Prosopographies and social networks workshop

Prosopographies are great sources for building past social networks. Those interested in or working with large datasets of past individuals might be interested in the Prosop workshop. More information below. or on prosop.org

Prosop: a social networking tool for the past

Call for participants

Second database development workshop

Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL) on May 9, 2014.

Historians and other scholars with large databases of historical person data are invited to a workshop to test and populate Prosop, a project funded by the Office of Digital Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

What is Prosop?

Prosop is a collaborative semantic web database of details about individuals in the past. Although it maps networks and discovers connections, it is not just facebook for dead people. In particular, it aims to:

manage diverse types of data from different historical settings,

aggregate of large quantities of person data,

accommodate uncertain and conflicting information, and

facilitate data-driven study of historical systems of description and classification.

For more detailed information, visit our website at prosop.org

What kinds of data do we seek?

We’re looking for information about relatively large sets of relatively ordinary people from the past. Typically, this information is extracted from archival records used by microhistorians. For example, the database contains the name, age, address, and physical description of 700 criminal court defendants from 1880s Egypt. Prosop is meant to work for all kinds of historical person data, and we are especially interested in data in unusual formats (linguistic, topical, or otherwise) that will help us to develop the flexibility of the system. Also, we are looking for participants who are willing to share their data with the community of researchers using Prosop.

Applying with a counterpart

For this workshop, we are especially interested in applications from pairs of researchers who have similar datasets and would like to test them for possible overlap. Prosop may help them to discover common individuals and explore community characteristics.

What will happen at the workshops?

Before the workshop, each participant will submit a tranche of names, which will be imported into Prosop. Participants will describing the characteristics of their data and the ways it might interact with other person data. Those working in pairs will consider any overlap that Prosop found, as well as commonalities that it fails to discover. Participants will discuss issues of categorization and comparison that arise. We will work to find ways to link data and to make the system more usable. The workshop will provide a chance for historians and developers to communicate.

What’s in it for participants?

Workshop participants will contribute to the design of a tool that will enable new research into global social history, and will have early access to its results. They should gain new perspectives on their own data and its place in the global history of person information. Those working in pairs may discover fruitful overlap between their data sets. Participants’ experience and input will help to refine the system towards its aim, which is to encompass all categories of historical person data. Participant costs will be covered by the organizers, though some cost sharing may be asked of those applying from abroad.

How to apply?

Apply via the form available here. You will be asked to attach a CV and a letter of application, which should include a general description of the data which you wish to contribute to the project. Where possible, please specify:

the number of persons in the database

the categories of information recorded about each person (e.g. name, age, birthplace, occupation)

the geographical and chronological range of the persons represented

the type of sources from which the information is drawn (language, archives, genres).

What is the deadline for applications?

The deadline for applications for the second workshop is April 7, 2014.

Are there other ways to participate?

Prosop is an ongoing project. In addition to possible future workshops, we are looking for beta testers. If you are not able to join this workshop, but might want to be involved in the future, please get in touch via our website and join our mailing list.

March 28, 2014 0

CFP European Conference on Social Networks

Europe now has its own social networks conference! It emerged out of the annual ASNA and UKSNA conferences. My new employer, the Algorithmics group of the University of Konstanz, is also one of the partners of this new initiative. What’s more, my new boss Prof. Ulrik Brandes will give a keynote talk at the meeting. All of this makes me very confident that archaeological papers will be more than welcome at the event, so go ahead and submit! More information below or on the conference website.

The 1st European Conference on Social Networks (EUSN, eusn@eusn.org) will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) on July 1-4, 2014.
This European conference replaces the annual ASNA and UKSNA conference in 2014, having received a regional conference endorsement by INSNA.
In this occasion the EUSN will pay special attention to Latin American researchers on social networks in order to foster the creation of a regional conference also in Latin America.
The EUSN is organized by the research group egolab-GRAFO (Social and Cultural Anthropology Department), with the support of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the Algorithmics Group from the University of Konstanz, the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), the Department of Educational and Cultural Sociology from the University of Cologne, and the Laboratory of Personal Networks and Communities (LRPC), University of Sevilla. Other Departments and Institutes from the UAB that support the Conference are the Centre for Sociological Studies of Daily Life and Work (QUIT-IEE) of the Department of Sociology, and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), among others.

