There are some new kids on the network Science playground, and you better stay friends with them because they are here to kick ass. They call themselves the Data Ninjas. Introducing: “six degrees of spaghetti monsters“, the blog by the Leuven network researchers working with the Trismegistos database. The blog currently contains some interesting resources: books, links, blogs and the like. Soon the Data Ninjas will share results of their research so keep an eye on the blog. In the meantime, no better description of the ninjas than the one they provide on the blog:
All right folks! You found us! This means one of two things: either you’re friend/family/foe and you’re curious about what we’re up to (thanks for playing, better luck next time), or you’re seriously into SNA and you’re hoping to actually find some useful stuff here. We should pause here and warn you though: we are NOT SNA guru’s, despite us being worshipped by our department colleagues. We are, first and foremost, historians, lovers of all things antique (preferably Graeco-Roman in Egypt). And proud of it! About a year ago then, we started to explore the subtle science of social network analysis. We’ve come a long way since then, but we’re basically still rookies compared to the many die-hard sociologists, mathematicians, computer wizzes and all out there. RESPECT.
So basically what we’re aiming at with this blog is to let the world know what your tax money is spent on. Actually it’s just a very narcissistic self-promotional format. Science communication and valorization are the new buzz words when it comes to fellowship and grant applications, so we doing just that here. But buried deep down we still have an altruistic streak, so we’d also like to help out other self-taught, or wannabe self-teaching SNA’ers and to provide a forum where we can exchange thoughts and “experiments” (sounds pretty sciency huh? ¯\(°_⊙)/¯). We’re planning on posting some entries on the books and courses we’ve been using to get started, as well as on the software we’ve been playing with. And we’ll obviously keep you up-to-date on our research. We hope to present some AWESOME results here soon! Of course, this blog will be very history-oriented, so not all of our posts will be equally relevant for those of you who are working in other fields. But the beauty of SNA is that its basic principles are applicable to almost all types of networks, so we hope you’ll still enjoy our musings. And don’t hesitate to leave remarks, suggestions, questions, praise, cheers, jokes, your phone number, … We solemnly swear to reply as swiftly and as best as we can.
And we’re up to no good. Obviously.
Archaeological Networks 