Mark your calendar for Dr. Clio Andris' talk on March 4th from 3:30-4:30! The event will take place at the River Road office in Room 325. Read more about the details of the talk and Dr. Andris' background below.

Social Network Mapping and Analysis Software (SNoMaN) and Bringing (More) Spatial Analysis to the Social Sciences

Spatial social networks (SSNs) are node-link structures that evidence interpersonal or inter-organizational relationships, where nodes and edges have a defined geographic location. To model spatial social networks, we need both geographic and social network metrics, but few map-based analytic tools allow us to explore these facets simultaneously.

Here, we leverage Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and design principles to create new, free, open-source software SNoMaN, which links network and geographical layouts to help users explore spatial distributions, associations, and anomalies. We introduce new types of visual diagrams, including Cluster–Cluster Plots, Centralization Plots, on-the-fly mapping of geometrically bounded network modules, and Route Factor Diagrams. We describe how the software has been useful via case studies, what communities have used it, and how small social networks should be leveraged as a key part of geography. More information about the larger project, and access to the software, is available here: https://sites.gatech.edu/snoman/.
 

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Clio Andris is an associate professor in the School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She directs the Friendly Cities Lab and conducts research on geographic information science, social networks, spatial networks, and geovisualization. She is a Montgomery County, MD native and is happy to be back home.

Image descriptions: The image to the right is a flyer showing the details of the talk mentioned in the above description. The above images show visual diagrams from Dr. Andris' research.