Features of Connected China Technologies in its development Potential updates

1. 2013-11-01, eScience seminar
A short review of Connected China:
A visualization of elite social
networks in China
Xiaogang Ma
TWC/RPI

2. This presentation
• Features of Connected China
• Technologies in its development
• Potential updates
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3. Connected China
• http://connectedchina.reuters.com
• “tracks and visualizes the people, institutions
and relationships that form China's elite
power structure”
• Launched: Feb. 2013
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4. Features
• “[Connected China] provides deep insight into
China’s new generation of leaders and
features the best of Reuters’ coverage in
data, text, photos and video.”
• Optimized for iPad 2+ and Chrome and Safari
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5. Features of Connected China
General
information
Circles of
power
Roles of
power
Paths to
power
News
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6. • Families:
– Princelings
– Golden Sons-in-Law
powerful family
connections play a
crucial role in all
spheres of society
• Coalitions
– Shanghai Clique
– Tuanpai
Party leadership is
largely divided
between two
informal coalitions
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7. • Relationships with party elders
• Accumulation of guanxi
– Guanxi: the accumulated
social capital
A number of former leaders maintain their political influence through extensive
social connections and the protégés they have promoted over the years
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8. Knowing the background information of
families, coalitions, relationships with party elders
will help understand the social power of an individual
Click here for
literal explanation
Click here to
zoom in
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9. • The Communist Party of China
– “collective leadership” by the Politburo Standing
Committee (The Seven)
– Party general secretary Xi Jinping is now only the
“first among equals” in the seven-member body
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10. • The three pillars of Chinese politics
– Party, State, and Military
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11. Show details of a institution and its members
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12. • The path to political
power
– In China, the path to
political power is a
structured ascent
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13. • Comparing the
ages of political
leaders
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14. • The impact of
retirement ages
– For
example, Zhou
Yongkang
followed a
similar path as
Xi, but could
never reach top
leadership due to
the retirement
cutoff
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15. Comparison among multiple individuals
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16. Working group of Connected China
•
•
•
•
•
Editor + Project Leader: Irene Jay Liu
Production Heads: Yolanda Ma, Malik Yusuf
Lead Writer: Chris Ip
Copy Editor: John Newland
Design + Dev: Fathom Information Design
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17. Technologies
• Organization and key person
– Fathom Information Design: http://fathom.info/
– Ben Fry: http://benfry.com/
• HTML 5 and CSS 3
• More background information:
– http://fathom.info/china
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18. Data sources
• The app draws on a database containing:
– Tens of thousands of entities –
people, organizations, events
– More than 30,000 relationships
– 1.5 million words (equivalent to more than 20
non-fiction books!)
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Source: http://blogs.reuters.com/connected-china/2013/02/28/welcome/

19. Visualization
• Information Architecture
– Shift among them without
getting lost
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20. Potential updates
• Provenance?
– Currently most objects are prov:Agent
– More objects of prov:Entity and prov:Activity
– Relationships
Diagram from the W3C Provenance ontology at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-o/
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21. Potential updates
• Career Comparison: add spatial features?
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22. Thanks!
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