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Wouter,
What is your mission with this data? Is it research or advice/
consulting? What did you promise the respondents or sponsoring
client? That should drive your privacy and report decisions... these
decisions should be done up front so that everyone knows what to expect.
If your project is for economic development, community building, or
industry ecosystem analysis/support, you can not help but reveal
which organization is connected to whom. To understand and change
the system they will need to know how it works, that means revealing
the patterns AND the players. Maps like this, of non-profit
organizations, are becoming very popular in economic development
projects.
http://www.orgnet.com/neohio.gif
I am working on several entrepreneurial/economic networks where we
always reveal the business connections between named players to
everyone in the room. Our clients would not let us operate any other
way. They need to know exactly who is connected to whom, and why, so
that they can support the network and build upon it. The maps and
metrics usually stay within the community -- so they are 'public'
within a localized space.
Valdis
On Dec 12, 2005, at 11:15 AM, Wouter Stam wrote:
> I collected data on the informal networks among 90 business
> ventures and 40 non-profit organizations that are operating in one
> specific industry. Generating 130 individual reports seems like a
> daunting task...
>
> Moreover, I am wondering what network measures would be most useful
> to report back to respondents (e.g. network position, structural
> holes) in terms of value and ease of interpretation. Privacy issues
> may also be important here since reporting back the network
> position to every respondent by means of showing network images may
> give clues on the networks of other participants.
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