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Tracking Social Networking In Shakespeare Plays
An anonymous reader writes "By feeding PieSpy (an IRC bot used to visualise social networks) with the entire texts of Shakespeare plays, it became possible to produce drawings of the social networks present in his plays - it is now possible to visualize the relationships between the characters in his works, and see Shakespeare in an entirely new light."
see Shakespeare in an entirely new light.
No thanks. My high school english classes did a good job of making sure that I'd never enjoy classic works.
There's no way to make someone hate reading faster than english classes.
-Colin
Based on the article and PieSpy site, it seems that PieSpy only finds the existence of a connection between members -- a symmetric relationship in which "A connects to B" implies "B connects to A". Yet human relationships tend to be asymmetric: "A likes B" does not imply that "B likes A" and "A controls B" certainly does not imply "B controls A".
A more powerful version of PieSpy would examine the text (and context) of who is connecting to whom. For example, the introduction of new words by some members of the network and the echoing of those words by others would help identify the directional flow of information in the network and help assess the level of control of the thread by some members over others. Analyzing the emotional content of words in threads could probably even let the software make approximate judgements of who likes/hates whom. Analyzing when some members leave IRC as a function of the joining of other members might also help detect asymmetric relationships.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Can ANYONE explain the latest craze about social networks like Orkut or Friendster?
While I can't answer why it's a craze right now, I can tell you why I personally like using Orkut.
I've always liked the idea of bulletin boards and discussion groups on the internet, but I found them less than engaging in practice. The main reason for this for me was because they were faceless. I could never remember if I had replied to HMN22's comments before or not -- I could never get a sense of the personalities I was interacting with.
On the communities in Orkut, I can see a picture of the person next to each comment they make. That is a world of difference for me. Now I can much more easily remember if I've interacted with that person before. Also, I can check out their profile and get more of a sense of who they are.
But as I said, that's just why I like it -- I'm sure many others have very different reasons.
-Colin
Good question, I tend to share your indifference about things like Orkut and Friendster, however I can see why they are of interest.
The internet and WWW are more than information technologies or even communications technologies, one of the most complelling uses for them are as technologies for maintaining relationships aka relationship technologies (and yes, I realize that differentiating this from communications might seem difficult, but for now lets leave it at communications being an important part of a relationship). The importance of relationship technologies can be seen in how instant messaging, chat and especially email have driven the widespread adoption of technology. These social networks are really just the latest experiment. Whether or not it will succeed to the point where they are as ubiquitous as email or IM is questionable. Nevertheless they are worthy of some attention, and possibly even the occassional front page post on Slashdot as examples of how technology is being applied to the important aspects of peoples daily lives and thus being ever more embedded in these lives.
More generally, the study of social networks are helpful for understanding things ranging from power relationships in society to the adoption and diffusion of innovation, not, of course, that Orkut or Friendster is likely to help with this aspect.
I've finally got around to changing my sig
And this was impossible up until now exactly why?
I'm indifferent to the internet or the people on the internet
People who bother to say something to other people are trying to reach out to other people. Obviously you wanted people on the internet to read what you wrote otherwise you wouldn't have written it and submitted it to ./.
Thus the very making of this comment makes it incorrect.
This could have easily been done with any other author/book/etc. Lord of the Flies IMO would have been more fitting
Theorising, somewhat, but if this software was designed for IRC, it expects input roughly in the form "Name of speaker: words spoken".
Hence it needs plays rather than novels.
I wonder how it deals with all of the soliloquies in Shakespeare's texts, especially since those are some of the largest blocks of conversation.
Seems like the thickest line should be a loop from Hamlet back to Hamlet.
Heh.