5. Discussion
Kenneth Griggs and Rosemary Wild
Our proposed SNA adoption model is a first attempt to provide an SNA classification scheme that can be useful for decision‐making. In particular, the model can be valuable in the custom construction of private social network applications where each system component can be tailored to fit a government application. Major players in the social networking application arena( e. g., Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are creating development infrastructures that will allow for specific and focused functionality targeted for use in a wide range of types of organizations. In addition, custom social network environments, cloud‐based services, and stand‐alone components are increasingly available for the creation of private secure networks completely outside of the public domain. Such networks would allow for tight control over the adoption factors cited in this paper. For example, an organization may want to restrict virality and locationality for internal collaborative networks containing sensitive information. In addition, common network metrics such as node degree, centrality, closeness and betweenness measures can be used in both the design and analysis of government social networks to optimize their performance and predict their behavior.
Figure 2 is a visual schematic that illustrates how two different candidate social network applications can be compared for intended effectiveness relative to the characteristics highlighted in our model. The comparison is made using a scale of 0 to 10. A value of 10 indicates a high valuation for a particular characteristic and a 0 indicates that the characteristic does not exist for the application.
Using this schematic one can see that, based on its scores, the first candidate SNA, SNA 1, has a high expansion profile since it( 1) is highly viral( very high growth potential)( 2) is highly temporal( fast transfer or sharing of messages / content by network members) and( 3) has high locationality( geographic dispersion) potential. SNA 1 has mixed numbers for its value profile with relatively low scores for media value and low Information value retention rate( information value declines rapidly) but it does contain information with high stakeholder value. Also, SNA 1 has a high risk mitigation profile given that network membership cannot easily be expanded beyond the intended border, has high privacy and security assurance( low breach potential), and high message control( low potential for message corruption). Consequently, SNA 1 is secure, private, and capable of rapid and deep expansion, and would likely be a good candidate for a social network application targeted at internal collaboration among government entities requiring immediate actionable data transfer between ad hoc teams, such as emergency response teams.
Figure 2: Comparison of Two Hypothetical SNA’ s
By contrast, the second SNA candidate, SNA 2, is characterized by relatively low risk mitigation attributes, high stakeholder value, and a high level of expansion capability. Therefore it would be suitable for a government application that is important to citizens, is able to go viral rather quickly, but does not pose a risk to national security or would not breach security if the message is corrupted. A government campaign tailored to create an interactive means for receiving input from citizens, such as a country‐wide debate regarding a proposed
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