreeing Nigerians, I’d always choose the Nigerians. There are some people who get their kick out of solving complicated things alone in front of their computer, but I’m definitely not one of them…
Yesterday I talked [...]

Looking for free and easy SNA software

I use Visualyzer for visualizing and analyzing my Net-Maps and I love it. But while there is a free trial version, in the end it is a software that you have to purchase. As I want to further spread SNA literacy in developing countries, I am looking for free software that is [...]