All Tomorrow's Cultures

On Monday, I downloaded #AmAnth17 tweets.   This proved in many ways elusive and piecemeal.   First, the conference hashtags continue to shift.   Last year, the AAA finally discovered that the #AAA hashtag had other meanings and other audiences, among them AIDS activism in Japan and a pop music awards program in Korea (both of which prompted lively Twitter conversations this year).   Their efforts to promote alternative hashtags resulted in confusion, with people tweeting at #AmAnth17 (the ‘official’ hashtag), along with #AmAnth2017 (which would have been logically consistent with previous years) and, for the hell of it, #AAA2017. So the graph below includes tweets with any one of the three, with the top 50 Twitter users (by in-degree centrality) labeled.  Here are the general metrics on this network.   Graph Metric Value Graph Type Directed Vertices 426 ...

As I've done over the past 3 years, I ran Twitter searches for the American Anthropological Association Annual meeting this evening.  Unlike previous years, though, the #AAA2016 hashtag seems to be popular with a number of different groups, effectively obfuscating the anthropological voice behind other causes.  My colleague Matthew Durington (@mdurington) noticed that and tweeted yesterday: But, really, much of the damage had been done.  Here's a graph of my search results for #AAA2016: This dense graph (over 10000 edges) is made up of tweets from several events, but it's dominated by one, the "Asian Artists Awards" held in Seoul.  Here's the top tweet by betweenness centrality: 1. "คนอะไรเก่งตั้งแต่เด็ก และเก่งขึ้นเรื่อยๆ แถมสวยน่ารักขึ้นทุกปี #kimyoojung #AAA2016 https://t.co/DZVCDlnsY5" Indeed, all of the connected components are tweets from the Asian Artist Awards, with the twitterverse dominated by Thai fans.  The Ame...

Back on my pc--and here's my whole visualization for #AAA2015. It's the largest set of tweets I've ever mapped from AAA: 21, 879 edges, 3543 nodes.  I ran it when I got to my office on Monday, November 23 and it covers the whole 8 day window that includes some pre- and post-tweets.  I used the Clauset-Newman-Moore cluster algorithm to group the tweets--said to be particularly effective in revealing community structures in large networks.  Finally, each identified "group" is arranged in its own box, courtesy of the Harel-Koren Fast Multiscale layout algorithm.  Nice!  That said, it's hard to beat Marc Smith , who mapped out the network on Saturday, November 21.  He's got a neater graph than mine--it's his software, after all!  But I still wanted to work through my own data. In many ways, the graph is typical of associations.   Marc Smith et al (2014 ) might call this an example of a "tight crowd": " highly interconnected people w...

I'm on my Macbook at the AAA conference, so NodeXL isn't happening for me, so I'm using socioviz instead.  It's a java-enabled, web-based Twitter network visualization--but it's quick and dirty (especially in its free form).  Here's the #anthroboycott traffic over the last few minutes, with close-ups of the main components. So--there's a great deal of Twitter traffic now (it's not SXSW, but not bad!).  Socioviz will only pick off the latest 100 tweets.  Even so, we can see effort to bring people into the assembly . . . And here are the top tweets by degree centrality 1) Doors to the #AAA2015 business meeting open at 530PM! CCC Mile High Ballrooms 2 +3. Vote NO on 1, YES on 2 #Anthroboycott 2) 2.5 hours until #Anthroboycott vote. Mile high Ballroom 2&3. #AAA2015 https://t.co/FARzNSLZ0Q 3) RT @PalestineToday: Mick Taussig: The issue seems not so much why support; but how could you not? #AnthroBoycott #AAA2015 #BDS https://t.co? ...

I won't be rolling into AAA until tomorrow, but I wanted to check the conference traffic before I left. At this point in the game, there's not much going on--one large component (in blue) where people (and institutions) are publicizing their papers and booths.  So far, there's not much commentary on papers and presentations. Let's look at the top tweets by in-degree centrality. 1. RT @AmericanAnthro: Headed to #AAA2015? Make sure you download the mobile app through iTunes (https://t.co/80rZY5CR6O) or Google Play (http… 2. Conference Chic, or, How to Dress Like an Anthropologist https://t.co/GFWOIA1dFd What are YOU packing for #AAA2015? 3. Blizzard warnings in effect for Denver tomorrow. Take note #AAA2015 attendees, bring warm clothes! 4. If you're in Denver this week for #AAA2015, please stand with us in solidarity. Spread the word., https://t.co/kHmoxjIXVM 5. Two...more...days...#AAA2015 https://t.co/62eb20zOhX 6. NEW: The Anti-Boycott ...