All the conference information and more can be found at: http://jornades.uab.cat/eusn/content/welcome-1st-european-conference-social-networks-eusn
If you have any questions regarding the scientific program (submission procedure etc), please do not hesitate to contact pc@eusn.org.

February 19, 2014 0

The Future of Historical Network Research

I am delighted to spread the word about a great upcoming conference: The Future of Historical Network Research. It is organised by the Historical network analysis team that have been holding regular workshops in Germany for a few years now. This is their first conference and I was told to expect an awesome keynote! The event will take place at the University of Hamburg on 13-15 September 2013. There are even a limited number of bursaries available.

Deadline of the CFP is 25 July 2013.

More info can be found on the conference website and below.

Call for Papers

The concepts and methods of social network analysis in historical research are no longer merely used as metaphors but are increasingly applied in practice. In the last decades several studies proved that formal methods derived from social network analysis can be fruitfully applied to selected bodies of historical data as well. This relational perspective on historical sources has helped historical research to gain an entirely new methodological vantage point. Historical Network Research today is a research method as well as an online and offline training framework and quickly growing research community.

We are grateful for generous support from:

NeDiMAH – Network for Digital Methods in the Arts and Humanities

ESF – European Science Foundation

CGG – Centrum for Globalisation and Governance at the University of Hamburg

When we began to apply network analysis to history, there were no suitable points of reference and hardly any previous work which successfully combined Social Network Analysis methods and source-criticism. Over the years we have developed an infrastructure for historians to engage in research on networks, to exchange ideas and to receive training.
After eight workshops on Historical Network Research at locations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland it is time to look back at what has been achieved in the last years and to explore what might be next. For this first conference we therefore invite papers which integrate social network analysis methods and theories with historical research interests. Topics can cover any historical epoch and may include but are not limited to research on the topics below. Contributions from scholars in Computer Science, the Digital Humanities and related disciplines are welcome.

Collective action
Trade networks
Credit networks
Covert networks
Spatial networks
Dynamic networks
Kinship networks
Tools for the extraction of relational data from text
Network extraction from metadata
Semantic networks
Tools for data visualisation and management
Communication networks
Transnational networks
…
The papers will be organized as parts of the following four panels:

Section I: “Information Visualisation”
Section II: “Space and Time”
Section III: “Linked Data and Ontological Methods”
Section IV: Overlaps between Network Analysis and the Digital Humanities

The conference will include keynotes by scholars in history, computational linguistics, semantic networks and data visualisation who will discuss their vision for the future of computer-assisted historical research.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted via this registration form by 25 July 2013. Notifications of paper acceptance will be sent out by 5 August.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at conference@historicalnetworkresearch.org for additional information.

Linda von Keyserlingk, Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr
Florian Kerschbaumer, University of Klagenfurt
Martin Stark, University of Hamburg
Ulrich Eumann, NS Dokumentationszentrum Köln
Marten Düring, Radboud University Nijmegen

June 24, 2013 0

Applications of Social Network Analysis (ASNA)

The Applications of Social Network Analysis conference might be of interest to some. Held in Zurich, 27-30 August 2013. The event combines paper sessions with hands-on practical workshops including SNA (advanced and newbie), Siena, Visone, ERGM in R, and Discourse. The workshop on Visone will be led by Ulrik Brandes ad Uwe Nagel, the University of Konstanz team you might know from the Caribbean Archaeology project Nexus 1492.

More info can be found on the ASNA website.

June 21, 2013 0

SNA Summer School Trier

Dear German-speaking friends (and everyone who likes the sound of the German language)! The University of Trier will organise a summer school in Social Network Analysis on 23-28 September 2013. My friends Marten Düring and Martin Stark, both historians, will be instructors at the Summer School. The school offers a one-week intense course in SNA, papers, workshops and software sessions. Sounds good? Sign up!

