jumpSLIDE Networks

This blog got pretty stale!

Indeed it has.

That's mainly because one of my side projects has taken over and I'm now working for the London-based non-profit We Are What We Do and am the Strategic Partnerships Director for our Historypin project.

So, I'm still doing a wide variety of tech work more or less, only now with an amazing global team. I blog once and awhile on the Historypin blog, and also do quite a bit of speaking around the world about technology in the cultural heritage domain.

jr. webcrawling

Yesterday I was working on a project to retrieve 1st and 2nd degree Twitter followers for an unconference prior to a list being built. These were listed on individual WordPress pages under a single directory. I used a two step process to extract the Twitter handles.

1. I used an old Java tool called websphinx, which gave me the ability to crawl the directory of the site I was looking at, and concatenate each of the pages into one massive page.

2. I posted that page in the sandbox of my site and directed Dapper to it. From there, I was able to create a Dapp identifying the fields I wanted, group them together, and create a CSV document to put into Excel.

This was my first time playing with Dapper, and can definitely see a lot of great uses for it!

Labels: networkmapping experiments

Twitter Network Visualization to Measure Events

I put together a brief write-up following on my Mapping Social Networks white paper, in which I used the Twitter API to monitor a network of unconference participants before and after the event. This kind of analysis can be a useful proxy for visualizing network connections and growth without using traditional questionnaires or surveys.

Download: the two page summary.

New Mapping Social Networks White Paper

I've just released a new Mapping Social Networks White Paper: Exploring Twitter Factions and Open Networks. Using the example of the Twitter network of @LookBackMaps, I look at patterns within that network as well as details on the methodology and how-to.

Summary
An analysis of the Twitter network of user @LookBackMaps reveals a tight knit community of people interested in making historical collections more accessible, interactive, and interesting to the general public. Social Network Analysis and mapping reveals two distinct factions of key players, those in the digital humanities, and those in the museum world. Tools used included custom Javascripts, the Twitter API, Microsoft Excel, and Analytic Technologies’ NetDraw. This article examines the methodology used to collect 1st and 2nd degree network nodes related to @LookBackMaps, and what kind of information was gleaned from the analysis of this data.

Download: Exploring Twitter Factions and Open Networks

Behind the scenes install

I've just put together a little behind the scenes look at an install we did this summer for a client. This office included structured cabling for about 90 locations, as well as a small, glassed-in data center. (it's an animated image, so it may take a few seconds to load).

Recent installs

I'm adding a few photos here of recent installs to highlight some of the options for small offices and residential construction. The first photo is a small office (about 20 desktops) and includes a half size Dell server cabinet and phone terminations. This is before move-in so there is no phone system on the wall yet--we leave it all ready for them to punch down to if we do not supply the phone system.

The second photo, below, shows a small residential setup in a Leviton media cabinet and includes distributed data, phone (via Vonage), and cable.

A common complaint

and also a funny joke, thanks for passing on Z.
____________________

Dear Tech support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Desperate

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

Also do not attempt to reinstall Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck,

Tech Support