This is a hands-on workshop for researchers who are working with the SIENA (Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis) program for the statistical analysis of network dynamics for complete networks; as well as for those who have data available and wish to start working with SIENA. To get an impression, you can access the programme for last year's workshop here.

The workshop will focus on basic understanding of the model and the program, how to obtain good estimates, how to interpret them, model selection, and in general on whatever questions may arise from the participants. It is assumed that participants have their own data and bring them with them, and have their own laptop.

The workshop is organized by Christian Steglich, Mark Huisman and Marijtje van Duijn in the context of the European Collaborative Research Project Dynamics of Networks and Actors across Levels. It will be held in the Academy Building of the University of Groningen, situated in the center of the city of Groningen.

The maximum number of participants is 30. When this maximum number is reached, a waiting list will be created.

Registration and payment

• To register, please fill in the registration form and return it until January 31, 2008, by e-mail to Christian Steglich at c.e.g.steglich@rug.nl.

• After you receive our confirmation that you can participate, please pay the workshop dues. They are Euro 200, and Euro 100 for students and PhD students. You will receive details of the payment procedure by e-mail.

• Registration is final when you have received an e-mail confirming that payment was received.

• If the registration is cancelled after receiving payment but before March 15, 2008, payment will be refunded minus Euro 40 administration costs. There will be no refund if participation is cancelled after March 15. However, if you have paid and cannot come, you may transfer your registration to another person if you can find one. We may assist you here in case we have a waiting list.

Further items for your agenda

• Please book your housing in time! Possibilities are, e.g., the University Guesthouse (), the Martini Hotel (), the Hotel Auberge "Corps de Garde" (), or the Schimmelpenninck Huys (). And there is the Simplon Youth Hostel.

• Before March 15, please send us a note describing your research, how far you have come up to now with analysing your data, and briefly sketch your main goals for the workshop (max. 2 pages). You need not restate what you already wrote in your registration form -- this is the place to inform us about more concrete topics related to your research that you'd like to see addressed during the workshop.
  
  Next to this information, please also provide a photograph of yourself in electronic format (.gif or .jpg) for facilitating recognition, and a short bio of 5-10 sentences that will be compiled into a reader for you to see whom you will meet -- you can look up the compilation of the participants of previous workshops by clicking here.
  
  Please send the description, the bio and the photograph before March 15th to Christian Steglich at c.e.g.steglich@rug.nl.

• We assume that all participants are at least at the stage where their data are in the format required by SIENA, and where they have run SIENA to make sure that the program can work with the data set. If you have problems with this, please contact us before April 4th.

• The workshop starts Monday, March 31st, 2008, with a walk-in welcome from 12:00, and with the first lecture and discussion at 13:00.

• The meetings will start at 9:15 on Tuesday - Thursday, have an ample lunch break, and end about 17.00 on Monday - Wednesday. There will be some occasional breaks (to be announced in the programme).

• On Tuesday evening (18:30), there will be a joint dinner at Humphrey's Restaurant. For reservations, please let us know in advance whether you will attend or not. For making that decision, you can check the menu and prices on the website (item 'Menukaart', where you also can find an English version).

• The workshop will end Thursday, April 3rd, at lunchtime -- with the option of staying together in the afternoon for residual discussion of the workshop topics, plans for the future, or whatever else may have arisen from the workshop.