Introduction to Social Networks

Key concepts related to social networks and their characteristics.

Social Network

A structure made up of individuals or organizations connected by one or more specific types of interdependency.

Vertices

The individual nodes in a graph representing people or entities.

Edges

Connections between the vertices in a graph, denoting relationships.

Triadic Closure

The principle that if two nodes in a network have a common connection, they are likely to become connected themselves.

Clustering Coefficient

A measure of the degree to which nodes in a graph tend to cluster together.

Homophily

The tendency of individuals to associate and bond with similar others.

Local Bridge

An edge (or connection) between two nodes that does not belong to a triangle, indicating a weak tie.

Betweenness Centrality

A measure of how often a node acts as a bridge along the shortest path between two other nodes.

Embeddedness

The degree to which a relationship is reinforced by the network of ties within which it is embedded.

Weak Ties

Connections between individuals who are not closely related but provide bridges to other social networks.

Strong Ties

Close relationships between individuals characterized by high levels of interaction.

Edge Betweenness

The number of shortest paths that pass through a particular edge, used to identify important connections.

Community Structure

The organization of nodes into groups that interact more with each other than with nodes outside the group.

Degree Distribution

The distribution of the degrees of nodes in a network, offering insight into the network's structure.

Graph Density

The ratio of the number of edges to the total number of possible edges in a graph.

Diameter of a Graph

The greatest distance between any pair of vertices in the graph, indicating the longest shortest path.

Connected Component

A subset of a graph in which any two vertices are connected to each other by paths and which is connected to no additional vertices.