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!

Policy approved – and implemented?

I want to use this blog to help you to use Net-Map in your own work. This is why  – every once in a while – I give you examples of how exactly I tackle a concrete question in the field.
For example: Policy approval and implementation in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Strategy Support Program of the International [...]

What if we’re not quite sure?

Normally the aim of research is to find things out and to present results that we are sure of and clear about. What a pain that reality is often so messy and opaque and no matter how well research is done, when it comes to social phenomena, different people might see them in different ways!
So [...]

Julius Nyangaga about using SNA to understand innovation systems

Dr Eva Schiffer recently took us (a group of researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI) through an introductory session to Social Network Analysis – the concept, the methodologies, its application.  Most of us were from the innovation side of the research world where qualitative constructs and processes in systems are easily appreciated. But [...]

Visualyzer on Vista

My younger sister once said that one thing she admires in men (well, most of them) is that when it comes to solving a technical problem, they are like pitbulls, once they have sunk their teeth in this problem, they won’t let go until they are done with it.
My partner showed this pitbull like quality [...]

Mapping the structure of big networks of individual actors (without getting overwhelmed)

So what do you do if you are interested in understanding the structure of a network of individuals and the network is too big or your resources too small, to interview each and every one of the 500 members as to who they are linked to? Sometimes, for getting a bigger picture of the structure, [...]

Getting VisuaLyzer

Those of you who clicked on my link to get a download of the computer program that I use to visualize influence networks, might have been confused, because it was a rather generic link that just led to the main page of the software company. The following comment will help you to get there more [...]

Understanding your community

Now I’m not talking about a rural village but a community of practice. Today I had a great discussion with some of my colleagues of Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) about how to best map out this community of practice at our annual meeting in Lisbon next week. Who are we, what are the roles [...]

Visualizing Networks Online for KM4Dev

I’ve been thinking of an online version of Net-Map for a while now and my first web-based Net-Map training seminar encouraged me to go further in this direction. During the training I basically directed people I couldn’t see to draw paper maps in their own offices on the Philippines or in India, which is [...]

Deaf children, agricultural gene-banks and rural mother-and-child health

That’s just a limited choice of the very different issues that my training participants on Wednesday were concerned with. So they drew maps about real and potential cases in developed and developing countries, from the international to the local level. As always, alas, time went too quickly and I wasn’t able to take everything in, [...]