ORA Help

ORA (the Organizational Risk Analyser) is a tool for analyzing social and organizational data.

To use ORA first you must provide input files to ORA for analysis. You can provide one file which contains an entire meta-matrix, or you can provide each individual sub-matrix as a seperate file.

To specify the meta-matrix as one file, click "Organization1" under "Enter Organization Parameters" in the upper-right panel. Then in the upper-right panel click the "Select" button and specify the file location. The file must be in dynetml or dl format.

To specify individual sub-matrix files, click on the desired sub-matrix (Agent x Agent, Resource x Task, etc) in the upper-right panel. Then in the upper-left panel click the "Select" button and specify the file location. The file must be in raw, dl, or ucinet format.

To run an analysis, you must first set up your organization as described above. Then from the menubar, click on “Run” and then, click on “Generate Results.” Now, the Output Panel pops up at the center of the screen. You have two options in the Output Panel. You can generate a report on one organization, or you can compare two organizations.

Risk Categories

This report gives graph-level measures and node-level measures. The top five actors are given for selected measures. Values for all node-level measures for all agents are given in the Agent Report section.

Intelligence

This report gives graph-level measures and node-level measures. The top five actors and organizations are given for selected measures. A context report compares this organization to a random network, and a database of known social networks.

Context

The context report compares the given organization to a random network, and a database of known social networks, for a selected set of measures.

Sub-Group

The sub-group report runs various algorithms to find sub-groups (or clusters) within your organization. The algorithms are Newman's clustering algorithm, clique analysis, and CONCOR stuctural equivalence.

1. Under “Select Simulation Type,” click on “Single Organization” (enabled by default)

2. Next to the “Choose first Organization” label, there is a list of Organizations that you have set up. Choose one from the list.

5. Specify location for output file (to be created by ORA), without extension, by typing in the text box or using the file chooser

6. Now, click on “Generate.” In a few seconds (after ORA.exe runs on the organization you have specified), a dialog box will pop up, giving you the output status for the simulation.

7. The output will be stored in the files you specified, as well as in the "Results" panel in the lower-left corner of the screen.

1. Under “Select Simulation Type,” click on “Compare Two Organizations.” Now, the “Choose second organization” label and the accompanying list will be enabled.

2. Choose two organizations for comparison, using the lists shown in the Output Panel.

4. Specify location for output file (to be created by ORA), without extension, by typing in the textbox or using a file chooser.

5. Now, click on “Generate.” In a few seconds (after ORA.exe runs on the organizations you have specified), a dialog box will pop up, giving you the output status for the comparison.

6. The output will be stored in the files you specified, as well as in the "Results" panel in the lower-left corner of the screen.

Now that you have set up an organization, you can run the optimizer on the Organization. From the menubar, click on “Tools” and then click on “Optimizer.” The optimizer wizard will now pop up at the center of the screen. Set up the optimizer values, using the “Next” buttons to navigate between panels.

When you reach the “Output Setup” panel, specify a location for the data file (which will be created by the optimizer), without specifying an extension. Check the “Verbose” checkbox and click on ‘Next.’

In step 2 of the Output Setup, you will specify network location(s) for output—this can be either a metamatrix OR one or more networks. In either case, specify file location(s) without extensions (files with appropriate extensions will be created by the optimizer). And then, click on ‘Next.’

In the last panel of the optimizer, you can choose to add the optimized version as an organization to the simulation, using the checkbox – this will enable you to run comparisons between the original organization and its optimized form, using ORA. Now, click on “Generate.” Wait for a few seconds for optimizer.exe to complete its run. A dialog will pop up at the end of the run.

Once you have generated results, you can view the results in text format in the "Results" panel in the lower-left corner.

You can use the Chart tool to view agent-level measures as bar charts and scatter plots.

To use the Chart tool, select Tools->Charts from the menu. Then under Select Input, click "Select Results File" and select an ORA results file in XML format. (a results file is the file you get after running an ORA analysis).

To view a bar chart, select the "Bar Chart" tab, and choose a measure to display from the drop-down box.

To view a scatter plot, click the "Scatter Plot" tab. Then select a measure for the x-axis, and a measure for the y-axis, and click "Create Plot". The scatter plot will be displayed, with the best-fit line displayed in blue.

To save an image of either chart, right-click the chart and select "Save As...". The file will be saved in .png format.

The matrix editor can be used to edit the values of a meta-matrix file. To open the matrix editor, select Tools->Matrix Editor from the menus, or to edit a file you have already loaded into the interface, click the matrix editor button in the upper-right panel for the matrix file you want to edit.