Editing Communication and Social Networks (Fall 2022)/Final project (section)

== Network Intervention ==

In teams of 3 or 4, you will design, carry out, and measure a network intervention, using principles from this class, like diffusion, contagion, social capital, etc. You will identify a message/product/idea/etc and try to spread it, either within or beyond Purdue.

I would encourage you to identify a goal that is meaningful to your group; projects should be creative, courageous, and challenging. We will evaluate your work not based on whether your are ultimately successful, but how innovate your approach is, and how grounded it is in the network theories we have learned about.

=== Examples ===

[http://brooke-welles.squarespace.com/ Brooke Foucault-Welles] has run a similar project in her class. Examples of well-designed projects in her class include:
* A comparison of the diffusion on Twitter of a plain-text and image-and-text message about feminism.
* An alteration intervention that aimed to boost morale in a student organization by creating cross-cohort (year in school) friendship ties.
* A marketing campaign that leveraged the friendship paradox to spread the word about a new student group.
* An intervention that targeted student leaders to lobby University Health and Counseling Services to bring therapy animals to campus during finals week.

=== Presentation ===

Because this is a group project, I'll expect a lot more than the individual projects. Part of this is in being ambitious in the project that you select, but also in how you present your results.

In particular, those choosing this option will do a short (5 minute) presentation to the class at the end of the semester, to tell us about your project and your findings. It would be fun for those in the class to learn about what you've been doing.

=== Executive Report ===

The major part of the assignment, though, is a 5-6 page executive report. This report should have the following sections:
* Introduction
** In the introduction you will describe the motivation for your intervention. You will explain what you did, and why you chose that approach.
* Network Theory
** In your introduction, you will likely mention some network theories that helped to motivate your intervention. In this section, you will provide more detail about the theories that guide your work. You should include at least three references to support your approach and analyses.
* Approach
** In the introduction you will give a high-level explanation of your intervention. Here you will provide a more detailed description, together with a more extended argument about why this is a good approach to meet your goals.
* Analysis
** You will analyze the effect of your intervention. The data to do this can take different forms - e.g., you may survey people to learn about awareness or beliefs, or you might gather data from the web or gather network data. At some point in your report you should include 1) a network analysis and 2) at least 1-2 network visualizations. It's possible that these may come earlier. For example, you might use existing data or simulated data to explain a network theory or to motivate your approach. If you are able to gather network data, then the network analysis and visualizations would probably be part of this Analysis section.
* Conclusion
** Finally, write a few paragraphs reflecting on what was learned from your work.