Michael Boyle's weblog
OK so this is super cool: Mobile Devices + Twitter Use. This link is zoomed in to focus on Montreal but you can zoom around and view anywhere around the globe (pretty much).
More info from the site:
More than 280 million Tweets posted from mobile phones reveal geographic usage patterns in unprecedented detail.
It has been two years since I was involved in social network mapping professionally but that doesn’t mean I’ve lost interest – I keep seeing interesting applications of these approaches as network mapping techniques continue to make the jump into all kinds of academic disciplines. The latest: The Remarkable Properties of Mythological Social Networks.
Basically – the social networks in The Odyssey (Homer, obv) are remarkably similar to real-life modern social networks, which is evidence that the epic poem is in fact based to some extent on real events and real people. Cool.
If anyone’s wondering why people turn to comedians for their news and editorial commentary, watch Russell Brand take the “Morning Joe” crew to the woodshed. Skip ahead to around the 4 min mark if you’re in a rush.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADJhErmJuoQ]
Wired.com has published an interesting piece about the need for a “fixer” movement not just a Maker movement: We Need a Fixer (Not Just a Maker) Movement.
With all the discussion about the NSA and other organizations’ surveillance of online sources it’s important to understand what people are writing about. In fact, one of the chief complaints about journalistic coverage so far is that journalists seem to be getting the story more wrong than right – whether this is due to a fundamental lack of comprehension of the subject matter or for more wilful reasons is tough to assess.
Anyhow… earlier this month Kieran Healy published a super-interesting intro to “Metadata Analysis” – i.e., the analysis not of messages’ contents, but information about the messages: Using Metadata to find Paul Revere.
