Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .
When we practise to blog! (With all due apologies to Sir Walter Scott).
This very cool java app is a relational toy from Touchgraph. They use Google's network of connectivity between websites to display what sites you are connected to:
I get different responses depending upon whether I use the top level URL (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/) or the sub-levels (Real Estate, Economy, etc.)
This is the bigpicture.typepad.com/comments. Note the middle left side purple are DRM/digital media related links, while the bottom center green all Housing related. Economics gets kinda buried in the center pile.
(FYI: I seem to make it crash every 3rd request, but I run a dozen apps at once . . .)
Years ago, I looked at a very cool software company that did something very similar to this. Gotta dig that up . . .
via Econbrowser
Here's what the top level URL (bigpicture.typepad.com) generates:
Note all the econ stuff is the lower center green sector
Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | 11:28 AM | Permalink
| Comments (10)
| TrackBack (0)
add to de.li.cious | 
digg this! | 
add to technorati | 
email this post
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/763/19939470
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave . . . :
Comments
Yes indeed..... I wonder if a similar graph can be made for derivativess....
Ouch....! Dat derre dollar is taking it in the cojones today... I wonder what Mr. Bernake can tell us that the market is not already saying.....?
Econlicious
Posted by: ECONOMISTA NON GRATA | Jul 10, 2007 12:11:41 PM
a meta search engine kartoo.com shows results in a similar manner.
Posted by: e_b_a_l | Jul 10, 2007 12:21:55 PM
That is very cool indeed.
Posted by: fiat lux | Jul 10, 2007 1:31:40 PM
'very cool software company' - was that at www.grokker.com?
The 'grok' presumably being the grok from Heinlein's book. Noted in the paper the other day that Heinlein just turned 100.
As I return to Grokker now, for the first time in a long while, I see that there are no edges on their graphs (there used to be). I looked up "Norilsk Metal" which was a fascinating article in last Sunday's NYT. Another Russian oligarch disappropriated of his empire by Putin & Co. as they bring more of the strategic assets of the economy under govt control.
I also note that Grokker can no longer draw their data from Google. Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon - yes. But not Google. I would presume that this is significant (one can imagine the glint in Google's eye).
Anyway, we use these kinds of graphs in-house. I'm a programmer for a finance firm. They may be other names but we call them 'force directed graphs'. The edges have a 'tensive' value attached to them which allows the graph (to some extent) to self-organize. Think of the edges as containing springs. And then you can parameterize those edges with differing kinds of values.
But (to the brief extent that I checked) Grokker no longer (at least visibly - so maybe under-the-hood) has the edges. Still it's clear that some kind of weighting(s) has occurred.
pat
Posted by: patf | Jul 10, 2007 2:45:32 PM
Java application demanding some signe applet-
Fugettit!
Posted by: b | Jul 10, 2007 3:26:27 PM
Bur with practice, by and by,
You'll tell a most convincing lie.
Posted by: Scytale | Jul 10, 2007 3:51:03 PM
heywaddayaknow. ishouldhaveguessed.
Force directed graphs. There's at least one Wikipedia article that bears upon the matter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force-based_algorithms
pat
Posted by: patf | Jul 10, 2007 5:31:25 PM
James Burke, the "Connections" guy, has been using this sort of technology to, well, provide visual links between historical figures to show the (sigh) connections between them. There was a sample app somewhere on the web, forgot where I put the link to it, but here's a YouTube description from the man his own self:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWxHC_8yBrc
Posted by: Jim Bergsten | Jul 10, 2007 7:45:27 PM
Looks cool and I'd love to try it but it has crashed my Firefox five times in a row -- I give up!
Posted by: C. Maoxian | Jul 10, 2007 8:08:30 PM
Go to www.grokker.com
Choose a 'good subject'. Enter that. Then dig in till you find the graph.
Grooker looks way cool.
Posted by: patf | Jul 10, 2007 10:24:05 PM
