More information on http://noduslabs.com Seminar presented at ComplexNetworks LIP6 lab, Paris VI 27 June 2013

1. Using the Framework of
Networks to Enhance
Learning and Social
Interactions
Dmitry Paranyushkin
Nodus Labs
www.noduslabs.com
dmitry@noduslabs.com

2. 1. the approach

3. Network Thinking and...
• Cognitive Processes
(learning, memorizing, etc)
• Social Processes
(collaborations, relationships,
interactions, etc)

4. Cognition: Associative Thinking
The nodes are the concepts, the edges are the associations.
visualization www.thisislike.com

5. The nodes are the concepts, the edges are the relations.
Cognition: Learning
visualization: gephi

6. The nodes are the words, the edges are the cooccurrences.
Cognition: Text Network Analysis
visualization: www.textexture.com & sigma.js

7. The nodes are the tweets, the connections are retweets.
Society: Informational Cascades
visualization: the london riots rumours by the guardian, video by nodus labs

8. The nodes are the people, the edges are collaborations.
Society: Collaboration Networks
visualization: gephi & nodus labs

9. People (nodes) at a party interacting (edges).
Society: Social Interactions
visualization: gephi & nodus labs

10. scientific discourse
social practices, software tools,
events
writing, performance, visual art
•
Scientific
Research
Artistic
Practices
Social
Realm

11. 2. fields of enquiry

12. Research Questions: Metastability
Metastable dynamics makes it possible for the brain to maintain several states at once
and to shift between them easily (Kelso, 2012; Bhowmik, Shanahan 2013; Rabinovich et al 2008).

13. Research Questions: Metastability
Metastable dynamics in human brain makes it adaptable, flexible, and
robust against external perturbations. It enables simultaneous segregation
between different regions of neural activity and their integration, producing
complex cognitive and sensorimotor behavior.
Can similar dynamics be found in social processes and if so, how can it
be characterized? What would be the results of deviation from metastable
dynamics towards more ordered and more chaotic states?
If the brain is metastable, what about our cognition? What is the
dynamics of learning and communication? Does metastable dynamics
mean “healthy” mind?
Which network topologies are conducive for metastable dynamics?

14. Research Questions: Social Dynamics
How do social networks evolve over time?
How do online tools (recommender systems, online networks,
various applications) affect social dynamics and topology of our
social networks?
Do they create filter bubbles (Pariser 2011)? If so, what are the
effects? Does that make social networks less adaptable and more
vulnerable? If so, how can those processes be reversed?
How can we develop the tools that help us communicate and
exchange knowledge, but don’t weaken our social ties?
Can better awareness of the social network dynamics affect our
social behavior and how? Does it propose a certain kind of
ethics?

15. Research Questions: Cognitive Dynamics
How can we represent thinking and learning as a network?
What is the dynamics of efficient learning? And what are the
different kinds of “efficient”?
What is the topology of our knowledge? Are some knowledge
structures more open than others, is there any correlation with the
network topology?
What could be the tools that can enhance the ways we learn,
think, and interact?
What network dynamics could we consider as healthy?
What does the visual representation of information through
networks do to our cognition? Does it enhance our perception
and how?

16. Research Questions: Summary
• Metastability, Adaptability, Robustness
(exploring metastable dynamics in social & cognitive networks)
• The dynamics of social and cognitive processes
(studying how cognitive and social networks evolve in time)
• The patterns of thoughts and interactions
(studying topologies of the networks)
• Simplifying and visualizing complexity
(using the graphs to represent social and cognitive phenomena)

17. 3. case studies
& practical implementations

18. Textexture: Text Network Visualization
The words are the nodes, their co-occurrences are the connections between them.
http://www.textexture.com

19. Textexture: Methodology
1. A text is submitted
2. The stopwords (“are”, “is”, “the” etc.) are removed
3. The words are brought to their morphemes (e.g. looked = look)
4. The first scan represents every word as a node, their co-occurrence as
the edge in the graph.
5. The second scan is made using a “window” of 5 words, adding the
edges between the words, which are located within the same gap (to
account for short-term memory effects when reading).
6. The resulting graph is processed by Gephi, betweenness centrality and
community structure is calculated
7. The graph is visualized in Textexture using Sigma.Js
(Paranyushkin 2011, www.noduslabs.com)

20. Uses: Quick Text Summary, Excerpts
Provides visualization of a text’s or video lecture’s main concepts, clusters of meaning,
and how they relate to each other. Click on the nodes, to get the excerpts, click on the
timecode to open the video at exactly the place of the excerpt.
http://www.textexture.com

21. Uses: Dynamic Text Analysis
Evolution of US president’s inauguration speeches 1969-2013 - www.noduslabs.com

22. Uses: TNA Group Profiling
Visualization of ComplexNetworks lab’s research abstracts, 2010-2013.
More on http://noduslabs.com/cases/group-profiling-text-network-analysis/

23. ThisIsLike – Associative Thinking Net
http://www.thisislike.com

24. Recommender System: Amazon
Recommender systems are driven by logical, improvement-focused ideology, always
proposing things that are “better”, “faster”, “more efficient”. Could something like
www.thisislike.com offer an alternative to this way of thinking?
more on http://www.iaaibook.com

25. Constructed Social Situations
Creating real-life experiences that enact and exemplify various network concepts.

26. Social Situations: The Chair Game
People are invited to play a game, where they have strict rules of following one another.
These rules are gradually changing, in order help the participants experience various
possibilities for social network constellations in a real-life context.

27. Social Situations: The Chair Game
1 2
43

28. Social Situations: Performance “OK”
Constant reconfiguration of context through language and gesture.
Ok? Ok.... Ok! Ok, ok... Ok!
Watch live on http://deemeetree.com

29. The Concept of “Polysingularity”
Network thinking for everyday life situations – www.polysingularity.com

31. Thank You!
Dmitry Paranyushkin
Nodus Labs
www.noduslabs.com
dmitry@noduslabs.com