Facebook Network Analysis (for a facebook page) using Gephi - A students' guide

Students who are pursuing their course on Social Network Analysis in some form or the other, can use Gephi, a free software which can be used to visualize and manipulate graphs. Gephi is an interactive visualization and exploration platform for all kinds of social / other networks and complex systems.It can also process dynamic and hierarchical graphs. It runs on various platforms which include Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. LinkedIn maps is also based on Gephi tool with some modifications.

Some of the applications of Gephi are:

• Exploratory Data Analysis
• Link Analysis
• Social Network Analysis
• Biological Network analysis
• Poster creation

Some of the technological aspects of Gephi are:

• Ergonomic interface: It is based on NetBeans UI
• High-performance: It has a built-in 3D rendering engine
• Native file formats: GDF (GUESS), GraphML (NodeXL), GML, NET (Pajek), GEXF, etc are some of the file formats which are supported by Gephi
• Customizable by plugins: layouts, metrics, data sources, manipulation tools, rendering presets, etc.

Now, it is very easy to use Gephi to do data analysis of facebook data for bipartite network. The following steps may be used to do the above mentioned analysis:

1. Login to Facebook through an user account & ‘like’ the facebook page for which analysis needs to be done.
2. Using the Netvizz app (http://apps.facebook.com/netvizz/) on Facebook extract a dataset for a bipartite network containing users and posts
3. Download 1 gdf format file and 2 tsv format files (total 3 files)
4. Open the gdf format file using Gephi and analyze
5. Open the tsv format file using Microsoft Excel

Using Gephi's layout tool, statistics tool and filter tool, various analysis on degree, betweenness and closeness centrality, network density, path length, diameter, HITS, modularity, clustering coefficient, etc can be obtained.

Some Modularity analysis on Gephi can be shown as below:

Using Big Data in Telecom - how it can change the game play

Increasing ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), reducing customer churn (subscriber base) and reducing OPEX (Operational Expenses) are three very important priorities for any CSPs (Communication Service Providers) or Telecom Service Providers in general. With the rise in the usage of telecommunication devices in our day-to-day lives, the amount of digital content is increasing tremendously in the data networks. 

Having good insights from the big data, utilizing the insights to ramp up the revenue streams, catering to the customer complaints more effectively, taking feedback for the new service offerings and improving upon them, etc can really create differentiation among the competitors in the telecom industry. Big telecom companies, around the world have realized this opportunity and are taking good amount of initiatives to harness their big data analysis to their help.

As per a study done by IBM, successfully harnessing big data can help the telecom companies to mainly achieve the following three critical objectives:

1. Deliver smarter services that generate new sources of revenue and content across the network
2. Transform internal and external operations to achieve business and service excellence across the different SBUs
3. Build smarter CDN and data networks to drive consistent, high-quality customer experience

There are many service sector companies which are now offering the following service packages to the the telecom operators (The list is not exhaustive):

• Proactive call centers
• Smarter and effective marketing campaigns
• Network Analytics
• Location based services

Some examples of big data analytics in work for the telecom companies and their success stories are:

• A Tier-1 Mobile Service Provider, based out of the US, transforms call centers operation with real time access to Product and services data (customer/users)
• Globe Telecom, based in the Philippines, used big data analytics to improve the effectiveness of their promotions by 600%
• Ufone, based out of Pakistan is deploying big data analytics to improve marketing "offer acceptance rate" by 25%
• XO Communications, based out of US, used big data analytics to improve customer experience and an annual OPEX reduction of USD 15 million per year
• T-Mobile AG, Deutsche Telekom (Germany) uses big data to optimize network performance & reduce OPEX costs
• Sprint, based out of the US, leverages big data analytics to put real-time intelligence into the network driving a 90% increase in network capacity

So it is quite evident that companies across the world are increasing depending on the big data analytics for their improvement and this trend is opening up different avenues for data scientists and big data analysts.

Image source: Internet

Towards Big data in a big way - an introduction

In the modern times, people all over the world are increasingly creating digital information through their usage of cellphones, digital cameras, social media websites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,etc. The digital data deluge is on the rise at a very fast pace. Online streaming of data is a very common thing to do over the internet, which primarily needs huge data transfers across networks. It has been estimated that almost 90% of the digital data residing in the world of ours was created in the past two years itself. Also most of this data (85%) is of the unstructured kind of data.