More info can be found on the Trier website and below.

Trierer Summer School on Social Network Analysis
23.-28. September 2013

Die Trierer Summer School on Social Network Analysis bietet im Rahmen eines einwöchigen Intensivangebots eine umfassende Einführung in die theoretischen Konzepte, Methoden und Anwendungen der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse. Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an NachwuchswissenschaftlerInnen und Studierende aller geistes-, kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Fächer, die sich mit der Analyse sozialer Strukturen beschäftigen und Einblick in die Methoden der Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse (SNA) nehmen möchten.

Das Angebot auf einem Blick

eine Woche intensive Einführung in die SNA durch Experten
individuelle Forschungsberatung durch die Dozenten
einführende Literatur im Online-Apparat sowie Lernmaterialien
Einführung in gängige Software zur SNA (Pajek, Gephi)
Gastvortrag: Miriam J. Lubbers (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) „The dynamics of personal networks of immigrants over an eight-year period“
Workshop „Mixed Methods“/„Visual Network Research“ (Net-Map, VennMaker)
Workshop „Data Mining und angewandte Netzwerkanalyse“
Workshop „Prozessgenerierte Daten und historische Netzwerkanalyse“
Anrechnung der Summer School nach ECTS mit 3 credit points
Verpflegung mit Snacks und Getränken während der Veranstaltung
angenehme Lernatmosphäre mit vielen Gelegenheiten für “social networking”
abendliches Rahmenprogramm (gemeinsames Abendessen/Stadtrundgang)

June 12, 2013 0

Étudier les réseaux sociaux, SNA summer school in France

When I tell people that I specialise in archaeological computing they always think I am locked up in a cellar with a massive computer screen doing things other people don’t understand. They do not associate us with doing fieldwork in a sunny place, or digging up treasures. To some extent this is true: I am generally confronted with blank stares when I try to explain my research and I do get to sit in a warm and dry office whilst others excavate ridges and furrows in a muddy trench.

Sometimes being an academic is not such a bad thing. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of being invited by a French historian to attend and present at a summer school. The week-long event took place on the French island of Proquerolles off the coast of Toulon and St Tropez, a little known gem of the French Riviera. When I did my background research before accepting the invitation I focused on weather forecasts and restaurant reviews. I decided it was in the best interest of my research group that I accept the invitation and attend this undoubtedly very interesting event.

A useful fact about Porquerolles is that it lies in France, where people speak French. The last time I practiced my French was quite a while ago and everyone I met after getting off the plane was keen to point that out to me. On the boat trip to the island I found out that in fact I was one of the only foreigners and one of only two archaeologists, all other 78 delegates were mainly sociologists, a few historians and some geographers. All of a sudden I very briefly wished I could spend the week in a cellar in front of a massive computer screen.

It turns out that the average French sociologist makes for extremely enjoyable and interesting company, although there are some distinct differences with the average archaeologist: they talk about sociology a lot and they drink less. The summer school (‘Etudier les réseaux sociaux’) was organised by the French social network analysts Claire Bidart and Michel Grosetti, and the historical network analysts Claire Lemercier and Michel Bertrand. The programme included some great scholars in social network analysis like Alain Degenne, Pierre Mercklé and Emmanuel Lazega. The topics of the presentations ranged from ‘Network Analysis for Dummies’, over the issues surrounding the use of historical data in network analyses, to networks of organisations, citations, finance and the World Wide Web. The work by Florent Hautefeuille on linking networks of individuals known from Medieval written sources with the excavated houses in which they lived was particularly interesting for archaeologists. One of the biggest strengths of the summer school were the many tutorials that introduced an impressive range of social network analysis software: Pajek, PNet, ERGM, NodeXL, Visone, Calliope, SIENA, UCINET, Netdraw, Gephi, as well as some more obscure programmes designed by individuals sitting in front of massive screens in cellars.

