1. Network Genie Getting Started with Web-based Social Network
Survey Data Collection
This presentation will introduce you to Network Genie and its major features. You may want to download a free copy of the Network Genie User’s Manual from the website for more detailed information.

2. Designing Surveys
Network Genie supports two types of social network surveys:
Complete network surveys (all members of the network are known in advance)
Ego centric network surveys (participants may or may not be known in advance; network members are not known in advance)
Network Genie allows you to administer social network surveys over the Internet. The field of social network analysis uses many different terms for the kinds of surveys and projects people conduct. Network Genie is designed to support complete network surveys and ego-centric network surveys.

3. Survey Components All surveys include:
Social network items (questions about people in the network)
Person-centered items (questions about the person who is completing the survey)
Whether you are conducting complete network or ego-centric network surveys, both social network questions and person-centered questions can be included in the survey. This will allow you to ask questions about the people who are completing the survey as well as about the people in their network.

4. Working with Surveys It is easy to work with surveys:
Click on “Create a New Survey” or “Clone an Existing Survey” in the navigation area
Click on an existing survey listed under “Surveys” in the work area
On your home page, there is a navigation area on the left and a work area on the right. Crumbs will appear just above both areas to show you where you are. The work area on your home page will list both projects and surveys that you have created. Network Genie provides you with examples of each. Because most people start by thinking about the questions they want to ask, let’s start our tour looking at surveys. It is easy to work with surveys: Click on “Create a New Survey” or “Clone an Existing Survey” in the navigation area. Click on an existing survey listed under “Surveys” in the work area. This introduction will take advantage of the example survey to show how things work.

5. The Example Survey
Network Genie allows users to create powerful social network surveys
The Example Survey demonstrates the types of complete network questions that can be asked
Social network surveys typically have few questions primarily because each question is intended to gather information about many people. The Example Survey has 11 questions. These demonstrate the variety of social network questions Network Genie supports.

6. Network Subgroup Identification
Egos (respondents) identify alters (people in their personal network) based on criteria posed by questions you ask
The Example Survey includes three Network Subgroup Identification questions. Each of these questions asks survey participants to identify a subgroup from a larger group. In social network analysis, it is very common to identify subgroups based on some criteria.

7. Networks Can Be Nested
Nesting allows subgroups to be created within larger groups
Subsequent questions ask only about the most recently identified subgroup
Network Genie uses information gathered in response to Network Subgroup Identification questions to limit who is included as an alter in subsequent questions. So, for instance, if you want to learn about friendship patterns among teens, you could ask questions that would be relevant to acquaintances, about friends that would be relevant to them, and then ask for information about best friends that would be most relevant to them. A workplace survey may first ask the respondent to answer a question to identify fellow workers, collaborators, and then team mates.

8. An Ego’s View of Network Subgroup Identification
When surveys are administered to participants, they see a box on the left that contains all the names in the network they are being asked about. They move names from the left to the right by either double clicking on the name or by highlighting the name and using the buttons in the middle to execute the move. Participants can sort names by last, first and nick name. They can also search for a name, which can be handy if the initial network is very large. Subsequent questions will ask about people whose names appear in the “Selected Member” box on the right.

9. Social Rating Questions
Asks questions that use either a single response (radio button) or an all that apply (check box) format
Inserts names from the current list of alters
One of the most popular types of questions to ask in social network surveys are rating questions that ask the respondent to make assessments of people in their personal network. Network Genie allows you to design questions with an embedded code that places the names of network members in the question. In this case, Edward Ellis is asked about because the respondent identified him as a person in his close friends network.

10. Social Ranking Questions
Asks questions that require alters to be ordered
Network Genie also allows you to ask questions in which you require respondents to put members of their network in some rank order. Names are moved from left to right and then ordered from top to bottom. The minus and plus keys are used to move names up and down within the box on the right. The respondent cannot proceed until all names on the left have been moved to the right.

11. Social Nomination Questions
Asks questions that require participants to select only one alter from the current alter network
The Example Survey includes four items known as Social Nomination Questions. This allows you to ask questions where you want the name of only one person. These questions are usually asked when you are looking for a person within a network who has a superlative quality such as leadership, humility, the gift of gab, or the ability to remain silent.

12. Ego Centric Network Surveys
Require two unique item types:
Ego Centric Subject Identification (the participant must identify himself or herself)
Ego Centric Network Identification (the participant enters identifying information about alters in his or her network)
Ego centric items are placed at the beginning of the survey
What you see in the Example Survey is a typical complete network survey. Ego-centric surveys require two additional types of questions. The respondent needs to identify him or herself. And, it is up to the person taking the survey to provide the list of people who make up his or her network. These questions are always placed at the beginning of an ego-centric survey.

13. Example Ego Centric Survey
As an example, the question with the green background asks the respondent to identify him or herself. The two questions with the blue background are questions that are used to gather information about who is in that person’s network – in this case relatives and friends. Question 4 is a social rating question that will ask about how much support the respondent received from everyone identified from either question.

14. Person-Centered Questions
Network Genie allows you to ask questions of the person taking the survey about him or herself
Person-Centered Questions are formatted as multiple response questions
Navigate using the link on the “Network Survey Main” page
Most surveys also want to ask about the person who is taking the survey. . . age, gender, what they think, what they have done. All of these questions are person-centered questions. Questions are formatted as multiple choice response questions. Get to the area in Network Genie where you can define these questions and include them in your survey by clicking on the “Person-Centered Items” on the “Network Survey Main” page.

15. Library of Measures
All measures you create will be stored in a private library
You can easily import previously created measures into new surveys
On the home page and on the web pages designed to help you create surveys, there are links to the Network Genie Library of Measures. Every question you create gets stored in the library. That way, you can easily create future surveys by borrowing questions from the library. It is a long-term goal of Network Genie to create a large library of measures that people will be able to use so that they can use standardized methods for gathering data. To date, most person-centered questions in the Network Genie public library are about adolescent health.

16. Technical Support
Technical support is available during business hours (Eastern US Time)
IT Support (Eric Reese)
x109
Training (Bill Hansen)
x101
We hope you find using Network Genie will make social network survey data collection easy and flexible. We are committed to helping users get the most out of Network Genie. I.T. support and training support are available during normal business hours.