Gephi and Facebook
Yesterday I played with gephi. I extracted my 'social graph' from facebook (gimme! mine!) and loaded it with gephi on my desktop. Gephi is a tool to explore the connections between things ---any things--- in order to gain insight about what their relationships may mean. Kind of like a scope or lens into what isn't really visual in an immediate sense ---but maybe should be. Network models can reveal patterns in social interactions, viruses, forest fires, terrorist cells, galaxies, bees, banking, cancer, aids, basically anywhere 2 or more things interact. Or even one thing by itself, if it's hard up. So kind of a useful approach I think.
The view into my modest (meager?) social net paints a curious picture based on interaction with content on my wall. Like, hey, there are no connections between your professional and family relations? And, we've spotted a few 'bridge' people between a couple of hubs that may have a foot in both worlds. (btw, I turned off the labels naming people to protect the innocent(?), each node represents a real person (except for ghost cat, I friended her by mistake and she won't leave)) ---and out there on the edges are some curious souls with no connection to anyone else in my life. Although its likely they have rich connections of their own and I'm the lone hobo on their nets' self portraits. It was also interesting to see those in the thick of the hubs versus those participating more on the periphery. This could be a dangerous tool for social profiling in the wrong hands.
I suspect in the future, tools like these will be as ubiquitous as spreadsheets and play a key role in navigating the complexity of modern life, for fun or profit.
For an interesting overview of this newly developing science, including its role in catching Saddam Hussein:
The view into my modest (meager?) social net paints a curious picture based on interaction with content on my wall. Like, hey, there are no connections between your professional and family relations? And, we've spotted a few 'bridge' people between a couple of hubs that may have a foot in both worlds. (btw, I turned off the labels naming people to protect the innocent(?), each node represents a real person (except for ghost cat, I friended her by mistake and she won't leave)) ---and out there on the edges are some curious souls with no connection to anyone else in my life. Although its likely they have rich connections of their own and I'm the lone hobo on their nets' self portraits. It was also interesting to see those in the thick of the hubs versus those participating more on the periphery. This could be a dangerous tool for social profiling in the wrong hands.
I suspect in the future, tools like these will be as ubiquitous as spreadsheets and play a key role in navigating the complexity of modern life, for fun or profit.
For an interesting overview of this newly developing science, including its role in catching Saddam Hussein:
Albert-László Barabási, Network Science ... Introduction (PDF)
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