USMA Cadet leverages GDELT Global Knowledge Graph (GKG) to quantify global human society beyond cataloging physical occurrences and network structure of the global news.

1. The Power of Partnership – from Vision to Reality
NETWORK CENTRALITY
IN SUB-NATIONAL
AREAS OF INTEREST
USING GDELT DATA
11 July 2014
CDT Caitlin Rowe

2. Introduction
• Caitlin Rowe
• Senior at United States Military
Academy
• Studying Systems Engineering
Senior Project/Capstone with Data-
Tactics for AY15
!
!
• Goals for 3 week summer
internship
• Make connections for help during
academic year
• Learn how to use Shiny
• Explore GKG data for Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Explore the utility of subnational
analysis
2

3. Agenda
• Data Analytics in the Military
• Familiarization with GKG
• Network Centrality Analysis for Military Application
• GDELT Analysis Service
• Shiny and Gephi Results
• Communicating Conclusions to Military Leadership
• Future Areas for Improvement
3

4. Data Analytics in a Military Context
• Technological advances
• Vast amounts of data
• Sensors
• Social Media Sites
• HUMINT
!
• Used to increase
• Efficiency
• Accuracy
4

5. Data Analytics in a Military Context
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“Simply put, big data is now a fixture
on the battlefield and across the
global security landscape.” -Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2012/03/12/military-intelligence-redefined-big-data-in-the-battlefield/

6. My Research
• Guidance from project
advisor
• GDELT
• Global Knowledge Graph
• Dhaka, Bangladesh
6
• Purpose for Research
• Assess GKG at subnational
level
• Determine influential
individuals and
organizations
!

7. Familiarization with Dataset
• Global Knowledge Graph
• Date, Event, People,
Location, Tone, and
Article(url)
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• Collected from web, print, and
broadcast news sources

8. Network Centrality for Military Application
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• Identify leadership and key players in given area
• Friendly and Enemy
• Which centrality measure is the most important in a
military operation?
• Degree
• Closeness
• Betweenness

9. GDELT Analysis Service
9
GDELT.org
Analysis Service
Email containing
analysis
ex.filtered data, graph,
map
Email address
Date range
Key words

10. GDELT Analysis Service
• GKG Network
• Heat map
• Exporter
• Geographic Network
• Word Cloud
10

11. GDELT Analysis Service- GKG Network
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12. Important Nodes
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13. Shiny
13
Filter
using R and
create a network
(igraph)
All GKG raw data
(downloaded)
Create Shiny App
that displays
network, nodes, and
centrality measures

14. Current Static Network
14

15. Gephi
15
Filter
using R and
create a network
(igraph)
All GKG raw data
(downloaded)
Export network as
“.graphml” file
Open network in
Gephi and explore
using built in tools

16. Gephi Network Example
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17. Gephi Network Example
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http://webatlas.fr/tempshare/ForceAtlas2_Paper.pdf

18. Conclusions
• Efficiency
• The GKG Analysis Tools, Gephi, and Shiny all
produce network visualizations that display
network centrality. These results can aid military
leaders’ decisions of who to target or exploit
based on specific mission information.
• Accuracy
• All of the network information is gathered from
news sources, so connections between
individuals that are clandestine or informal might
not be included.
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19. Future Areas of Improvement
• Shiny App
• Change city, date range
• Separate by community
• Gephi
• More seamless transition from R
• Overall
• Remove newspaper editors
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