Skip to main content
Log in

Employing online social networks to monitor and evaluate training of digital inclusion agents

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Social Network Analysis and Mining Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This work presents challenges in evaluating and monitoring digital inclusion training programs, considering the aspects inherent in large-scale training, and report the main challenges in an approach based on network learning. For this, our goals are as follows: develop an architecture to provide all interface features with communication tools, data collection, automatic notification (alerts) of interest to those involved in training and proposal, and survey analyses; employ algorithms to measure the centrality, prestige, and density of interactions in a real case and consolidated training based on learning network; employ algorithms to correlate and measure, in probabilistic terms, the effects of participation in the interaction tools and the use of the resources and activities proposed; and improve a large-scale training program from the implementation of monitoring and tracking services offered in the architecture.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agarwal N, Liu H, Tang L, Yu PS (2011) Modeling blogger influence in a community. Soc Netw Anal Min 2(2);139–162. Springer. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s13278-011-0039-3

    Google Scholar 

  • Amariles F, Paz OP, Russell N, Johnson N (2006) The impacts of community telecenters in rural Colombia [Eletronc version]. J Commun Inform 2(3) (Special Issue: Telecentres)

  • Bailey A, Ngwenyama O (2011) The challenge of e-participation in the digital city: exploring generational influences among community telecentre users. Telematics Inform 28(3):204–214. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0736585310000572

  • Batagelj V (2009) Social network analysis, large-scale. In: Meyers RA (ed) Encyclopedia of complexity and systems science. Springer, New York, pp 8245–8265

  • Batagelj V, Mrvar A (2003) Pajek analysis and visualization of large networks. In: Mutzel P, Jünger M, Leipert S (eds) Science, vol 2265(19). Springer, Berlin, pp 8–11

  • Batagelj V, Mrvar A (2008) Analysis of kinship relations with Pajek. Soc Sci Comput Rev 26(2):224–246. Sage Publications. Retrieved from http://eprints.pascal-network.org/archive/00008179/

    Google Scholar 

  • Batagelj V, Mrvar A (2012) Pajek—program for analysis and visualization of large networks. Reference manual, list of commands with short explanation, version 2.05. http://vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/pajek/doc/pajekman.pdf

  • Borgatti SP, Cross R (2003) A relational view of information seeking and learning in social networks. Manag Sci 49:432–446

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Bossio JF (2006) Social sustainability of telecenters from the viewpoint of operators: A case study from São Paulo. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. London School of Economics, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cadima R, Ferreira C, Monguet J, Ojeda J, Fernandez J (2010) Promoting social network awareness: a social network monitoring system. Comput Educ 54(4):1233–1240. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131509003297

  • Carleial L (2001) Redes Industriais de Subcontratação: um enfoque de sistema nacional de inovação, um estudo das industrias eletrônica, metalmecânica e de confecções da Região Metropolitana de Curitiba. Hucitec, São Paulo

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper GF, Herskovits E (1992) A Bayesian method for the induction of probabilistic networks from data. Mach Learn 9(4):309–347. Springer. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/BF00994110

  • Cullen R, Morse S (2011) Who’s contributing: do personality traits influence the level and type of participation in online communities. In: Proceedings of the 44th annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences HICSS 2011, vol 0, pp 1–11. IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services. Retrieved from http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2011.496

  • Decree n. 6226 (2007) National Program of Culture, Mais Cultura. DOU. Federative Republic of Brazil, Brasília, DF, p 15

  • Decree n. 6300 (2007) National Program of Educational Technology, ProInfo. DOU. Federative Republic of Brazil, Brasília, DF, p 3

  • Decree n. 6991 (2009) National Program to Support Digital inclusion in the communities, Telecentros.BR. DOU n. 206, Sec.1, p 3. Federative Republic of Brazil, Brasília, DF. Retrieved Nov 26, 2011, from http://www.in.gov.br/imprensa/visualiza/index.jsp?jornal=1&pagina=3&data=28/10/2009

  • De Wever B, Schellens T, Valcke M, Vankeer H (2006) Content analysis schemes to analyze transcripts of online asynchronous discussion groups: a review. Comput Educ 46(1):6–28. Elsevier Customer Service. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131505000552