Few things which might not be known to few, regarding digital data are:

1) Internet has a huge memory and it literally forgets nothing, absolutely nothing - anything and everything that gets created digitally, gets stored in the internet, either through different storage mediums or in raw form as a unstructured stream of ones and zeroes (which can be retrieved as meaningful information when needed) in the network/ memory of the network elements.

2) Privacy issues are increasing with the addition of different internet applications - Marketers and security agencies are extremely interested to monitor practically everyone for their ulterior motives. NSA has been allegedly reported to be following secretive practices to keep record of all the online activities of world citizens over the internet. E-commerce websites use the information content of the web browser cache to understand the consumer behavior and consumer buying pattern.

3) All the big data are getting analysed and collected by different companies at various geographies and capacities - with the increasing demand for analytics among the corporate and industry trend analysts, different companies are increasingly looking for different ways to understand their customers better. While social media websites are a rich source of such information, other Web 2.0 based websites are also important.

With the growing reach of internet and related technology, more and more data will be generated in future and analyzing such data can help the companies to reap tremendous amounts of profits. Data scientists are in huge demand now-a-days and in a way they hold the key to success for many businesses.

Big data have three unique properties of Volume, Variety and Velocity. Along with this time-stamp and location information adds meaning to the data. Analysis of big data is gaining importance primarily because of the fact that unlike analysis of sample based data, analysis on big data takes into effect the entire set of data (as is) and hence all sampling errors can be avoided.

Photo courtesy: intellihq

लाखों बकवास कर लूँगा मैं...

उनकी एक मुस्कुराहट के लिए , लाखों बकवास करता हूँ मैं 

काश उनसे कह पाता की उनको कितना प्यार करता हूँ मैं 

यूँ तो बातें हो जाती हैं हमारे बीच 

पर शायद मेरे बोल कम पड़ जाते हैं 

चित्त तो अब परेशान ही रहता है 

दिल की बात सुनने से भी अब डरता हूँ मैं 

उनकी एक मुस्कुराहट के लिए साला अब भी मरता हूँ मैं !

सयाने से इस जहान में बस उनका साथ मिले तो

बेबस इन निगाहों को उनके आने का इशारा मिले तोह 

मुरझाये से इस चेहरे को हंसने का एक बहाना मिले तो 

स्थिर पड़े इस मन को उड़ने का एक बहाना मिले तो 

वो हँसे, ऐसा कुछ कहने के  लिए अल्फाज़ अगर मिल जाये 

लाखों बकवास कर लूँगा मैं ...प्यार मेरा मुझे जो मिल जाये !


Transliteration in English:

unki ek muskurahat ke liye, lakhon bakwas karta hoon main
kaash unse keh pata ki unko kitna pyar karta hoon main

yun toh baatein ho jati hain humare beech
par shayad mere bol kam pad jatey hain
mann to ab hamesha pareshan hi rehta hai
mann ki baat ko sunne se bhi ab darta hoon main

unki ek muskurahat ke liye sala ab bhi marta hoon main !

sayane se is jahan mein bas unka saath mile toh
bebas in nigahon ko unke aane ka ishara mile toh
murjhaye se is chehre ko hansne ka ek bahana mile toh
sthir pade is mann ko udne ka bahana mile toh

wo hanse, aisa kuch kehne ke liye alfaz agar mil jaye
lakhon bakwas kar loonga main...pyaar mera mujhe jo mil jaye !

My admission into IIM Ranchi

Hi all,

I had decided long back to write a blog on this - My admission into an IIM !!!
It was just a matter of time before which i could do this. But now I am really happy that finally that moment has come :)

It started way back in my B.E. days. I was in the final year of my college period. I along with few of my friends were discussing about our future course of actions after college whenever we ever got serious about it :P
Pondering over many things, over a really long period, I decided to prepare for CAT and Job related entrance exams, along with my studies at BIT Mesra. Few months passed by and by Gods' grace, I was shifting gears in the right ways. First job offer came from TCS. I still remember the night when the results of TCS came out. It was special for so many reasons. A few more weeks passed by then, when I was at my home, and I got to know that Bharti airtel Ltd. will be visiting our college for their debut Technical Leaders Program 2010. It was one of the very best job positions in the ECE core-jobs market. In Jan'10 that day came when I was finally selected as a Technical Leader at airtel HQ (only 12 were selected from 6 premium engineering colleges in India !!!, so it was something )

