Panta Rei

An Analysis of FBK Internal Social Network

Speaker:

- Francesca Odella (ricercatrice a sociologia e docente)
- Paolo Massa (FBK researcher)
- Francesca Cavalieri (student)

Student’s corner durante NET 2008, meeting tenuto alla facoltà di Sociologia dell’università di Trento. In questa lezione una studentessa ha presentato i risultati dell’indagine sociologica svolta durante le lezioni del corso di Network Analysis presso e in collaborazione con la Fondazione Bruno Kessler.
Gli studenti del corso hanno intervistato alcuni ricercatori che volontariamente si sono detti disponibili a collaborare a questa analisi. Scopo ultimo era quello di creare una fotografia dello stato attuale della social network della fondazione e sui metodi e gli strumenti di collaborazione e comunicazione.

Di seguito riporto alcuni appunti presi velocemente durante la spiegazione della studentessa, mentre i loro rapporti finali forniranno un’ottima base per compiere un confronto con i dati che raccoglieremo nel corso dei prossimi mesi di vita del progetto SoNet.

- NETWORK ANALYSIS

How to collect network datas with specific tecniques. Network relationship amongst people, social network (friendship, working relations, …)

Conduct an interview -> indicate friends for next interview. The first person choosen for being interviewed influences the second choose and so on and so forth

SoNet: activity: develope questioners with network module, see how much researcher interacts and comunicates one with the other using different tools, services (wiki, blog, rss rather than phone, paper, e-mail…)

Students elaborated a questionary during the corse and interviewed researchers in FBK. Then they re-elaborated these datas. Interviews done in couple, one person asked the questions and the other took notes about it.

- FBK CASE STUDY

⇒ Asked for project’s keywords, then found thematical areas. Build a network amongst them.

⇒ Other graphs: intermedia elements between groups (i.e. communication’s tools graphs: node are struments, leaves are researchers). Node’s size represents how much a strumenti is used.

⇒ Researcher indicates 3 workmates with whom they are using to collaborate (2 different graphs)

⇒ Need to comunicate quickly related to communicational strument. Different strument for different individual preferences and different needs.

⇒ Struments linked one to the others (people who use papers use email as well) – spin off (idea): if one is able to use wiki then surely he will be able and interested in using blog, rss and so on and so forth…

⇒ Each interview produced 5 different matrixes
⇒ Actual picture of social network inside FBK nowadays. What will it transfom in the next months? Will social network graph turn into a more connected one? Will the struments change over time?

⇒ Focalize on the importance of information, not to be mixed up (spam and importan mail, high priority news and less interesting notices…)

- FOCAL POINTS:

Q: Are interviewed people bring to tell the true or are they [portare to say something for their own advantage? (“I say something that I know my chief would like to listen to”)
A: They were students. Furthermore, interviewed were volunteers.

Q: What about organization between collagues?
A: This project aims to increase collaboration and organization inside FBK, thus raise organization inside the foundation