MCSN 2019 assignments
short link: http://bit.ly/mcsn19a
Notes on the assignment schedule
The assignment schedule itself will be developed as the course progresses, in consultation with students and according to student feedback. Please check back often. New assignments will be posted the previous week.
Remember that all assignments are to be submitted via eClass (http://bit.ly/mcsn19e) - not by email or hardcopy. (On eClass you'll find a single submission link for each day.) They are due before class on the day assigned (e.g. by 11 am). Without an approved excuse late work will decremented 3 percentage points per day or fraction thereof, and make-up quizzes will not be given without such excuse. Please see syllabus on http://bit.ly/mcsn19 for the details.
Some homework answers consist of prose, while others require network diagrams. You can prepare diagrams in your word processor (for instance, see MS Word's "Drawing" toolbar), but far better to prepare them as Pajek ".net" files. Or hand-draw and submit images if appropriate. Note that all assignments are to be submitted via eClass in a single upload, so if you have more than one file zip them all together in some logical way.
On the readings: ESNAP and other books
When reading ESNAP be sure to try out all the applications and exercises using Pajek on your own computer! These practical applications are very important both for understanding concepts, and fluency with the software. If you have problems, ask!
It's also important just to play - try things! Have fun with it. The worst that can happen is it'll crash. (But note that if you reset options they may stick around the next session.)
Occasionally I'll suggest optional readings by reference to ESNAP chapters they complement. You may also like to browse these optional books. Wasserman and Faust contains more rigorous explanations of all the topics in ESNAP; I haven't marked these as optional readings, but feel free to refer to their Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications as needed. Likewise, browse Hanneman and Riddle's Introduction to social network methods, which covers largely the same material as ESNAP but permuted (and using software that runs only on Windows machines).
Books and Software
The following abbreviations are used to indicate books for readings in the table below. All readings are online; most are available on Rutherford Reserve and several are also at the SUB bookstore. (For additional sources see http://bit.ly/mcsn19)
- ESNAP: Wouter de Nooy, Andrej Mrvar, and Vladimir Batagelj, Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek, 3rd edition. (Cambridge University Press, 2018). (Available online and in the SUB bookstore.) To be read in conjunction with the free SNA software package Pajek (which was created for PCs but also runs fine on Macs. Here's how to install it on either machine. Please also download the datasets; you'll need to work with them as you read the text.
- Crossley: Nick Crossley, Siobhan McAndrew, Paul Widdop, eds. Social networks and music worlds.
- Barabási: Albert-László Barabási, Network Science
- McLean: Paul McLean, Culture in Networks
- Nowak: Raphaël Nowak, Andrew Whelan, editors, Networked music cultures : contemporary approaches, emerging issues
Schedule
(See book list above for direct links to online books)
| Week | Date | Topics and Assignments | Date | Topics and Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 03-Sep | Introductions and SN exercise. Intro to MCSN as Ethnomusicology. Social structure, social networks, SNA. Examples in music culture. Course mechanics: 3 streams (SNA, readings, project). Tools: course wiki, eClass, Pajek, readings, reading reviews, quizzes, assignments. Survey. | 05-Sep | Read: Crossley ch. 1; skim Barabasi ch. 1. Install Pajek on your computer. (Let me know if you have trouble - I can help.) Submit (on eClass): Barabasi ch. 1 homework, but applied to MUSIC networks. Submit (also eClass): About Me. (all submissions on eClass: http://bit.ly/mcsn19e) |
| 2 | 10-Sep | Read ESNAP prefaces & ch. 1 ("Looking for Social Structure"), completing all the exercises as you go, including applications via Pajek (don't worry if you don't understand something or can't quite finish; we'll discuss). Also read Crossley ch. 2 (selectively, to reinforce concepts - you don't have to absorb the whole thing right away), and watch the short video Connecting with Networks: Mathematics Illuminated. For fun: play around with the game Planaritify, available for iOS or Android | 12-Sep | Quiz #1: SNA basics, based on definitions. I will ask questions very similar to those in ESNAP 1.6 (but not necessarily multiple choice). Also: reread: Crossley, ch. 1, and submit review (2 parts: summary, and critique. 1-2 paragraphs max. Review Crossley chapter 2 if you didn't finish it for last Tuesday. This will also provide good review for the quiz. Also in class: one-mode (friends) vs two mode nets (e.g. bands and venues; musicians and bands; youtube videos and likes...), how to generate the former from the latter, and some examples (starting with the class survey and including also Netlogo web) to stir your thinking about research projects.). |
| 3 | 17-Sep | Read ESNAP ch. 2 ("Attributes and Relations"), completing all exercises as you go, and trying out every operation in Pajek. Also review/reread Crossley ch. 2 (finish it if you didn't do that last week). Begin to think about possible projects (we'll discuss on Thursday), and whether you'd like to carry out a survey or mine existing data. In class we'll go over ESNAP together. I'll also review the quiz. | 19-Sep | Discussion: your project ideas. Everyone will present their ideas for feedback from the class. Submit: your idea in a single paragraph: define the network, its significance, how you plan to collect the data, and what basic questions you seek to answer? Also submit: the network, partitions, and vectors you created on Tuesday (finish them up first). Note: on http://bit.ly/mcsn19 I've listed a bunch of SNA datasets and ideas for research on music networks; please review for possible inspiration. |
| 4 | 24-Sep | Read ESNAP ch. 3 ("Cohesive Subgroups"), completing all exercises as you go, and trying out every operation in Pajek. Also download Alex Arena's jazz musician collaboration dataset and associated information, and analyze the network for cohesion, answering the following questions: (1) how dense is the network overall? (2) what is the average degree? (3) can you extract subnetworks that are even more dense? (hint: use a degree partition); (4) how many components are there? (5) (if you have time) analyze for k-cores (and have a look at the associated paper) | 26-Sep | |
| 5 | 01-Oct | 03-Oct | Submit: project proposal draft. | |
| 6 | 08-Oct | 10-Oct | Quiz #2. | |
| 7 | 15-Oct | Submit: project proposal rewrite. | 17-Oct | |
| 8 | 22-Oct | Submit: annotated project bibliography. | 24-Oct | |
| 9 | 29-Oct | 31-Oct | Submit: project paper outline. | |
| 10 | 05-Nov | 07-Nov | Quiz #3. | |
| 11 | 12-Nov | No class (Reading Week) | 14-Nov | No class (Reading Week) |
| 12 | 19-Nov | 21-Nov | ||
| 13 | 26-Nov | Student presentations | 28-Nov | Student presentations |
| 14 | 03-Dec | Student presentations | 05-Dec | Student presentations. Last day of class. |
| 15 | 10-Dec | 12-Dec | ||
| 16 | 17-Dec | Final paper due | 19-Dec |