If social network analysis is something that you know alot about, perl is something you want to know more about, and you have a spark of an idea of how it can be done right, you may just want to get yourself a copy of Programming Perl, The Perl Cookbook and Learning Emacs, and get to work.

Wheels have been made of stone, wood, iron, rubber and even rope. While you can't say that they were reinvented, they were certainly improved on. YMMV