Week 13 Assignment: Gephi Exploration II

In this week’s assignment, you will continue exploring possible research topics empowered by CBDB and Gephi. This exploration requires that you a) make two queries, with the second built on the first, in CBDB and b) visualize your query results in Gephi.

  • Make queries in CBDB:
    • Define a group of historical figures for your study (e.g., all degree holders between 1050 and 1150, all men who held circuit-level local offices in the thirteenth century, all students who studied with Zhu Xi, etc.). Make your first query accordingly in CBDB, using one of the existing querying modules. Copy the person ids into a .txt file for use in running your second query.
    • Now make your second query, which must be a network query. Use the “Import People” function in either the “Query Social Networks” module or the “Query Mediated Associations” module to import the list of person ids you have generated in the first query. Set the parameters according to your needs and run the network query. CBDB has rich data social connections through scholarship, writing, and friendship, but is relatively weak on other types of social relationships. Save your results in three ways. 1) Use the “Save to Pajek” button to save your results as a .net file. (Make sure you check the radio button next to “Pinyin” [the default is usually “UTF-8”] before you save.) 2) Copy and paste the edges file in your results to an Excel spreadsheet. Your edges file is in the “Social Network Relationship” tab or the “Associations” tab, depending on which querying module you are using. 3) Copy and paste the node attributes file in your results to an Excel spreadsheet. Your node attributes file is in the “People in the Social Network” or the “People in Association” tab, depending on which querying module you are using.
    • If you need help with the “Import People” function in CBDB, check out relevant sections in the CBDB User Manual.
  • Make one or more network visualizations:
    • Visualize your Pajek file in Gephi. Make necessary changes to the layout, node size, edges, labels, etc. Save your visualization(s) as a .gephi file.
  • Make one or more spatial visualizations:
    • Use the Excel spreadsheets you have produced in the first step. Create a map using either ArcGIS or Palladio. Palladio is best if you want to draw spatial networks (i.e., lines in space); otherwise, go for ArcGIS. Change the symbology according to your analytical needs. Save your results as a map package file (i.e., .mpk file) if you are using ArcGIS, or take a screenshot of your map if you are using Palladio.
    • If you need help with Palladio, check out Miriam Posner’s “Getting started with Palladio”. The key is that you must enter coordinates information in one cell in the format of “latitude, longitude” (for example, 34.78,114.21). MS Excel allows you to do this easily. For example, if your X and Y coordinates are stored in the cells of A2 and B2, in a new column enter your Excel formula as: B2&”,”&A2    For more on this, check out the “”&” operator to concatenate strings in Excel” section in this webpage.
  • In an MS Word document, write down one or two paragraphs explaining what you are researching and what your preliminary findings are.
  • Compress all your files into a zipped file, and submit it to the Moodle drop box before due: Week 13: Gephi Exploration 2
 
Go To Top »