During a conference or summer school it is always hard to convince yourself that you are actually there for work and should stay focused during every second of all presentation. But at this summer school I came very close to paying attention almost non-stop to all the amazing new network techniques, software and their creative applications to fascinating datasets. I believe I should conclude by stating that I have seen the value of sharing knowledge across disciplines in action, especially if it takes place on a beautiful French island in the Mediterranean.

October 15, 2012 0

Facebook wins: where do other social networks fit in?

Since 2008 ignitesocialmedia.com has been collecting stats on a very wide range of online social networks. Now for the fifth time they published their annual report, making available a wealth of valuable data. The 2012 report reveals that the Online Social Networks market seems to become increasingly saturated, with a few giants dominating the market whilst the vast majority sees a decrease in interest. Work by Soton DH members in the SMiLE project (Social Media for suppporting Live Events) throws a different light on this ‘saturation’ by exploring how a combination of networks can be sensibly used on-the-spot, live. Does this report suggest that such an approach is doomed to fail? Not really. Although a small number of networks might dominate the field, these could form the glue or hubs in an integrated approach drawing on the specific functionality of a multiplicity of networks.

Here is what Brian Chappell of ignitesocialmedia.com has to say about the report:

2011 marked the second year in which many social networks started to wain as social network saturation kicked in. The questions remains, how many social networks can you actively stay up to date on? As Facebook became the mainstay for many users in late 2009 and into 2010 and continuing into 2011, we see the continued fallout in interest for many other social networks. There are still a few social networks that are growing, year over year, however, such as Tumblr, Reddit and Twitter, to name a few.

And here is the methodology they used to collect the data:

Reporting is the same as last year – most sites’ search stats were pulled back by querying just their name. For example: “Twitter”, instead of “Twitter.com” However, with that said, certain networks such as Tribe.net still needed to utilize the name.com variation, since people looking for tribe could be looking for a myriad of things, thus corrupting the data set.

All data continues to come from Google because they have one of the largest data sets on the web. We continued to use their Google Ad Planner and Google Insight for Search products to pull demographic and geographic data.

The Top Cities and Top Region reports show proportionate interest levels to the area based on the given search query.

The Demographic and Geographic reports have Y axis numbers that are percentages out of 100, therefore if the score is .52 then it is 52% of the population.

The Search Traffic reports are based on proportionate search traffic for the given query. It is on a scale of 100. Therefore if a given month shows the chart near 100, then that is the busiest month for query searches ever reported in Google during that given time frame.

August 7, 2012 0

SMiLE: excellence with impact

Our SMiLE (Social Media for Live Events) project is on an advertising high! On 25 July a SMiLE article appeared on the Research Councils UK website, under the Digital Economy theme. In fact, SMiLE emerged from the Southampton Digital Economy University Strategic Research Group, a group co-directed by Dr. Lisa Harris, coordinator of the SMiLE project. This post also reveals a teaser image of my network analysis of the SMiLE data, more about that later 🙂

July 30, 2012 0

Workshop historical network research in Saarbrücken

From 26 to 28 May a workshop on historical networks will be held at the Universität des Saarlandes, organised by the people of the ‘Historical network research’ platform. The scope seems pretty wide, covering theoretical papers, geographical networks, software and social, cultural, political and trade networks in historical case-studies. Although there are no explicit archaeological applications, these papers should be extremely relevant to what we are doing as archaeological network analysts.

Read the full list of papers in this programme.

May 15, 2011 0

Social networks and genomes join forces

socialgenomestacked_x220 — Tracking transmission: Scientists used social-network analysis to find the origins of an outbreak of tuberculosis (top). A patient designated MT0001 was thought to be ground zero for the outbreak, with other patients represented as circles. After sequencing bacteria genomes, scientists could track how the microbes moved from person to person (bottom), and discovered that there were two independent outbreaks. Credit: New England Journal of Medicine

I read an interesting article today on ‘Technology Review’ titled ‘Social Networking’s Newest Friend: Genomics’. It describes a recently published study on the emergence and spread of TB in British Columbia. In order to pinpoint the source of the disease, scholars did not only trace whole-genomes of the microbes responsible, but they combined this with a survey of the affected medium-sized community. By mapping possible interactions between individuals and examining DNA sequences attested, they were able to track the disease back to two independent sources.