    Google Scholar 

  • Doran PR, Doran C, Mazur A (2011) Social network analysis as a method for analyzing interaction in collaborative online learning environments. J System Cybern Inform 9(7):10–16. Retrieved from http://www.iiisci.org/journal/CV$/sci/pdfs/SP319EB.pdf

  • Faust K, Wasserman S (1992) Centrality and prestige: a review and synthesis. J Quant Anthropol 4(1):23–78. Retrieved from http://www.quantitativeanthropology.org/index.php?journal=QA&page=article&op=viewPDFInterstitial&path%5B%5D=59&path%5B%5D=72

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman LC (1996) Some antecedents of social network analysis. Connections 19(1):39–42. Retrieved from http://insna.org/PDF/Connections/v19/1996_I-1-4.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Gomez R, Baron LF (2011) Does public access computing really contribute to community development? Lessons from libraries, telecenters and cybercafés in Colombia. Electron J Inf Syst Dev Ctries 49(2):1–11. Kowloon Tong: EJISDC. Retrieved from http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/index.php/ejisdc/article/view/832

  • Granovetter M (1983) The strength of weak ties: a network theory revisited. In: Marsden PV, Lin N (eds) Sociol Theory, vol 1, pp 201–233. Wiley. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/202051?origin=crossref

  • Granqvist M (2006) Looking critically at ICT4Dev: The case of Lincos. J Commun Inf 2(1). Retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/265/222

  • Gupta B, Dasgupta S, Gupta A (2008) Adoption of ICT in a government organization in a developing country: an empirical study. J Strateg Inf Syst 17(2):140–154. Elsevier

    Google Scholar 

  • Han J, Kamber M (2006) Data mining: concepts and techniques. In: Kacprzyk J, Jain LC (eds) Soft Comput 54:800. Morgan Kaufmann

  • Heeks R, Kanashiro LL (2009) Telecentres in mountain regions—a Peruvian case study of the impact of information and communication technologies on remoteness and exclusion J Mt Sci 6(4):320–330. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s11629-009-1070-y

    Google Scholar 

  • Heeks R, León K (2009) Remoteness, exclusion and telecentres in mountain regions: analysing ICT-based “information chains” in Pazos, Peru. Centre for Development Informatics, Manchester. Retrieved November, 12, 2011, from http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/documents/di_wp38.pdf

  • Henri F (1992) Collaborative learning through computer conferencing. In: Kaye A (ed) Computer conference and content analysis: the Najaden papers. Springer, Berlin, pp 117–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Hinds D, Lee RM (2008) Social network structure as a critical success condition for virtual communities. In: Proceedings of the 41st annual Hawaii international conference on system sciences HICSS 2008, pp 323–323. IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/wrapper.htm?arnumber=4439028

  • IBGE (2009) National household sample survey: information technology and communication. Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, IBGE

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen FV, Jensen F (1994) Proceedings of the tenth conference on uncertainty in artificial intelligence. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, pp 360–366. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.36.8229&rep=rep1&type=pdf

  • Jin Y, Matsuo Y, Ishizuka M (2007) Extracting social networks among various entities on the web. In: Franconi E, Kifer M, May W (eds) Proceedings of the fourth European semantic web conference, vol 4519. Springer, Berlin, pp 251–266. Retrieved from http://www.miv.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/papers/kin-ESWC07.pdf

  • Kim J, Kwon Y, Cho D (2011) Investigating factors that influence social presence and learning outcomes in distance higher education. Comput Educ 57(2):1512–1520. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131511000431

  • Koh J, Kim Y, Butler B, Bock G (2007) Encouraging participation in virtual communities. Commun ACM 50(2):68–73. ACM. ACM. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1216016.1216023

    Google Scholar 

  • Korb KB, Nicholson AE (2004) Bayesian artificial intelligence. In: Lafferty J, Madigan D, Murtagh F, Smyth P (eds) Intelligence 1:365. Chapman & Hall/CRC

  • Kourtellis N, Alahakoon T, Simha R, Iamnitchi A, Tripathi R (2012) Identifying high betweenness centrality nodes in large social networks. Soc Netw Anal Min. Springer. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0076-6 (published online)

