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Abstract
Email-based conversations between thousands of people – very large-scale conversations (VLSCs) -- now take place in a variety of online, public spaces such as Usenet newsgroups and large listservs. The Converation Map is a graphical browser for VLSCs. It automatically analyzes and graphically summarizes thousands of email messages exchanged in VLSC. The graphical summaries produced include (1) a set of social networks that illustrates who is corresponding with whom; (2) a menu of themes of discussion that are important to the conversation embodied in the messages; and, (3) a semantic network that articulates some of the emergent synonyms or metaphors of the discussion. In principle, you can use the Conversation Map like any other conventional news or mail reader.
(Warren Sack)
Artists / Authors
- Warren Sack, software designer and media theorist
Origination
United States, 1997-2000
Partners / Sponsors
The project has been developed within a series of research universities (MIT, Berkeley and now the University of California, Santa Cruz). Warren Sack: "I often work closely with anthopologists, political theorists and other social scientists interested in online public space and public discourse. I also generate conversation maps for art and design groups hosting online discussions."
Comment
The project has been under development since 1997. Version 0.01 was completed in 2000.
The work was originally a Ph.D. thesis at the MIT Media Laboratory. A new version (0.02) is currently under construction for the forthcoming (November 2004) ZKM show, Making Things Public: A Parliament of Parliaments: How to Overcome the Crisis of Representation, Peter Weibel and Bruno Latour (curators).
Submission
, May 18, 2004
Category
- artistic production
Keywords
- Topics:
- representation |
- communication |
- networking |
- internet |
- social systems |
- information
- Formats:
- software |
- 2D |
- computer graphic |
- internet
- Technology:
- java
Additions to Keyword List
- Perl