SNA Software and Mobile Communication

Most of mobile operators have found that, even though the communication costs of some mobile phone users are not large, they are able to bring potential profit to the operators. These users can be called "Influencers", which can unintentionally lead their respective family members, friends and colleagues to switch to use the services of a certain mobile operator.

In other words, if mobile operators can accurately find these "Influencers", and  give these users special privilege, it will be beneficial to improve the total users of the operators without doubts. In daily life, we often see this phenomenon: in a company, the office executives often receive notification phone calls from the subordinate, and these executives always call subordinates at night. Although the time they answer the call is usually short, but the frequency they take the initiative to have a phone talk is high.

With the software called "Social network analysis"(SNA), mobile operators analyze call data on executives and  subordinates, then they will identify these "influencers". SNA software not only analysis phone records of users, but also analysis the social network which each user is involved. SNA software has become a powerful aide of the major telecommunications companies.

The data source of SNA software is not just limited to the phone records, and it can also be collected from businesses and government agencies, as well as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter and other social networking companies.

Depend on SNA software, we can easily rank the actors and blogs. As we learned, there are mainly two indexes to rank actors, centrality and prestige.Based on single actor behavior and group behavior, the indexes are refined to actor centrality, actor prestige, group centrality and group prestige.

And there are three types of centrality, including degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality. What is similar, there are also three types of prestige, including degree prestige, proximity prestige and rank prestige. SNA software can easily calculate these parameters and show us intuitively. 

So the growth potential of SNA software market is immeasurable. I believe it will develop more fast in the next years to apply for more areas.

The Blend of Cloud Computing and Social Networking——Social Clouds

PART 1: BLOG

"Forced by the pressure of the global economic recession, a wave of disruptive technology wave has formed. Cloud computing and social networking technologies will be mature and interact with each other to form a new mainstream platform  after 2012. " IDC vice president Frank Gens’view shows a more complex world in the process of remodeling。In this new world, you can not use traditional thinking to think, can not use the traditional approach to innovation.

As the group work we did last week, by social clouds technology we could analysis and revise the essay more efficiently. Social clouds has revolutionized the ways people contact, talk, get and share information. Just as its concept we learn, "A Social Cloud is a resource and service sharing framework utilizing relationships established between members of a social network." I think it can also be understand as a blend technology of cloud computing and social networking.

In my opinion, the social clouds technology will penetrate from individual applications to enterprise field. Such as globalization and industrial giant Dow Chemical Company has established its own social network, talent managers determines that the implementation of the project across different business units and functional departments need to help, even including former employees. According to McKinsey survey, 70% of executives said their own companies always create value by the online community. 

Social analysis of the application will also enable the collaboration market is in transition completely. In 2012, integration of social media and business analysis has become a common practice. This trend in most critical business applications will be reflected in the future, and traditional business applications will be increasingly integrated with social networking software and analysis. Then all kinds of business applications functional structure will completely change.

PART 2: ANSWERS

ACTIVITY 1:

Q: What is the definition of Social Cloud?
A: A Social Cloud is a resource and service sharing framework utilizing relationships established between members of a social network

Q: What are the possible applications of a Social Cloud?

A: An Enterprise Social Cloud; A Social Cloud for Public Science; A Social Collaborative Cloud; A Social Storage Cloud; A Social Computation Cloud.

ACTIVITY 2:

OTHER QUESTIONS:

Q: What was the epistemic aims in (1) Class Activity One (individual work) and (2) Class Activity Two (group work)? Is there any change in epistemic aim? If so, why did you change your aims?

A: In Activity 1 we need to think ourselves, the main aims are understanding and explanations. But in Activity 2 we should cooperate with each other, the main aims are  to avoid false beliefs and to adopt minimally justified beliefs. Of course I change my aims, because these are different processes of knowledge formation.

Q: Is there any differences in terms of individual and group epistemic cognition, how? 

A: (1) Different epistemic aims and values; (2) We need reliability of processes for achieving group epistemic aims.

Q: How did you approach to the problem individually and in group, respectively? Is there any differences in the processes involved? 

A: The main problem was the doubt of answers individually, but in group, the main problem was how to explain different individual answers. Of course, they were different types of processes for knowledge formation. It was cognitive process individually, but it was interpersonal one in group, we need solve the problem that how to improve group efficiency.