Social Network Analysis – measuring the immeasurable.

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Euan Semple comments on the topic of social network analysis (or measuring the immeasurable!).

Euan identifies two points that make him nevous about SNA:

“The first is because the activity is invariably couched in terms ofone group – managers, the business – mapping the relationships ofeveryone else – the people prepared to open up and use the social toolsin the first place.

The second is because they seek to make explicit something that ismuch better left implicit. We can all work out what the network is andwhere the good guys are from the using the tools and inhabiting theenvironments they create without having to have it drawn out for us.

If I felt that someone else was mapping my conversions and therelationships they represented – and wasn’t prepared to have the samedone to them, I would soon stop talking.“

As I have commented on the blog, I detect a form of management paranoia; they don’t reallyunderstand what social networking is all about, they don’t want to diptheir toes into what they consider to be muddy water, yet at the samethey want to understand it in the only way that makes sense to them -numbers and statistics.

What worries me are the conclusions they may draw from this imprecise and flawed method of evaluation!

About Post Author

Stephen Dale

I’m a life-long learner with an insatiable curiosity about life. I love travel, good food, and good company. I’m happy to share what I know with others….even the interesting stuff! My outlook on life is pretty well captured in this quote from a book about the legend of King Arthur: “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” ― T.H. White, The Once and Future King So much to learn, so little time!

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