Social Network Analysis with the "Clique Finder"

[ckd]

One of the things I like about LiveJournal is that it makes a certain amount of social network data available and visible. Yes, the whole "friends list" concept is overloaded by being a reading list and/or an access-control list depending on the user, and different people have wildly different criteria for adding someone to the list, but it's still a lot of data, and fun to play with.

One of the fun tools people have developed to use this data is the Clique Finder, which finds the largest group (or groups) of users who have all other members of the group listed as friends containing a particular user. At the moment, I am a member of 7 cliques of size 9, but there are interesting overlaps between the seven.

• ckd, del_c, james_nicoll, dhole, filkerdave, supergee, annafdd, brisingamen, akirlu


• jonsinger, ckd, pnh, trinker, supergee, filkerdave, eleanor, brisingamen, akirlu


• jonsinger, ckd, eleanor, trinker, supergee, pnh, whumpdotcom, brisingamen, akirlu


• jonsinger, ckd, matociquala, minnehaha, supergee, pnh, akirlu, brisingamen, whumpdotcom


• jonsinger, ckd, matociquala, trinker, supergee, pnh, whumpdotcom, brisingamen, akirlu


• ckd, kip_w, supergee, dhole, filkerdave, james_nicoll, annafdd, brisingamen, akirlu


• filkerdave, ckd, kip_w, james_nicoll, pnh, supergee, annafdd, brisingamen, akirlu

Find the largest clique containing:

(Enter your livejournal username here).

Several of those lists make me look like a member of the rasff gang, don't they?

Well, that format is nice and all, but a little analysis and reformatting gets us this:

akirlu

annafdd

brisingamen

ckd

del_c

dhole

filkerdave

james_nicoll

supergee

akirlu

annafdd

brisingamen

ckd

dhole

filkerdave

james_nicoll

kip_w

supergee

akirlu

annafdd

brisingamen

ckd

filkerdave

james_nicoll

kip_w

pnh

supergee

akirlu

brisingamen

ckd

eleanor

filkerdave

jonsinger

pnh

supergee

trinker

akirlu

brisingamen

ckd

eleanor

jonsinger

pnh

supergee

trinker

whumpdotcom

akirlu

brisingamen

ckd

jonsinger

matociquala

minnehaha

pnh

supergee

whumpdotcom

akirlu

brisingamen

ckd

jonsinger

matociquala

pnh

supergee

trinker

whumpdotcom

This makes some patterns more obvious. akirlu, brisingamen, and supergee form a sort of super-clique, appearing in all seven variations. There are pairs of users (dhole and pnh, filkerdave and whumpdotcom, annafdd or james_nicoll and jonsinger) where between the members of a pair all variations are covered, but who do not overlap; these pairs, were they to friend each other, would create a larger clique.

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

You do realize something else about all this right? It makes you 7 of 9.

I'm sorry. It was just . . . there, you know? ::grin::

[ckd]

Heh! I don't think I'd be suited for the same set of wardrobe choices, if you know what I mean.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey! Who among us would? ::grin::

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I seem to be in 7 of 11 but I'm not sure why. Don't have the patience for analysis.

[cos]

Thanks, that was neat. I'm a member of 8 cliques of size 14, and they're all suspects/elbows cliques. I wish I could see some of my smaller cliques which are probably from different social groups.