This was the first day here @UAB (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), and I feel like I have learned much more in one day than in one month on my own. Wow...
Anyway, the course is an introduction to the theory and methods of social networks and especially in dynamic analysis of social networks with SIENA, but it also includes some sessions about other software and other kinds of analysis.
Today José Luis Molina introduced social network analysis and the three main kinds of social networks: sociocentric, egocentric and personal network. The major field here at UAB is on ego and personal networks.
In the morning we analysed a sociocentric network with UCINET and visualized it with Netdraw, and in the afternoon we created our own personal network through Egonet, a software that allows you to create and manage questionnaires with different "name generators" and many other characteristics of 'ego' and 'alters'.
Tomorrow, with Jürgen Lerner, we will see Visone, a software for network visualization.
I have already received some useful suggestions concerning the research I am carrying on with my group at FBK, and I am sure I will learn many other things by the end of the week, especially with regard to dynamic network analysis, which will be explained through SIENA by William J. Burk, and which (I discovered) is the field of study of one of the participant to the course, who works with Netlogo.