  • Krackhardt D (1987) Cognitive social structures. Soc Netw 9(2):109–134. Elsevier

    Google Scholar 

  • Krackhardt D, Hanson JR (1993) Informal networks: the company behind the chart. Harv Bus Rev 71(4):104-111. Sage Publications Ltd. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10127036

  • Kumar R, Best ML (2006) Social impact and diffusion of telecenter use: a study from the sustainable access in rural India project. J Commun Inform 2(3):328–349. Retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/328/268

  • Lin N, Cook K, Burt R (2001) Social capital: theory and research. In: Lin N, Cook KS, Burt RS (eds) Contemp Sociol 31:333. Aldine de Gruyte

  • Lin N, Fu Y, Hsung RM (2001) The position generator: measurement techniques for investigations of social capital. In: Lin N, Cook K, Burt RS (eds) Social capital theory and research. Aldine de Gruyter

  • Linders D, Wilson SC (2011) What is open government? One year after the directive. In: Proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference DGO 2011. ACM, pp 262–271. Retrieved from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2037556.2037599

  • Liu L, Tang J, Han J (2012) Learning influence from heterogeneous social networks. J Data Min Knowl Discov (published online)

  • Macías AG (2002) Redes sociales y “clusters” empresariales. Revista Hispana para el análisis de redes sociais, (v. 1, n. 6). Retrieved from http://revista-redes.rediris.es/html-vol1/vol1_6.htm

  • Macintosh A (2004) Characterizing e-participation in policy-making. Sci N Y, 00(C):1–10. IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/wrapper.htm?arnumber=1265300

  • Madon S, Reinhard N, Roode D, Walsham G (2009) Digital inclusion projects in developing countries: processes of institutionalization. Inf Technol Dev 15(2):95–107. Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/30653/

  • Martínez A, Dimitriadis Y, Rubia B, Gomez E, De la Fuente P (2003) Combining qualitative evaluation and social network analysis for the study of classroom social interactions. Comput Educ 41(4):353–368. Elsevier. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131503000824

    Google Scholar 

  • Matheus R, Ribeiro MM, Vaz JC, De Souza CA (2010) Internet use for social control and participation: what are local governments doing in Latin America? In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance, pp 333–338. ACM. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1930389

  • Molina JL (1999) El organigrama informal en las organizaciones. Una aproximación desde el análisis de redes sociales. Redes Revista Hispana para el análisis de redes sociales. Retrieved from http://revista-redes.rediris.es/webredes/textos/organizaciones.doc

  • Montoya EV (2007) Telecentros comunitarios: Un espacio para la participación y formación ciudadana. La experiencia de Manizales, Colombia [Eletronc version]. J Commun Inform 3(3). Special issue: Community Informatics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Retrieved from http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/410/367

  • Mori CK, Assumpção RO (2007) Brazilian digital inclusion public policy: achievements and challenges (electronic version). J Commun Inform 3(3). Special issue: Community Informatics in Latin America and the Caribbean. Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/424

  • Nam T, Pardo TA (2011) Conceptualizing smart city with dimensions of technology, people, and institutions. In: Proceedings of the 12th annual international digital government research conference: digital government innovation in challenging times DGO ‘11, pp 282–291. ACM. Retrieved from: http://www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/journals/dgo_2011_smartcity/dgo_2011_smartcity.pdf

  • Ngwenyama O, Morawczynski O (2009) Factors affecting ICT expansion in emerging economies: an analysis of ICT infrastructure expansion in five Latin American countries. Inf Technol Dev 15(4):237–258. Taylor & Francis Ltd. Retrieved from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122598308/abstract

  • Porter n. 256 (2002) Electronic government—care service to citizen—GESAC. DOU. Federative Republic of Brazil, Brasília, DF, p 46

  • Parkinson S (2005) Telecentres, access and development: experience and lessons from Uganda and South Africa. Fountain Publishers, Kampala. Retrieved from: http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/30414/19/121248.pdf

  • Parkinson S, Lauzon A (2008) The impact of the Internet on local social equity: A study of a telecenter in Aguablanca, Colombia. Inf Technol Int Dev 4(3):21–38. Retrieved from: http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/viewFile/300/132

