UNISoN

UseNet Incorporates Social Networks

User Manual

About UNISoN
System Requirements
Installation instructions
Quick start
Download Messages Panel
View Saved Data Panel
Transform Data for Pajek Panel
Menu Bar
Open Source Licence Terms

About UNISoN

UNISoN is a Java-based NNTP client that can analyse messages to save to a Pajek-format file for Social Network Analysis. Developed as part of an MSc Business Systems Analysis & Design at City University.

Steve Leonard 2008 http://sleonard.co.uk

System Requirements

Java JRE 6 or better
Internet Access to port 119 on external servers - many corporate firewalls block this port
512MB free memory - this can be reduced, but will limit number of messages that can be saved.
25MB free hard disk space - 13MB for application; 12MB to store 20,000 messages

Installation instructions

If necessary, install Java JRE 6
Download the unison.zip file
Unzip it to where you want to run the program

Quick Start

Goto to the directory where you unzipped the file. Start the application with either linux-run.sh or windows-run.bat (UNIX users may need to set execute permission on the unix-run.sh file) This will bring up this screen:

Download Screen on a Windows machine

Download Screen on a UNIX machine

First download messages.
You will need an active internet connection and your firewall will need to allow you access to port 119. Some corporate firewalls block this port, if so, this will not work.
1. Enter a usenet group name into the field. You can use asterisk for a wild character. In this example, we look for groups with senior in the name by typing in *senior*
2. Click on "Find Groups" to download a list of groups matching that search string.
3. Select a group to download by clicking on it. We have selected "soc.senior.health+fitness"
4. Click on "Download". After a short while, the messages will be downloaded. Five seconds after the last message is saved, an alert will pop up stating the download is complete.

Next, view the downloading messages by clicking on the "View Saved Data" tab and click on the "Refresh Data" button.

The saved message panel on Windows

The saved message panel on LINUX

Show the social network data by clicking on the "Transform Data for Pajek" tab. The graph can be moved around by holding down mouse. The email address of the person is shown if you hold the pointer over the node you are interested in.

The Pajek preview panel on Windows

The Pajek preview panel on LINUX

Save the Pajek network file by clicking on "Save to Pajek"

Saving the network as a Pajek file on Windows

Saving the network as a Pajek file on LINUX

The file can then be loaded into Pajek. Note, if you have run UNISoN on a LINUX or UNIX computer, you will have to run dos2unix on the file before loading into a Windows based program, even if run under the WINE emulator.

Opening the file in Pajek

For further details on how to use the Pajek program consult its website

Download Messages Panel

Download Screen on a Windows machine

Download Screen on a UNIX machine

There a number of fields on this panel:

Newsgroup : enter a string to find the newsgroup name. Asterisks can be used as a wild card, represening any character. e.g. *football* will bring back the names of groups with "football" in it.
Server : A drop down list of free NNTP servers. You can select any one of these, or enter the name of your own.
Find groups : Clicking on this will search for groups whose name match the string in the "Newsgroup" field.
Get Extras : clicking on this will also download the extra fields needed to give location and cross-posts.
Date From : This will filter the messages downloaded, saving only those that are created on or after this date. Must be in YYYYMMDD format, e.g. 20070401
Date To : This will filter the messages downloaded, saving only those that are created on or before this date. Must be in YYYYMMDD format, e.g. 20070430
Download : Once a newsgroup is selected, clicking on this button will start the download, using whatever options have been selected earlier.
Pause : Pauses the download. Pressing again will resume.
Cancel : Cancels the download completely. Messages that have already been downloaded will still be saved.

View Saved Data Panel

The saved message panel on Windows

The saved message panel on LINUX

There a number of fields on this panel:

Get Extras : Click on this will start a download of the extra information
Filter : Click on this and the data shown will be filtered according to values set in the following fields. If no value is in a filter field, then all values are shown. Click again to remove filter.
- Date From : Date in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 20000502) - show messages created on or after this date
- Date To : Date in YYYYMMDD format (e.g. 20010502) - show messages created on or before this date
- Stats Panels - these list the number of messages posted for a given stat. They are also used for the filter.
  - Countries : Lists countries ordered by number of messages. Only has meaningful values if the extra fields have been downloaded.
  - Posters : Lists the posters ordered by number of messages they have written.
  - Groups : Lists newsgroups, ordered by ones with mosts messages.
Refresh Data : Reloads data from the database to show in the GUI.

