Description:

Twitter is rapidly becoming a "common carrier" of social media, a wire that transmits a variety of content rather then a social network in itself. Yet, Twitter data is rich in elements that yield to Social Network Analysis techniques and can produce unique insights into information diffusion. This course will cover:

• Harvesting data from Twitter via search and streaming APIs
• Decomposing Tweets into constituent parts
• Fast-and-frugal content analysis of tweets
• Deriving and analyzing social network data found in tweets.
• Analyzing friends and followers

About Maksim Tsvetovat

Maksim Tsvetovat is an interdisciplinary scientist, a software engineer, and a jazz musician. He has received his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in the field of Computation, Organizations and Society, concentrating on computational modeling of evolution of social networks, diffusion of information and attitudes, and emergence of collective intelligence. Currently, he teaches social network analysis at George Mason University. He is also a co-founder of DeepMile Networks, a startup company concentrating on mapping influence in social media. Maksim also teaches executive seminars in social network analysis, including "Social Networks for Startups" and "Understanding Social Media for Decisionmakers".