CEMAP II: An Architecture and Specifications to Facilitate the Importing of Real-World Data into the CASOS Software Suite

摘要

An often overbearing logistical problem that social network researchers and analysts face is the challenge of carrying out the basic data processing steps necessary to transform real-world source data into a form that is formatted specifically to the requirements of particular social network analysis software. In particular, this paper focuses on resolving the variety of real-world data forms that must be transformed into the format necessities of the software suite developed at the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) at Carnegie Mellon University. This data processing or programming problem, while rather straightforward, can be daunting to non-I.T. users of these -- and any -- software tools, and at best case, laboriously costly for the programming savvy. This report outlines and describes a software architecture and user paradigm to address this ubiquitous problem. This report provides a basis for later detailed design and implementation of the ideas put forth in this report which will ultimately results in tangible features being made available and fully operational for users of the CASOS software suite (ORA, AutoMap, and Construct).