  • Parkinson S, Ramirez R (2006) Using a sustainable livelihoods approach to assess the impact of ICTs in development. J Commun Inform 2(3):116–127. Retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/310

  • Pearl J (1988) Probabilistic reasoning in intelligent systems: networks of plausible inference. Morgan Kauffmann San Mateo, vol 88. Morgan Kaufmann, p 552. Retrieved from: http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike09-20&path=ASIN/1558604790

  • Pick JB, Gollakota K (2010) Technology for rural telecenters in India: a model and exploratory study of diffusion of information for telecenter use and sustainability. AMCIS 2010 proceedings

  • Prado P, Câmara MA, Figueiredo MA (2010) Evaluating ICT adoption in rural Brazil: a quantitative analysis of telecenters as agents of social change. J Commun Inform 7(1, 2). Special Double Issue: The Internet and Community Informatics in Brazil. Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.ci-journal.net/index.php/ciej/article/view/663

  • Ramanathan J, Ramnath R, Singh N, Xu Z, Xu Y (2011) Sense-respond cloud mediator architecture for services evolution. Proceedings of the ACM symposium on applied computing. ACM Press, pp 162–169. Retrieved from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1982185.1982223

  • Rocha CC (2003) Relaciones estratégicas entre pymes: contraste de hipótesis empresariales mediante ARS. Revista Hispana para el análisis de redes sociais (v. 4, n. 4, Jun. 2003). Retrieved Nov 21, 2011, from http://revista-redes.rediris.es

  • Sandoval-Almazan R (2007) Digital literacy: problems faced by telecenter users in Mexico. Inf Syst J 13(3):217–232. Wiley. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1298531.1298533&coll=&dl=GUIDE&CFID=19779842&CFTOKEN=84724072

  • Saxenian A (1994) Regional advantage: culture and competition in Silicon valley and route 128. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, p. xi, 226. Harvard University Press

  • Scott J (2011) Social network analysis: developments, advances, and prospects. Soc Netw Anal Min 1(1):21–26. Springer. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s13278-010-0012-6

  • SLTI (2011) National network of training for digital inclusion (operating manual). Ministry for Planning, Secretary of Logistic and Information Technology

  • Sorj B (2003) Brasil@povo.com: A luta contra a desigualdade na sociedade da informação. In: Zahar J (ed) UNESCO, Brasilia

  • Uzzi B, Schwartz M (1993) Structural holes—the social-structure of competition. In: Burt RS (ed) Contemp Soc J Rev 22(2):155–157

  • Wasserman S, Faust K (1994) Social network analysis: methods and applications. In: Granovetter M (ed) Social networks, vol 8. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Watts DJ, Strogatz SH (1998) Collective dynamics of “small-world” networks. In: Newman M, Barabási A-L, Watts DJ (eds) Nature 393(6684):440–442. Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9623998

  • Xiaohua H (2003) Review of “data-mining and uncertain reasoning: an integrated approach”. Wiley, New York; 2001. J Inf Vis 2(1):78–79

  • Yu AY, Tian SW, Vogel D, Chi-Wai Kwok R (2010) Can learning be virtually boosted? An investigation of online social networking impacts. Comput Educ 55(4):1494–1503. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.06.015

  • Zhang C (2008) The institutional framework of the United Nations Development Programme-Ministry of Science and Technology (UNDP-MOST) telecenter project in rural China. Inf Technol Int Dev 4(3). Retrieved from http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/viewFile/301/133

  • Zhong Z-J (2011) From access to usage: the divide of self-reported digital skills among adolescents. Comput Educ 56(3):736–746. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360131510003015

  • Ziberna A, Vehovar V (2009) Using social network to predict the behavior of active members of online communities. 2009 international conference on advances in social network analysis and mining, pp 119–124. IEEE. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/lpdocs/epic03/wrapper.htm?arnumber=5231919

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvana Rossy de Brito.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

de Brito, S.R., da Silva, A.S., Martins, D.L. et al. Employing online social networks to monitor and evaluate training of digital inclusion agents. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 3, 497–519 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0093-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0093-5

Keywords

Navigation