This is a clear example of how social networks can be relevant “in real-time” as the data becomes available, to solve real problems. If the sources of such diseases can be identified early on, then officials and the community can take measures to prevent it from spreading even more. It is generally accepted in epidemology that human networks are media for the spread of disease and network approaches have been very popular to understand such processes. By combining a networks approach with genomics, however, an innovative and extremely detailed picture can be painted of a disease’s passage through a community.

This research is not an exception to commonly accepted issues surrounding social network analysis, however. Although I do not doubt the researchers did a thorough survey of the population focusing on a diversity of parameters to construct their networks, the limitation of types of relationships to those that we think might be influential as well as the formalisation/quantification of such relationships remain a necessary evil. It is very hard with such an approach to stumble upon unconnected clusters or parameters that were not thought to be of influence, for example. Basic sampling issues. Also, the construction of a thoroughly qualified social network takes time! I very much doubt that such an approach can be performed at the same speed as the spread of many modern-day diseases.

Having said that, this is a beautiful example of how two largely unrelated perspectives can lead to a completely new approach that enhances the results of both.

February 24, 2011 0

ego-networks on LinkedIn and Facebook

LinkedIn just released a new feature: the InMap. It’s a tool that allows you to visualise all your contacts, and the relationships between them. In social network analysis terms that would be called an ‘ego-network’, where the ego is an individual (you in this case) and the network includes all of the ego’s relations and the relations between them. There are a number of apps available that allow you to do the same thing for Facebook.

One of the coolest features of these network visualisations is that they display clusters of friends that are strongly related in different colours. Although this is an automatic feature based on a simple algorithm, it manages to pick out meaningful groupings. In my case, for example, all my colleagues at the department of Archaeology here at the University of Southampton are grouped, another grouped are my fellow students from the University of Leuven and yet another one are my friends from the town where I grew up, Antwerp. With these groups you can identify professional alliances or groups of friendships which you might want to reinforce.

From this example you might gather that most of these groups have some sort of geographical logic behind them: you will be more likely to be friends with people you meet in person every day. Also, some clusters exist of people affiliated with the same institutions like universities. Although this might sound like a banal conclusions, it has two very interesting implications: physical proximity matters in creating (digital) friendships and, more importantly, is all but dominant for the evolution of your relationships. You will notice, for example, how some of your friends are actually bridging two groups, which made me think about how those two people actually got in touch in the first place. Was it through me? Or did I have nothing to do with their friendship? If so, how did their pre-existing friendship influence my choice of friends?

Have a look at your own ego-networks for LinkedIn and Facebook, and be surprised!

February 9, 2011 0

Facebooking the past (draft)

I recently finished a first draft of the paper I presented at TAG in Bristol last December. It discusses the assumptions and issues surrounding the use of Social Network Analysis for Archaeology. I like to believe that the paper is very readable. It starts with a short fiction about Cicero who used Facebook and Twitter from his iPhone 4 to become consul of Rome … in 63BC. This story becomes relevant in the latter part of the paper, however, where I stress the importance of realising that when we think through a networks perspective we assume that networks must have existed in the past.

I would love any kind of feedback on this working paper! You can download it from the bibliography page (first one in the list).

ABSTRACT

Facebook currently has over 500 million active users, only six years after its launch in 2004. The social networking website’s viral spread and its direct influence on the everyday lives of its users troubles some and intrigues others. It derives its strength in popularity and influence through its ability to provide a digital medium for social relationships.

This paper is not about Facebook at all. Rather, through this analogy the strength of relationships between people becomes apparent most dramatically. Undoubtedly social relationships were as crucial to stimulating human actions in the past as they are in the present. In fact, much of what we do as archaeologists aims at understanding such relationships. But how are they reflected in the material record? And do social network analysis techniques aimed at understanding such relationships help archaeologists understand past social relationships?