During all these, my CAT preparation got shifted to second gear. I accepted my airtel job offer and was then posted at Gurgaon HQ.
Being in my job-role, I decided to learn out of it about Telecom and related matters. During my tenure at airtel, I am very proud to say that I was one of the respected ones among my peers and seniors. I worked as a team-member in 5 different teams, all within a short span of 2 years, which is not usual :)
I led a team of 4 people even when I was 2nd youngest person in the team.
All these things were actually pretty good and so I  might have sounded a bit bragging-about-self type here, which I definitely did not intend to. (I would like everyone to overlook that if any :P)
Then I decided to increase my knowledge base in Management studies. I started to prepare for CAT 2011 exam and then appeared in it in Nov'11. The results came out and I was a bit relieved after that :)
I was called for Writting ability test and Personal interview for the provisional admission to the 5 new IIMs. I appeared for the WA/PI process and after it got over, I was really optimistic about my efforts.

Then by Gods' grace, in quick succession of time, I got this beautiful news - 5/5 IIMs converted :):)
Now, after doing quite a few brain-storming sessions and also listening to my inner voice, I have decided to pursue my MBA from IIM Ranchi (PGDM 2012-14) :)
It is one of the finest B-schools in India and I am really thankful to my Gods and well-wishers, for giving me a chance to get all these :):)
Thank you all.

मैं सांस लेता रहूँगा...

साँसों के लिबास से, तेरे रूह को ढक दूंगा,

मेरे प्यार को जो तू अपनाये ,मैं सांस लेता रहूँगा :):)

Transliteration in english :

saanson ke libas se, tere rooh ko dhak doonga,

mere pyaar ko jo tu apnaye, main saans leta rahoonga :):)

Just Like That

If I were you I would have asked you about me.

Don't you think so?

If you think in this way, I would have told you that I like you. I like, the way you were. I like, the way you are, and also, I would like, the way you would be.

My Convocation My Way

Rumors around our convocation date was already spreaded over the Networking tools, many number of times. Many speculated few dates or even months, which they claimed to be true to the best of their knowledge or at-least of their sources!

Needless to say that though we all understood their fallacy, but still, everytime something related to this came up, we all wanted to know more about the actual date. Ever since we left our college after the completion of our 4-year B.E. course, many of us were eagerly waiting for this day. I was particularly waiting for my convocation day, as it would give me a great chance to go back to my college, experience the BIT Mesra's charm, its awesome environment, weather, meet many of my friends, get my official B.E. degree (nonetheless) and to feel nostalgic, again.

All this was happening, when one evening, suddenly on Facebook, some of my friends started sharing few information regarding our Convocation Date and related links. Looking at those posts, I had a feeling that
possibly this time, they are not rumors. Then I visited the BIT Mesra's official website, and felt very happy to see our convocation notice on the top of the Institute's e-Notice board. Then only I came to know that this year's convocation will be the XXI Convocation for BIT Mesra. I surfed sincerely through the notice link, read the guidelines, saw that I have to pay Rs.1000 for the convocation and another refundable Rs.1000, for the Gown. Also, interestingly, there were two Last Date for submitting the application form. Strange ! Although later this mistake (possibly) was rectified.

