1. Changer de Focale
la navigation dans les paysages de données
Tommaso Venturini
tommaso.venturini@sciences-po.fr
Today’s Menu
1. Digital networks and quali-quantitative methods
2. The complexity of complex networks
3. Three affordances of networks

2. Changer de Focale
la navigation dans les
paysages de données
Part I:
Digital networks and
quali-quantitative methods

3. Wide angle VS. telephoto
rich data, small populations
large populations, poor data

4. The quali/quantitative divide
rich data, small populations
large populations, poor data

5. Gulliver
sociology
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift, 1726

6. The media as an
object of study
Photo credit – Brandon Doran via Flickr - ©

7. The media as carbon
paper
Chris Harrison
Internet connections

8. Large populations Paul Butler, 2010
Visualizing Friendships

9. Rich data AOL user 711391 search history
www.minimovies.org/documentaires/view/ilovealaska

10. Large populations
and rich data
Google Flu
www.google.org/flutrends

11. Large populations
and rich data
Google Flu
www.google.org/flutrends

12. Large populations
and rich data
Google Flu
www.google.org/flutrends

13. Quali-quantitative
methods
Top 50 US blogs
Ben Fry, 2006
http://nymag.com/news/media/15972/

14. The case of
Mark Lombardi

15. The case of Facenuke
http://greenpeace.fr/facenuke/

16. The case of Facenuke
http://greenpeace.fr/facenuke/

17. Changer de Focale
la navigation dans les
paysages de données
Part II:
The complexity of complex networks

18. The bad news:
networks are complex

19. Networks are complex
and do not tell us much http://internet-map.net

20. The power law
(pareto’s law)
characteristic
scale distribution
scale-free
distribution

21. The power law Barabási, Albert-László (2002)
Linked: The New Science of Networks

22. Complex network as
hairballs

23. Complex network as
rhizomes

24. Complex network as
rhizomes
“Unlike trees or their roots, the rhizome connects any point to any
other point”
Gilles Deleuze& Felix Guattari “A Thousand Plateaus”, 1980
“The main feature of a net is that every point can be connected with
every other point, and where the connections are not yet
designed, they are, however, conceivable and designable. A net is
an unlimited territory”
Umberto Eco, “Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language”, 1986

25. Changer de Focale
la navigation dans les
paysages de données
Part III:
Three affordances of networks

26. The good news:
networks are powerful
1. Networks as graphs – computation
2. networks as maps – visualization
3. network as interfaces– manipulation

27. Network as graphs Euler, 1736, Solutio problematis ad
geometriam situs pertinentis

28. Network as graphs
(train routing)

29. Network as graphs
(information routing)

30. Network as graphs
(information retrieval)
Lawrence Page
Pagerank Patent (6285999)

31. Networks as maps Jacob L. Moreno, April 3, 1933
The New York Times

32. Network as maps London Underground
1920 Map
homepage.ntlworld.com/clivebillson/tube/tube.html - www.fourthway.co.uk/tfl.html

33. Network as maps London Underground
1933 Map (Harry Beck)
homepage.ntlworld.com/clivebillson/tube/tube.html - www.fourthway.co.uk/tfl.html

34. Force-vectoralgorithms

35. Force-vectoralgorithms

36. Network as maps
(or ratherterritories)
Kevin Lynch
The Image of the City (1959)

37. Whatmaps are good at

38. Exploratory Data
Analysis
Tukey, J. W. (1977)
Exploratory Data Analysis

39. Network as interfaces Pajek
vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/pajek

40. Network as interfaces Ucinet
www.analytictech.com/ucinet

41. Network as
interfaces
Guess
graphexploration.cond.org

42. Network as
interfaces
Gephi
gephi.org

43. User-friendlier
interfaces
vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/pajek
www.analytictech.com/ucinet
graphexploration.cond.org
gephi.org

44. The good news:
networks are powerful
1. Networks as graphs – computation
2. networks as maps – visualization
3. network as interfaces– manipulation

45. Alice sociology Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, 1865

46. Natural
experiments
Snow, J. (1855). On the Mode of
Communication of Cholera

47. Natural
experiments
Snow, J. (1855). On the Mode of
Communication of Cholera

48. Natural
experiments
Snow, J. (1855). On the Mode of
Communication of Cholera

49. tommaso.venturini@sciences-po.fr
Venturini, T. (2012). Great expectations: méthodes quali-quantitative et
analyse des réseaux sociaux.
In J.-P. Fourmentraux (Ed.), L’Ère Post-Media. Humanités digitales et
Cultures numériques (Hermann., Vol. 104, pp. 39–51). Paris.
Venturini, T., &Latour, B. (2010).Le tissu social : trace numérique et
méthodes quali-quantitatives. Proceedings of Future En Seine 2009. Paris:
Editions Futur en Seine.
Latour, B., Jensen, P., Venturini, T., Grauwin, S., &Boullier, D. (2012).“The
WholeisAlwaysSmallerThanItsParts” A Digital Test of Gabriel
Tarde’sMonads. British Journal of Sociology, 63(4), 591–615.