Knowledge Matters™

This isn't a blog-post about explosives, although that might be interesting; rather it is a plug for the blogs of two people whose work I admire. It's no secret I am interested in network analysis and both these blogs have almost exclusive network analysis themes. The TNT bit stands for "The Network Thinker ", which is the blog of Dr Valdis Krebs - I wish I could be as creative with names. Connectedness is the blog of Dr Bruce Hoppe.

I particularly like Connectedness because of its exclusive network analysis theme. I just wish Bruce would blog a bit more. He's had a few interesting posts of late. Take a look at this post on centrality . Bruce correctly identifies centrality is important in every network; and lets be honest it's the property we are most fascinated with! I would caveat Bruce's observation by saying be careful with what type of centrality you are talking about. For example, in-degree centrality is about popularity and out-degree centrality is about activity - two very different things I suggest!

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From time to time I run a half-day seminar called “Introducing Network Analysis as a Research Technique ”, followed by a practical workshop that builds on the mornings activities and introduces participants to UCINET and NetDraw .

Here are the seminar slides . The seminar is aimed at new researchers. Typically the seminar occurs in the morning and is organised into three sessions.

Here are the workshop slides . The workshop is aimed at absolute beginners, and introduces participants to UCINET and NetDraw . It builds on the seminar, although attendance at the seminar is not a prerequisite.

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On Friday the 4th of July 2008 I am once again running a half-day seminar called “Introducing Network Analysis as a Research Technique ”. This time the seminar will be followed in the afternoon by a practical workshop that builds on the mornings activities and introduces participants to UCINET and NetDraw .

The seminar and workshop are part of Canberra University’s Inter-University Research Workshop Program , and are aimed at new researchers. The workshop is also of use to anyone interested in network analysis, but is aimed at absolute beginners. Both the seminar and workshop are offered free of charge to research students and researchers from all institutions, but priority access will be given to students and staff from participating universities. Costs may apply to other participants. If you are interested and you are in Canberra on Friday the 4th of July 2008 you can register here . Further details about the seminar and workshop are below. ...

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I recently came across this blog-post by Marc Aafjes on what he calls the Shadow Organisation. Marc says:

"By connecting various participants across the company around the execution of our knowledge strategy we're cultivating a meta network - the shadow organisation - that enables the company to enhance the value we derive from the knowledge we have. Framing knowledge management in economic terms, the shadow organisation in effect is ‘making the market for knowledge' by connecting otherwise disparate parts of the company around knowledge needs. This shadow organisation consists of the change agents that help us execute the knowledge strategy and embed sustainable change in all parts of the company".

Now what Marc is doing is by no means new - he's weaving a network to build a community of practice! What he has done is come up with a clever name that markets his network weaving initiative. ...

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I purchased this book on the recommendation of a colleague. Unusually for me it has taken many months to read, and I have found it a hard slog - I simply could not maintain my interest. The content is dense and at times challenging.

The authors bring together several theories to come up with an integrative framework to research communication networks. By combining several approaches they seek to move from descriptive and exploratory techniques to inferential and confirmatory models - this was the attraction of the book for me; unfortunately in the end I wasn't completely convinced. That said I do agree that networks should be examined on multiple levels and that a multi-theoretical approach has considerable merit.

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I am running a half-day seminar followed by a half-day workshop on Friday the 4th of July 2008, called “Introducing Network Analysis as a Research Technique ”. The seminar is part of Canberra University’s Inter-University Research Workshop Program , and is aimed at new researchers, but is of use to anyone interested in network analysis. This link has testimonials and ratings by previous participants.

The seminar and workshop are offered free of charge to research students and researchers from all institutions, but priority access will be given to students and staff from participating universities. Costs may apply to other participants. If you are interested and you are in Canberra on Friday the 4th of July 2008 you can register here .

The seminar is organised into three sessions. ...

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On Thursday the 12th of June Patrick Byrne and I will be once again present "Understanding the Complexity of Program Management ". This time the presentation is to the Sydney Chapter of the Project Management Institute. The presentation shows how HolisTech® Pty Ltd's Project Knowledge Model and Knowledge Matters™ Business Network Analysis™ (BNA™) techniques can be used as a diagnostic methodology to inform project and program managers. Using real data the presentation shows how the method can be used to understand the alignment of outcomes, achieve requirements consistency, and understand the "stakeholder weave".

To give you a flavour of the presentation content have a look at the following blog-posts: ...

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Today I thought I would share with you two new diagrams from my doctorate, because they elicit interesting management questions. Consider the network diagram below. The graph shows a programme of projects, all of which are dependent on one another for one reason or another. For example a project building an electricity distribution grid in a new town might be critically dependent on a project that is building a dam that will produce hydro-electricity.

The circles are projects coloured and grouped by business unit, and sized by value. The large light blue project at the bottom of the screen is obviously the project with the largest budget. The lines represent the dependency and are coloured by the importance of that dependency – red lines representing a critical dependency.

As a manager where would you give priority to resource allocation? I suggest if you subscribe to the dollars view of the world the bulk of your effort would be directed to the light blue business unit. Now consider the next diagram. ...

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I’ve just re-read “Social Networks and Organizations” by Professors Martin Kilduff and Wenpin Tsai . I like this book because it is an easy read, with enough detail to whet the appetite but not so much detail as to become a laborious slog. With 150 pages of succinct text it is possible to read and digest in a couple of sittings. The authors provide many examples throughout the book and point the reader to more advanced reading, but for the beginner Appendix 1 on “Getting Started on Data Analysis and Interpretation” is a must read.

As a doctoral candidate I appreciated the opening chapters which position network analysis in the research traditions, and provide some discussion on the underlying theories. Some readers might find these chapters boring, but I think there is something there for everyone. Take for example the discussion on theoretical foundations. The authors discuss graph theory without blinding the lay-person with incomprehensible mathematical formulas. They also talk about balance theory and other borrowings from psychology in simple terms. This is a constant throughout the book – the reader is gently exposed to key network concepts, debates in the literature, and possible new research directions. ...

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In my last blog-post I addressed the issue of network analysis ethics . This was in response to a blog-post discussion with Euan Semple on “The map is not the territory”, which is still ongoing. This blog-post addresses Euan’s concern that “the activity is invariably couched in terms of one group - managers, the business - mapping the relationships of everyone else - the people prepared to open up and use the social tools in the first place”.

Now my concern with this assertion is it is an unsubstantiated generalisation. In fact this criticism could be levelled against all sorts of investigative and diagnostic approaches! Perhaps there are network analysts out there that do focus myopically on one group, but this need not be the case. It is a matter of study design and what one seeks to discover, or understand.

My own research overseen by the University of Canberra seeks to map and understand artefact, inter-personal, inter-positional, inter-unit, and inter-organisational networks. Clearly this design is multi-dimensional ...

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