Q46. Play with Yasiv's Amazon Recommendation Visualizer. After you have played with it for a bit, carry out some specific "analyses" (we use the term loosely here).
Select a book — my example will be The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, a favorite of libertarians and right wingers. Jostle the network around until you get a nice layout that has settled down. You might want to zoom in or out (mouse wheel if you have one).
Copy screen image to clipboard with alt-F14 or alt-PrtScn, open a Word document and paste. Crop the picture (Picture Tools>Format>Crop), unselect it, reselect it and stretch to fill page.
Examine clusters. Now select the picture and Cut it (control-X) and then Insert>Shapes>New Drawing Canvas, expand the canvas to be page-sized, and paste the picture. Then use the circle tool to draw circles around the identifiable clusters.
Now let's create a new drawing canvas and sketch this network of clusters.
And then we will examine the books qualitatively — back on the web interface — to come up with coarse descriptions of the clusters.
Finally, we inquire as to what connections the inter-cluster edges represent, like this:
| Vertex1 | Vertex2 |
|---|---|
| creativity | innovation |
| innovation | Pirsig-education |
| innovation | Rand-novels |
| Rand-novels | Rand-videos-etc |
| Rand-novels | Rand-philosophy |
Enter Data into NodeXL
- Start on the vertices tab and enter vertex 1 in column A, vertex 2 in column B.
- Click on refresh graph.
- Moving nodes and graph.
- Set layout to none.
- Vertex labels, vertex size. Refresh.
- Add edge labels for an edge or two. Refresh.
- Vertex label position.
- Copy to clipboard. Paste into writeup document.
Suggestions
The hot book in higher education, Academically Adrift.
The Real Mitt Romney]
Steve Jobs' biography
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
Caro Emerald's album Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor
Omnivores Dilemma
Fast Food Nation
City: Urbanism and Its End
President Obama's Audacity of Hope
The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
C Programming
The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It