Software

The Intro and Intermediate courses use the UCINET software package, while the Stochastic course relies on R and MPNET. It is strongly recommended that you install these before starting the workshop as all of the courses are hands-on, and if you can't get the software to run, you will miss out.

Important note: Hands-on learning of software can be tricky online (in our case, using Zoom). In one window, you will have the instructor typing and clicking on menus. In other windows, you will be interacting with the software on your machine. If you don't have two screens or one really wide one, this becomes very difficult. If you split the screen equally, what the instructor is doing will be too small. If you make the Zoom window bigger, it will cover up your local windows. The point is, it is really helpful to have two screens, which could be two monitors one computer, or two computers, or a computer and a tablet, etc. For those working at home, it is worth recalling that, with a nice long HDMI cable, you can turn your TV into a second monitor.

UCINET

The UCINET package (which includes NetDraw) runs on Windows only. If you have a Mac, it is strongly suggested that you install a Windows emulator such as Parallels, or VMware Fusion, or Oracle's VirtualBox (which is free). Note you will then have to install Windows (most universities will provide that for free), and Excel (ditto). Some people seem to be able to run UCINET on WINE, which is complete free, but most cannot, so we don't recommend this. Or, use a PC for this workshop.

BTW, the UCINET package is not free, but it does run for 90 days without a registration code.

Additional notes:

• Make sure you have version 6.704 or later. If not, download and install the current version

  • Download: https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/downloads.

• For the workshop, we will use the 32-bit version only.

• After installing, please run this installation exercise to make sure it is running correctly

MPNET

• MPNet for ERGM (http://www.melnet.org.au/pnet/). MPNet.exe is built for Windows. If you have a Mac notebook you might want to ask your IT support how to run Windows (.exe) files on your Mac (if you are unfamiliar with this).

R

• R is used for running “RSiena” (http://cran.r-project.org/). Download R for Windows or other platform as needed.

• Specific packages (RSiena and sna) will best be downloaded from the internet at the start of the course (to ensure everyone has the same version!)

• For your own convenience, it might be helpful if you have two monitors (or two pcs) available, so you are simultaneously able to see the programs and “attend” class.