Transform Data for Pajek Panel

The Pajek preview panel on Windows

The Pajek preview panel on LINUX

UNISoN was created to show social networks in UseNet messages. This is done in this panel. There are three networks that can be created, one of which must be selected to create the network:

Thread creator vs Current poster : network of links from the author of a message, to the author of the first message in a thread.
Previous poster vs current : (default) network of links from a message author to the author of the message they replied to.
All thread posters to current : network from links of the author of the message to posters of all the messages it refers, i.e. to all the messages in the thread up to that point.

There are three ways that the network is displayed, each in a separate tab:

Graph : a preview graph is created, with each poster represented by a node, and links represented by arrows. Holding the mouse over a node will show the poster details. The display can be moved around by holding the mouse down. The scale can be changed with the mouse scroll button. If need be, the GUI can be expanded to see the graph more easily.
Matrix : this shows a table representaion of the network.
Pajek File Preview : this shows what the Pajek network file will look like when it is created.

There a number of buttons:

Refresh : Reloads data from the database to show in the GUI. Also recreates network to reflect any change set in the radio selection.
Save to Pajek : saves the Pajek network file as seen in the "Pajek File preview" tab
Save to CSV : saves the table representation (in the Matrix tab) to a comma separated file

Menu Bar

There are five menu items spread over two menu lists. The menu items have keyboard shortcuts.

File Menu
- Refresh Data : (control-r) Reloads data from the database to show in the GUI.
- DB GUI : (control-space) shows the HSQLDB built-in client. See http://hsqldb.org/doc/guide/ch09.html for SQL syntax. NB: Date format is 'yyyy-mm-dd' e.g. '2006-03-31'. Also need to use single quotes ' not double "
- Exit : (control-q) closes the program down.
Help Menu
- Delete all data : (control-delete) clears all data from the database
- About Unison : (control-home) shows the author details.

Open Source Licence Terms

Many open source libraries were used in this application.
Below is a summary of the licence terms. Full terms with the download.

Library Name	License
log4j-1.2.9.jar	Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License
junit-3.8.1.1.jar
commons-collections-3.2.jar
commons-lang-2.1.jar
commons-logging-1.0.4.jar
cglib-2.1.3.jar
db-ojb-1.0.4.jar
antlr-2.7.6.jar	Public Domain Software. No licence needed. Due credit given to jguru.com for developing ANTLR
colt.jar	Copyright© 1999 CERN ? European Organization for Nuclear Research Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that this above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, CERN makes no representation about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided ?as is? without expressed or implied warranty.
hibernate3.jar, hibernate-tools.jar	GNU LESSER GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Permission to copy and distribute but not change the code. Due credit given to Hibernate.org for hibernate3.jar & hibernate-tools.jar and Sun Microsystems for swing-layout.
swing-layout-1.0.jar
jdom-b10.jar	Copyright © 2000-2004 Jason Hunter & Brett McLaughlin. All rights reserved. Redistribution permitted.
jung-1.7.6.jar	Copyright © 2003-2004, Regents of the University of California and the JUNG Project All rights reserved. JUNG may be distributed freely.
dom4j-1.5.2.jar	Due credit should be given to the DOM4J Project - http://www.dom4j.org
hsqldb.jar	Copyright © 2001-2005, The HSQL Development Group All rights reserved.
jta.jar	Licence to distribute software in binary form. Due credit given to Sun Microsystems.
inetlib.jar	Gnu General Public Licence Unlimited use of the unmodified program.
gnumail.jar
gnumail-providers.jar
asm-attrs.jar	Copyright © 2000-2005 INRIA, France Telecom. All rights reserved. Redistribution permitted.
asm.jar