CDI-Type II: Mapping Cyberspace to Realspace: Visualizing and Understanding the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Global Diffusion of Ideas and the Semantic Web

这项研究创造了一种创新的方法，用于可视化和分析思想通过互联网和网页上发布的文本所代表的语义网传播的时空维度。该项目整合了地理信息系统(GIS)、地理信息科学(GIScience)、计算语言学(CL)和语义网(基于计算机的本体论)技术，以跟踪和分析公众可访问的网站，以逐步更多地定义表征实际和潜在发展中的社会过程网络的词语和短语簇。对人类和自然危机(如流行病)和敌对社会运动(如民兵和仇恨团体)进行了审查，以此作为这一综合系统效用的例证。将绘制网站页面和带有识别的单词或短语集群的网络内容(通过地理参考它们的网址、URL、地名、地名词典、博客等)。在带有时间戳的世界地图上(使用地理信息系统工具)。生成的地图提供了一个可视化的信息景观？由数百个网站位置组成(使用现实世界坐标系)，其中包含相关关键字或类似的想法。当与时间序列分析相结合时，该地图可以检查信息传播的路径和速度，以及各种想法及其关系的演变变化。通过创建语义网络自动推理和映射系统(SNARMS)原型，研究人员可以可视化概念、想法和新闻在时间和空间中的传播。识别和分类关键字和短语的集群，并收集对关键思想、挑衅性事件和重要文本来源的引用。这一创新的方法可以应用于多种语言和其他应用程序，如手机短信和社交网络消息(如Twitter消息)。智力优势：该项目形成了一个新的多学科研究框架，将社会科学和计算机科学联系起来，用于分析互联网上动态的信息格局，思想在其中迅速传播。通过在Web搜索机制中结合GIScience和地理定位技术，该项目展示了一种新的信息查询、检索和分析方法。语义知识库的产生是对传统数据挖掘的升级。先进的信息挖掘方法？接近了。这项研究促进了时空分析方法论的发展，这是一个在时间序列分析和空间分析传统分离的背景下迅速发展的领域。创新的语义和时空分析框架为社会科学研究提供了一个新的方向，以跟踪思想的传播，分析思想的去向和速度，以及分析促进思想传播的意识形态、社会和宗教条件。目前有许多营利性和非营利性组织以及政府组织出于各种目的定期监测网络。然而，这个项目的独特之处在于，它不仅将不同的学术学科聚集在一起监控网络，还引入了一个连贯的方法框架来分析一个想法的传播及其在网络空间的影响。广泛的影响：这个项目有助于促进多个学科的研究和教育的整合，包括地理学、语言学、政治学和传播学。SDSU的四名研究生是通过这个项目直接资助和培训的。不同学科和课程的学生也直接受益于这一研究项目。这项研究提供了一个让来自不同背景的学生参与进来的绝佳机会。圣地亚哥州立大学在向拉美裔授予S学士学位方面排名全国第8位，向所有少数民族授予S学士学位排名第11位，并在2006年《美国新闻和世界报道》的种族多样性方面排名全国第22位。考虑到学生的构成，这个项目以研究生和本科生课程中代表性不足的群体为特色。该项目网站向公众公布研究成果，并创建一个论坛，让多学科研究人员参与进来。计划举办四个网络探索和信息环境讲习班，以促进今后的多学科合作。这项研究增进了对促进某些思想传播的技术、心理和政治机制和条件的理解，并为社会科学研究提供了新的方向。

This research creates an innovative method for visualizing and analyzing space-time dimensions of the spread of ideas through semantic webs represented in texts posted on the Internet and the Web pages. The project integrates geographic information systems (GIS), geographic information science (GIScience), computational linguistics (CL), and semantic web (computer-based ontology) technologies to track and analyze public-accessible websites for progressively more defined clusters of words and phrases that characterize actual and potentially developing networks of social processes. Human and natural crises (e.g., epidemics), and hostile social movements (e.g., militia and hate groups) are examined as illustrative exemplars of the utility of such an integrated system. Website pages and web contents with identified clusters of words or phrases will be mapped (by geo-referencing their web addresses, URL, place names, gazetteers, blogs, etc.) over a world map (using GIS tools) with time stamps. The resulting map provides a visual ?information landscape? consisting of hundreds of website locations (using real world coordinate systems) containing related keywords or similar ideas. When integrated with time-series analyses, this map allows the examination of the paths and speed of information dissemination, as well as the evolving varieties of various ideas and their relationships. By creating a Semantic Web Automatic Reasoning and Mapping System (SWARMS) prototype, researchers can visualize the spread of concepts, ideas and news over time and space. Clusters of keywords and phrases are identified and classified, and references to key ideas, provocative events, and important text sources are collected. This innovative methodology can be applied in multiple languages and other applications, such as cellular phone text messages and social network messages (such as twitter messages).Intellectual Merit: This project forms a new multidisciplinary research framework in connecting social science and computer science for analyzing the dynamic information landscape on the Internet in which ideas spread quickly. By combining GIScience and geo-locating skills in a Web search mechanism, this project illustrates a new approach to information query, retrieval, and analysis methods. The creation of semantic knowledge bases upgrades traditional ?data mining? methods to advanced ?information mining? approaches. This research facilitates the development of space-time analysis methodology, a rapidly growing field in the context of the traditional separation between time series analysis and spatial analysis. The innovative semantic and spatiotemporal analysis framework provides a new direction for social science research to track the spread of ideas, to analyze where they go and how fast, and to analyze the ideological, social, and religious conditions that promote that spread. There are numerous current for- and non-profit organizations as well as government organizations that routinely monitor the web for various purposes. The unique aspect of this project, however, is that it brings together disparate academic disciplines not only to monitor the web, but also introduces a coherent methodological framework to analyze the spread of an idea and its impact through cyberspace.Broader Impacts: This project helps to foster the integration of research and education in multiple disciplines, including geography, linguistics, political science, and communication. Four graduate students at SDSU are directly funded and trained through this project. Students across a variety of disciplines and curricula also directly benefit from this research project. This research provides an excellent opportunity to involve students from diverse backgrounds. San Diego State University is ranked number 8 in the nation for bachelor?s degrees awarded to Hispanics and number 11 for bachelor?s degrees awarded to all ethnic minorities, and was ranked number 22 in the nation for ethnic diversity by U. S. News and World Report in 2006. Given the makeup of the student body, this project features underrepresented groups in both graduate and undergraduate programs. The project website publicizes research findings to the general public and creates a discussion forum to involve multidiscipline researchers. Four Cyber-Discovery and Information Landscape workshops are planned to facilitate future multidisciplinary collaborations. This research improves understanding of the technical, psychological, and political mechanisms and conditions that facilitate the spread of certain ideas and provide a new direction for social science research.