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，通过在互联网和网页上发布的文本中表示的语义网来可视化和分析思想传播的时空维度。该项目将地理信息系统（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）技术集成在一起，跟踪和分析公众可访问的网站，以逐步获得更明确的词和短语集群，这些词和短语是实际的和潜在发展的社会过程网络的特征。人类和自然危机（例如流行病）以及敌对的社会运动（例如民兵和仇恨团体）作为这种综合系统效用的说明范例进行了审查。网站页面和网页内容与已识别的词或短语集群将被映射（通过地理参考他们的网址，URL，地名，地名，博客等）在世界地图（使用地理信息系统工具）与时间戳。生成的地图提供了一个可视的？信息景观?包含数百个网站位置（使用真实世界的坐标系统），包含相关的关键字或类似的想法。当与时间序列分析相结合时，该地图允许检查信息传播的路径和速度，以及各种思想的演变变化及其关系。通过创建语义网自动推理和映射系统（swarm）原型，研究人员可以可视化概念、想法和新闻随时间和空间的传播。关键字和短语的集群被识别和分类，对关键思想，挑衅事件和重要文本来源的参考被收集。这种创新的方法可以应用于多种语言和其他应用程序，例如蜂窝电话文本消息和社会网络消息（例如twitter消息）。智力优势：本项目为分析思想迅速传播的互联网上动态的信息景观，建立了一个新的多学科研究框架，将社会科学与计算机科学联系起来。通过在Web搜索机制中结合GIScience和地理定位技能，本项目展示了一种信息查询、检索和分析方法的新方法。语义知识库的创建升级了传统的？数据挖掘?方法先进？信息挖掘?方法。该研究促进了时空分析方法的发展，这是在传统的时间序列分析与空间分析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，分析思想的传播方向和速度，以及分析促进思想传播的意识形态、社会和宗教条件。目前有许多非营利组织和政府组织出于各种目的对网络进行常规监控。然而，这个项目的独特之处在于，它汇集了不同的学术学科，不仅监测网络，而且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。更广泛的影响：该项目有助于促进地理学、语言学、政治学和传播学等多个学科的研究和教育的整合。SDSU的四名研究生通过该项目直接获得资助和培训。各种学科和课程的学生也直接受益于这个研究项目。这项研究为来自不同背景的学生提供了一个很好的机会。圣地亚哥州立大学是全美排名第八的大学。西班牙裔获得了5个学位，学士学位排名第11位。在2006年的《美国新闻与世界报道》（u.s. News and World Report）中，该校在族裔多样性方面排名全国第22位。考虑到学生群体的构成，这个项目在研究生和本科课程中都有代表性不足的群体。该项目网站向公众公布研究成果，并创建一个多学科研究人员参与的讨论论坛。计划举办四个网络发现和信息景观研讨会，以促进未来的多学科合作。本研究提高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.