Interest Networks

The idea for this study arose as a way to analyze the network dynamics that emerge among participants.  Indeed, in terms of the proposed analysis, the more searchable information on the website, the better.

At the planning workshop, NCEAS web developer Shaun went away with a lot of requests, including many specifics about how we'd like participant information to be searchable.   The topic received well over 1/2 hour of discussion.  Someone can correct me if I'm off, but I thought Shaun planned to first get the form-entered information searchable, then will work on making it possible to search even within attached pdfs of CVs and publications.  Right now, the search function at the upper right seems to search everything, including attached pdfs and docs, EXCEPT participant bios.  Odd. 

But with a bit more time, if all goes as planned, the information you've already posted about yourself will indeed be searchable from the search function at the top of each page. 

Previously William Clark wrote:

I would be interested in seeing the results of such an analysis.  But I would also like to know whether it would be useful for each of us to post in a searchable place and format a paragraph on our interests, a cv, and a list of publications or presentations.  Thoughts?

 

Hello Guy,

Re website registration: You make a good point that 20 characters seems very short for interdisciplinary researchers!  I'll email our already heavily-tasked web designer and see if it's not too late to extend the size of those fields.  Sustainable development is perhaps a term that many participants would like to enter!

As for the study of networks, those notes are, as you can tell, quite preliminary ideas.  We talked about developing a separate questionnaire, which asks participants to identify themselves with ~30-40 terms on a prepared list.  We only spent about 3 minutes discussing ways that the self-identifying terms might be clustered.  So lots of room for development of methodologies there!  I am hoping that interested seminar participants will step into the conversation and form a team that's keen to develop and perform this analysis.  

-Lizzie

Previously Guy Ziv wrote:

Applying cluster analysis and network analysis to  self-identifying keywords , what structures emerge?  Are there clear clusters? Are some topics more highly connected than others?  Are there some notable gaps or non-overlapping areas between clusters?

 

Such analysis would indeed be interesting, but there's a technical problem that must be solved first. The registration form limits each of the 3 keywords to 20 letters, alltough in the user profile you can edit those and extend them beyond 20 letters. For example, I could not write 'Sustainable Development' because it is beyond 20 characters...