Using social network analysis to support collective decision-making process

Engineering Effective Decision Support Technologies: New Models and Applications May 31, 2013, Pages 87-103 Using social network analysis to support collective decision-making process (Book Chapter) Shum, S.B.a, Cannavacciuolo, L.b, De Liddo, A.a, Iandoli, L.b, Quinto, I.b a Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, United Kingdom b Department of Business and Managerial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy View references (34) Abstract Current traditional technologies, while enabling effective knowledge sharing and accumulation, seem to be less supportive of knowledge organization, use and consensus formation, as well as of collaborative decision making process. To address these limitations and thus to better foster collective decisionmaking around complex and controversial problems, a new family of tools is emerging able to support more structured knowledge representations known as collaborative argument mapping tools. This paper argues that online collaborative argumentation has the rather unique feature of combining knowledge organization with social mapping and that such a combination can provide interesting insights on the social processes activated within a collaborative decision making initiative. In particular, the authors investigate how Social Network Analysis can be used for the analysis of the collective argumentation process to study the structural properties of the concepts and social networks emerging from users' interaction.