One of the most critical roles of networks is their use in identifying various behaviors, regardless of whether they originate from social networks, disease tracking, idea diffusion, or any one of many other sources. There is a large and growing body of literature dedicated to network analysis that can be applied to a wide range of behavior across multiple realms, merging theory with real life examples to help you provide solutions to critical needs.
In this chapter, we will initially examine several of the most critical concepts, providing general overviews as well as external resources that examine each of these concepts more thoroughly. The topics covered in this chapter are as follows:
Contagion and diffusion
Clustering and homophily
Network growth patterns
Using Gephi generators
Viewing a contagion network
Viewing network diffusion
Identifying homophily
After covering the theoretical foundations, we'll then move onto how to identify and apply these ideas using Gephi...