7 April 2010

What Is A Node?

A social network is a social structure made of individuals (or organizations) called “nodes,” which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige These are the basis that social networking on line environments on the web are designed to build on.Face book, Twitter, Linked in etc provide forums that are based on the nodes structure of human interdependency. In short people with similar professions and interests are more likely to congregate and share information and personal experiences relating to relationships, business or ideas. Because social networking is based on commonality between individuals or organizations there is usually a free exchange of ideals and information which can be easily adopted to the participants if forums. These exchanges are voluntary and so enable net workers to take the good and leave the bad while still being a willing participant in a community of information exchange.

Social network analysis views social relationships in terms of network theory consisting of nodes and ties. Nodes are the individual actors within the networks, and ties are the relationships between the actors. The resulting graph-based structures are often very complex. There can be many kinds of ties between the nodes. Research in a number of academic fields has shown that social networks operate on many levels, from families up to the level of nations, and play a critical role in determining the way problems are solved, organizations are run, and the degree to which individuals succeed in achieving their goals.

In its simplest form, a social network is a map of all of the relevant ties between all the nodes being studied. The network can also be used to measure social capital — the value that an individual gets from the social network. These concepts are often displayed in a social network diagram, where nodes are the points and ties are the lines. Social networks have also been used to examine how organizations interact with each other, characterizing the many informal connections that link executives together, as well as associations and connections between individual employees at different organizations. For example, power within organizations often comes more from the degree to which an individual within a network is at the center of many relationships than actual job title. Social networks also play a key role in hiring, in business success, and in job performance. Networks provide ways for companies to gather information, deter competition, and collude in setting prices or policies.

At Nexonta it is our goal to build on this developing trend. Today on the web information is in many ways connected to social networking and many individuals coming together to share ideas and opinions on products, services and new data which they feel is of some benefit to others in their network. The internet is always evolving and the more information that is being created the more we are asked to process, with social networking, individuals as well as organizations are able to come together and process information and trends much faster than if we were to do it ourselves. In the next few coming months we will be blogging about the ins and outs of social networking and how it relates to your company’s online presence.

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