BY REBECCA SPARENBERG

 “What Makes A Fan:

Analysis of Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture & Technology

Student Network:”

My Original HypothesisWho Makes up your CCT

Student Network?

Short Time Frame to Establish Ties

Students Many Never Meet Everyone In Their Class, Much Less Everyone In the CCT Program

Homophily based on academic cluster

Based on Cross & Parker’s definition and Easley and Kleinberg’s Research

Noteworthy Part Time Students on Peripheral

Real World Ties Can Translate into Online Interactions

THE PROBLEM

Weak vs. Strong Ties

Students May Miss Out on Opportunities

CCT Students’ Social Ties By Academic Concentration, Year, and Status

Student Status

Solid Triangles: Full-Time, First Year

Empty Triangles: Part-Time, First Year

Solid Squares: Full-Time, Second Year

Empty Squares: Part-Time, Second Year

Black Circles: Alumni

Clusters by Color

Red: Cultural Studies

Yellow: Globalized Studies

Green: Art, Media & Representation

Blue: Media and Politics

Purple: Technology & Society

Pink: Technology, Business & the Economy

Orange: Technology, Information & Innovation Policy

SURVEY, FOLLOWED BY SOCIOMETRIC QUESTIONING:

The Data Collection Method

A two-stage combination of sociometric questioning, observational research, and analysis of archival records.

Survey, similar to what we saw in practice in Valente, Unger, and Johnson’s study “Do Popular Students Smoke.”

- Identify the 5 students whom they consider their “closest friends, ” 5 students they have the most classes, and 5 students whom they have or would like to collaborate with on a class project, research, and/or a conference paper

- Identify their year (first or second+), status (full-time or part-time), and which of the seven CCT cluster’s they most alight with.

- Lastly, I asked them if where fans of CCT’s Facebook site and/or followed CCT on Twitter; if no, why?

By The Numbers

Two Weeks, 52 Responses Named an additional

61 CCTers Network of 113 Nodes,

231 actual edges out of 12,656 possible

Degree range from 1 to 11, with an average node degree of 4

Slightly skewed and not a true representation of the actual CCT network

Follow Up Questioning 20 Students : 10 First Years and 10 Second Years

Second Years 2 0f 10, “close” vs. “best” would

have answered different 3 of 10 seeking certificates

outside of the CCT Awareness and Access for

collaboration “Surrounding Factors as mentioned

by Easley and Kleinberg Boundary Spanner between

departments• 7 0f 10 named individuals they

had not worked with previously on a project but based on their observations shared similar academic interested

• Majority did not name friends as possible partners for projects

First Years 7 of the 10 first-years

students made the majority of the “close” friends

62% did not respond to the who you would collaborate with question.

Blue – Fans of CCT Program on FacebookYellow - Fans of Georgetown University or another Georgetown Program on Facebook, but not CCTRed – On Facebook, but not fans of CCT or affiliated sitesBlack – Info Unknown/ Not Found on Facebook

Homophily The Power of Weak Ties

Popularity of Facebook

• 103 out of the 113 nodes in the network had a Facebook account •60 are fans of CCT• Only 10 students did not have accounts• 11 others are fans of other Georgetown programs

Class of 2011 and Class of 2012 pages but not the CCT page

•29 CCT students are on Facebook, they are not fans of the CCT page or affiliate Georgetown sites

From Real World Connections to Online Ties

- Three said they are not of anything “fans”- Three replied that they are fans of other pages

and get their news from those sites or their peers- The majority - seven students - answered that

they were not aware that CCT had a fan site- Ultimately, both knowledge and access must be present for

information sharing to be effective (Cross & Parker, 40).

- Since beginning my research four students that declared they were not fans of the CCT’s page

If everyone CCT was a CCT fan…..

Apparent Nodes

o 8 active adjunct full-time faculty

o 4 staff members

o776 registered alumni that have ties with the CCT program

oLots of unmeasurables

DURING THE INITIAL SURVEY 39 OF 52 STUDENTS RESPONDED THAT THEY DID NOT

FOLLOW CCT ON TWITTER 32 Responded “ I do not have a Twi t ter account” 4 repl ied that they fe l t there was no reason to fo l low CCT on Twi t ter.

Life's a Tweet……well, maybe not

In Conclusion!