This paper explores the assumptions and issues involved in applying a social network perspective in archaeology. It argues that the nature of archaeological data makes its application in archaeology fundamentally different from that in social and behavioural sciences. As a first step to solving the identified issues it will suggest an integrated approach using ego-networks, popular whole-network models, multiple networks and affiliation networks, in an analytical process that goes from method to phenomena and back again.

February 2, 2011 0

The SAGE handbook of Social Network Analysis

A new handbook is to be published soon by SAGE titled ‘The SAGE handbook of Social Network Analysis’. It is edited by John Scott and Peter Carrington. A full list of chapters can be read online.

Looking at the scope and contributors, this seems like another future reference-work by largely the same authors that brought us Carrington, Scott & Wasserman eds. 2005. Might just attest of the high institutionalisation (and North-American focus) of SNA. The scope is not limited to methodology though. A number of theoretical chapters are included, possibly as a result of the popularity of the idea of the network as a metaphor.

Some chapters might prove to be of particular interest to archaeologists, anthropologists and historians:
Network Theory: Stephen P Borgatti and Virginie Lopez-Kidwell
Kinship, Class, and Community: Douglas R White
Animal Social Networks: Katherine Faust
Corporate Elites and Intercorporate Networks: William K Carroll and J P Sapinski
Social Movements and Collective Action: Mario Diani
Scientific and Scholarly networks: Howard D White
Cultural Networks: Paul DiMaggio
Qualitative Approaches: Betina Hollstein
Kinship Network Analysis: Klaus Hamberger, Michael Houseman and Douglas R White

January 31, 2011 2

Social network analysis and data mining

For those interested in social network analysis and data mining:

A new journal has been launched called ‘social network analysis and data mining’. Published by Springer and edited (among others) by Alhajj, Memon, Batagelj, Carrington, Freeman, Goldberg, Hanneman, Klamma, Pattison, Scott. Largely established researchers in social network analysis and computer science I have the impression.

It sounds like this new journal emerged as a reaction to the recent popularity of network ideas, as well as the challenges posed by the availability of large and complex datasets. There seems a particular focus on online environments. It is supposed to be multidisciplinary but focuses on social sciences, mathematical sciences, medical sciences, biological sciences and computer sciences.

Nevertheless, some of its content is definitely of interest to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists. The first issue includes reviews, an anthropological viewpoint, corporate networks and networks in online environments.

Presentation TAG 2010 Bristol

I just submitted an abstract for TAG 2010 in Bristol, for the session ‘Thinking beyond the tool: archaeological computing and the interpretative process’. Hope it gets accepted. Feel free to comment on the abstract!

‘Facebooking the Past: current approaches in archaeological network analysis’

Short abstract:
This paper will explore how current computational techniques in understanding present-day social relationships can be applied to examine the many types of relationships archaeologists are interested in on the one hand, and those they are confronted with in their data on the other.

Long abstract:
Facebook currently has over 500 million active users, only six years after its launch in 2004. The social networking website’s viral spread and its direct influence on the everyday lives of its users troubles some and intrigues others. It derives its strength in popularity and influence through its ability to provide a digital medium for social relationships. The key to understanding the strength of Facebook lies in the evolving system of relationships as well as the particular social interactions between individuals it is made up of.

This paper is not about Facebook at all. Rather, through this analogy the strength of relationships between people becomes apparent most dramatically. Undoubtedly social relationships were as crucial to stimulating human actions in the past as they are in the present. In fact, much of what we do as archaeologists aims at understanding such relationships. But how are they reflected in the material record? Do networks of Roman pottery distributions, for example, reveal the past social processes underlying them? How can we model and analyse them using modern tools? And is it possible and relevant to reveal past social relationships using computers at all?

This paper will explore how current computational techniques in understanding present-day social relationships can be applied to examine the many types of relationships archaeologists are interested in on the one hand, and those they are confronted with in their data on the other. It will focus on the way these existing tools direct archaeological efforts in exploring past social relationships.

October 6, 2010 0