Network Indicators

The complex world of an individual's epoch social life is primarily created by relations and the behavioral patterns that derive from them. A network is a group of relationships, a set of socially relevant members connected with one or more relations. Thus, in order to understand networks, indicators are proposed to describe nodes and determine their relations, either position based, event based, or attribution based. Network indicators describe what a node is, what type of connection the nodes have, and what the direction and the intensity of those connections are. Indicators are identifiers and metrics that describe similarities, social relations, interactions, and flows. Beyond measurement, indicators could be defined by the phenomenon of interest, by actors' environments and circumstances, their cohesiveness, or using relations as contexts of other relations.

When describing social life networks, complexity is present. Indicators assist in identifying a network and understanding the specialized and critical function of connectivity as a survival strategy. Speaking about networks captures countries, neighborhoods, departments in organizations, people, journal articles, or Web pages; those become social when people as actors/users participate with similarity, social relationships, interactions, and flows.

Similarity is the relation of resemblance in any attribute measurable as a variable; group memberships, comemberships and interlocking participation, and sameness in a spatial or temporal space are examples of similarity. Social relations cover affinity and kinship ties, commonly defined roles, and familiarity in feelings and mutual awareness; a family member, a friend, a schoolmate, or a significant other could be examples of such relations. Interactions are ties based on the behavior of individuals, from verbal communication to inviting someone to dinner. Usually such interactions occur in the context of social relations. Flows are unidirectional or bidirectional exchanges or transfers between nodes for resources, information, or influence. Flows also occur in the context of social relations, where different kinds of support and companionship are manifested.

From the perspective of network analysts, cause-effect relation is located in the social structure and not in the individual. Therefore, behavior embedded in networks is a characteristic indicator of network effect and scope. Each member of a group rarely shares the same relation to the group, so interaction and strength of connection are characteristics that upgrade the groups to networks.