Panel Discussion

David M. Blei

Abstract: In this volume, we have seen several compelling reasons for the statistical analysis of network data. All of the analysis techniques proposed here are model-based: one defines an underlying joint probability distribution on graphs and considers the observed relationship data under that distribution. Loosely—and this will be a point of discussion among the panelists—the models can be divided into those that are “descriptive” or “discriminative” and those that are “generative.”