via TechPresident

I’m getting ready to do a little politically oriented…or maybe “aware” is a better term….blogging for 2008. I recently subscribed to the TechPresident blog and came across this recent post that I thought would be of interest to the librarians out there.

from orgnet.com
Network visualization shows patterns of political book purchases prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential primaries. Books are linked by Amazon’s “also bought” data — only top-sellers are shown. Two distinct clusters emerge from the data, with a few books bridging the divide, similar to 2004.

I’d like to know a little more about the methodology here, especially how the “top sellers” represented were selected. By my count the “blues” read more different titles (about 29) than the reds (about 23). Do the blues read more than the reds…or should I say “buy” more, who knows if these get read or not. And i presume that the buyers weren’t just buying political books, but buying other reading as well…wonder if you can get a sense of political orientation from whether you bought the Sunday’s at Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook or the Barbecue Bible. My reading list wouldn’t be a good example since I believe in the old maxim to “keep friends close but your enemies closer.”

Hmmmm….I wonder if you could do something similar using WorldCat holdings information….are America’s public libraries blue or red?

“Collective Intelligence” is all the photos on Flickr, taken by individuals on their own, and the new ideas created from that pool of photos (and the API).

“Dumbness of Crowds” is expecting a group of people to create and edit a photo together.

“Collective Intelligence” is about getting input and ideas from many different people and perspectives.

“Dumbness of Crowds” is blindly averaging the input of many different people, and expecting a breakthrough.
(It’s not always the averaging that’s the problem it’s the blindly part)

“Collective Intelligence” is about the community on Threadless, voting and discussing t-shirts designed by individuals.

“Dumbness of Crowds” would be expecting the Threadless community to actually design the t-shirts together as a group.

Edible Metadata: More than Icing on the Cake

via BoingBoing

Via BoingBoing

Can you tell I’m still writing those EOS papers? We will return to our regularly schedule program shortly…until then continue enjoying our new feature – InfoZen..my own little moment of zen.

from Information Aesthetics

an interactive & “experimental” data visualization as an oral history repository documenting the experiences of the Hurricane Katrina & its aftermath. the interface allows access to video narratives of 44 different people, & connects them by thematic associations. “lives connected” aims to tell a story, convey emotions & illustrate the relationships between oral narratives.

[link: livesconnected.com]

Indexed