Social Network Visualization of TikiWiki Open Source Activity

The network of participants in open source projects can be mapped and visualized using social network analysis. This visualization can identify the key participants involved in various clusters that make up the project, providing a map of how individuals are collaborating to fulfill tasks. The information can be used to identify key members such as knowledge brokers, help better integrate peripheral members, and facilitate locating experts or possessors of relevant tacit knowledge. I will discuss a case study of the TikiWiki open source community comparing (1) the traditional approach of analyzing mailing list exchanges, and (2) a more interesting analysis of the wiki used by the community.

Nelson Ko, CEO/President, Citadel Rock Online Communities Inc. Nelson is the CEO of Citadel Rock Online Communities Inc., providing solutions for online collaboration using wikis, social networking and multimedia messaging. He is an active contributor to the TikiWiki open source project. Nelson has held positions in Hewlett-Packard and Singapore Telecom, and architected solutions brought to market across the world for companies such as Trans World International Interactive and Telstra. He holds an M.A. Economics degree from the University of Toronto, and is currently working on a dissertation "Building intellectual and social capital in online knowledge communities" in the M.A.Sc. Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University.