Workshop “Personal Networks with Egonet”
José Luis Molina - UAB
1. Install the last version of EgoNet from the webpage
http://sourceforge.net/projects/egonet/
or launch it from the local folder (folder “Summer Course” on the desktop).
In case you have an ego file already available go to step 9. Otherwise,
proceed to the next step.
2. Let’s create a New Study: your personal network. Select the window “Study
Design Tool” and create a new file (mypn.ego).
3. Let’s define 25 alters in our study (or 30 in order to capture both strong and
weak ties).
4. Let’s define the set of questions for Ego.
Ego>New>Gender (categorical question, select Gender)
Tip: is important to check out that there are not hidden options in the
active window by maximizing it.
Ego>New>Age (numerical).
5. Select the next Tab “Alter Prompt” (New)
6. Select the next Tab “Alter” for defining variables for each alter (New). Tip:
keep the number of variables for this module as low as possible because it is
the most time-consuming part of the interview.
7. Let’s set the relations among alters (Alter Pair tab). The question could be:
“These two people would meet if you were away?” or simply “These know
people know each other?”
Very important: you should select the responses that make alters adjacent or
connected! (button “Mark selected item adjacent”). Otherwise no alter-alter
connections will be saved.
Now we can close the window, save the file, and quit the program.
8. Select Interviewing and Analysis Tool window and select the study file
(.ego file):
9. Start the interview, select “New interview” and follow the screens. At the end
save your file as, for instance, “Shakira.int”. The extension INT is important
in order to perform automatic tasks in the future.
10. Once the interview is finished, then we can select the button “View
interview”. There are several Tabs with different information.
Now it is time to begin an in-depth interview!