How Do the Evolution and Innovation of Social Network Analysis Matter to Computer Science and Communications?

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of evolution and innovation in social network analysis to the paradigm of social networking. It explains how the development of sociological theory and the structural properties of social groups matter to computer science and communications. Authors such as Moreno, John Barnes and Harrison C. White provide evidence of a growing body of literature addressing the networking of people, organizations and communities to explain the structure of society. This perspective has passed from sociology to other fields, changing understandings of social phenomena. Social networks remain a potent concept for analyzing computer science and communications. This paper shows how and why this has occurred and examines substantive areas in which social network analysis has been applied—mainly how the advantages of graphic visualization and computer software packages have influenced SNA in different audiences and publics leading to the unfolding of social networking to different audiences and publics.