Now, there was a problem. My office hours and that of any bank starts almost at the same time. Also, to get a Demand Draft I had to go only in the first half of the bank's working hours. So, one morning, I went straight to a nearby ATM. My attempt to withdraw the money failed in that ATM, due to Transaction Timeout error. I went inside the bank concerned to lodge a complaint regarding this incident, and after doing so, I came out of the bank empty handed. A lot of time and energy got wasted, I thought. Then I decided to go to another ATM and again faced the same fate with a different kind of error - ATM temporarily cannot process your transaction. Then I went to, yes, another ATM and by God's grace, I successfully withdrew the money. Huff...finally.
Then I entered the bank's office and wandered here and there to finally locate the counter from where the demand drafts were issued. I borrowed a pen from someone, filled up a form and stood in the queue. Then suddenly something struck in my mind. In the D.D. application form, the bank only seeked details for Cheque payment for issuing the D.D. of requested amount, and at that moment I was not carrying my Cheque Book or the details of my Bank Account of any sort. I only had cash, and it seemed to me that this bank doesn't accept cash !!! I broke out of the queue and went straight to the person on the other side of the counter. I queried him and he told me that they won't accept cash for issuing Demand Drafts. Wow. Another issue. So, I decided to go back to my rented flat, get my Cheque book and again come back. On my way, I thought of doing something else rather. I went to the bank which was nearer to our flat and asked a Bank's staff, whether they accept cash for issuing D.D. or not.To my relief, he said yes! So, quickly, again borrowing a pen from another guy, I filled up their Demand Drafts' application form, paid the amount in cash, took the receipt and headed straight for my office, for which I was already so late. The next morning I again went to that bank, got the Demand Draft, and went to my office a bit late again. It was raining that morning, and I had to get wet for that, on my way. Still I was happy that at-least this part of my job was over.

But, I again committed a mistake and forgot to bring a copy of my Provisional Certificate, which was required to be posted along-with the convocation's application form. So, that day I couldn't post my application. This was also another problem as the last date for submitting the application was nearing by. The next day, for us, there was an Infusion program by our company at a location which was different from our office building ( The TL Infusion program was at airtel Network Laboratory). To get the application posted, I tried to buy me some time before we needed to go for the program, and came to the office somewhat earlier, than usual. Here, in the office we have a guy who takes care of all these mail posting issues. He has contacts with few Courier Services and also the IndiaPost service. But, this mail-posting thing was not going to be so easy for me. And it happened. That day, the guy came late, and by the time he came and I talked to him regarding the post I had to make, it was already time for us to go for the Program as our cab was waiting for us outside the office premises. Still he managed to tell me that I have to face yet another problem, and it was that Bluedart won't be able to send my post to the mentioned address as they have closed their office there. So, nothing can be done from here, atleast for now. I decided not to worry about it right then, and went on for our Infusion Program, which was really important. During the lunch break, I again thought of giving it a try (posting my convocation application), and asked one of my very helpful friends, to give me a bike ride to the only post office nearer to this place, about whose whereabouts, I found on GoogleMaps. The bike ride was also a hell of a ride. And, even the local people were unaware about the post office (Khandsa Post Office), about which GoogleMaps gave an exact lat-long though ! After taking a huge toil on our clothes, our mood and our body, we two finally got to the post office. But, hah, here also, I faced defeat as one the the very few guys working there told me, that the office hours for posting anything for that day was over. I laughed at myself, my friend laughed back at me, and we two again came back to the program centre. Again late. Though noone asked us anything for this. Maybe they understood that I had already had enough. So, that day also passed by. The next morning I went to a different Post Office (Galleria), well befor their 12 PM time. Successfully the mail got posted there without any hitch, and though a bit late for my office, I didn't mind.

But but but, there was a problem. The next day, was the last date for submitting our convocation application, and by no chance it was possible for my SpeedPost to reach the college in just one day. So, again I had to do something. I wrote an email to the Registrar, BIT Mesra, quoting him the situation, and requested him to accept my application, even if it reaches late. Next day, to my temporary relief, he consented. I thanked him for this and again he obliged me.So finally I thought that this application posting job and its toil was finally over. But, no. I had to face some other hitches for being late in registering myself for the Convocation Program.

My Convocation My Way (Continued from the above post)

On the convocation day, I reached my college. I was happy to physically see my college campus again, after a long time. Its buildings, trees, roads,everything. There as a first thing to do, we were required to deposit Rs.1000 cash for the issuance of the Convocation Gown. I deposited that money in the Institute's Accounts office, received the slip and went on to Room No.211/Booth-E to collect my gown. But, this too wasn't going to be so easy. Was it? No.:) The person sitting on the other side of the booth-E informed me to the much of my surprise, that my name was not there in the list of the students to be given the gown and to settle this problem he guided me to go and talk to another person who was the In-Charge for this gown distribution work. I talked to him, he guided me to go and talk to the Registrar, prove my genuineness to him and then do whatever he says. I went to the Registrar's Office, talked to our Registrar sir, mentioned our conversation over the emails (regarding my peculiar situation), and asked him for his help. He then asked me to go to BIT's Magic Window (dont't go by its name, but I must say, that it really solves students' queries, though not to forget that sometimes they create temporary problems too for the students). I talked to the guys behind the Window and asked them to check whether BIT Mesra's Registrar office had received my D.D. and the other stuffs in the apllication mail that I had posted after facing so many obstacles, or not. They told me that they had received the same on that morning only, which I doubted, but didn't say anything. They also told me that they will send the updated list of the Convocation Gown Distribution to the Gown Distribution In-Charge, only after consolidating all the similar cases(if any). I had no other option but to wait. Meanwhile I met many of my friends wo were crossing by that corridor. During this time I also registered myself for the Convocation Photography, which would be taken when I will be receiving my degree from the distinguished person. After waiting for some more time, I again went to the Gown Distribution room. They didn't get the updated list by that time. After wandering for some more time, I thought of going back to the place where I was to stay for the night, to freshen up a little bit and to get ready in Formals for the Convocation evening. And after that I would come again to collect my gown and then would go to the OAT (the institute auditorium, where our convocation function was slated to happen). But, I missed a very fundamental thing while thinking all this - Time. By the time I got ready and came back for collecting my gown, the gown distribution was already over, and the Room No.211 was already closed and locked. Nice.Nice. Now what, I thoght. In the convocation guidelines, it was clearly mentioned that without the gown no students (Degree-holders) will be permitted to go inside the OAT building. I re-collected myself, and went on to the Magic Window, and told them my situation. But this time they can't help me. Being worried I approached one of our Department's faculty, and he tried to be really helpful. He asked me to go to the OAT and try my luck there to get a gown (if any spare was left, which according to normal logic should have been there). I went straight to a person who seemed to me to be In-Charge of the volunteers responsible for letting anybody inside the OAT. He heard me with full sincerity, and then asked me to meet the Students-Welfare Dean. I did the same. There a person, who was holding some lists, asked me my name and roll number, checked it against the late registered students' names and informed me that atleast my name has been updated for the Convocation. But when I told him that I don't have a gown to put on and go to the stage, he told me to go and meet our Ex-VC and now Chief of the Convocation Program, and see what he had to say. Haha. I was having such a time :) I went to him and told him my case telling him as many details as possible. He happened to be a really nice person. He told me that I can surely attend this convocation (as my name was there in the list of the Degree-Holders), and counselled me that I should take somebody else's gown after he gets his Degree and comes down off the stage. This was a good idea, as being a late registered case, my name will be called surely at a later time, and by that time, some of my other friends will surely get their degrees and hence, I will get a gown to wear. Hearing this, I went on to find my designated location in the auditorium (OAT), found it (also with some more toil (as my roll number was wrongly written and I had to contact the local sitting arrangement guy to get it corrected)) and then got to sit there. Soon the XXI Convocation Program - my convocation began. Ex-President of India and great scientist (only to state a few of his many adjectives), Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was our Chief- Guest for the evening. The function went on smoothly. One thing which I really liked was when Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was getting introduced by someone on the stage, and it took him quite a lot of time to finally complete his words of introduction only ! The other thing that I liked was my Degree getting moment ofcourse.:):) Then, after reciving my Degree, we boarded the bus to get back to our college. There I queued up to get my refund for the gown which I didn't receive, then again queued for our Post-Convocation Dinner, and then shivering in the cold of the night, went happily back to the place where, I was to stay for the night. Next day, I boarded my return train, being flooded with different memories, which I will surely remember for a long time. Atleast, the good thing is - I had an unusual and happening Convocation. Not many would experience this. :):)

Poetry ka muzaira...

1)

Nazron se kehdo tum,

meri chahat mein rang bhar do.

Bann jao parchhai meri,

mera prem kubool kar lo.

Naa lafzon ki seema ho,

na koi ho tadpan.

jab pyar kare koi,

toh dekhe kewal mann.

2)

Tum se hi hai saari khushi

Tum se hi ab hai zindagi.

Tum bin kuch bhi nahi

Aisi hai chahat meri...

3)

Sabnam ki boondon ko aaj apnein haathon se tham lo,

Oons ki boondon ko aaj apnein pairon se choo lo,

Mere aansuon ko aaj apnein apne hoton se ponch do,

Mere dhadkan ki dastak ko aaj please ehsas karo...