Abstract interpretation of the Dutch blogosphere 2001 #1

I am currently working on analyzing the Dutch blogosphere with my colleague Esther Weltevrede with help of colleague Erik Borra from the Digital Methods Initiative. In an early exploratory phase Esther and I started to learn how to use Gephi to visualize our data and networks. In one of my early attempts I created this beautifully abstract interpretation of the Dutch blogosphere. Gephi creates design by research!

Abstract interpretation of the Dutch blogosphere 2001 #2

Actual findings and paper will follow in a few weeks!

Twitter penetration in the Netherlands

Credits: Michiel Berger (@michielb), Anne Helmond (@silvertje), Marvin de Reuver (@marvindereuver), Esther Weltevrede (@esthr) and Ton Wesseling (@tonwesseling)

This final image has been made with the help from Ton Wesseling who calculated the percentage of Twitter users per city, using data about the number of inhabitants per city from CBS (January 2010).

Looking at the Twitter penetration per city in the top 25 we see that Amsterdam retains its #1 position with an estimate of 3,78% of the population having a Twitter account while some other major cities drop in ranking (Rotterdam from 2 > 6 and Den Haag from 4 > 13).

In this new view we see some cities climbing (eg. Groningen #2 – 2,99% , Hilversum #4 – 1,89%, – Zwolle #5- 1,67%) and others declining (Rotterdam #6- 1,66% , Eindhoven #12- 1,45%, Den Haag #13 – 1,31%). Many of the cities that climb in the ranking are student cities like Groningen, Zwolle, Leiden, Leeuwarden, Delft and Maastricht.

Thank you Ton!

Download a hi-resolution map on our project website for beautifying your office.

Map updated on January 22: Added Apeldoorn (# 21 in absolute ranking and no longer in the top 25 for relative ranking) and fixed an error in the relative ranking row. Map needs more updating concerning bubble size.

Relative Twitter density in the Netherlands

Credits: Michiel Berger (@michielb), Anne Helmond (@silvertje), Marvin de Reuver (@marvindereuver), Esther Weltevrede (@esthr)

This the second map of the Dutch Twitter population according to the Twittergids data. In the first part I visualized the top 25 Twitter cities in the Netherlands. In this follow-up image Esther Weltevrede and I looked into the relative number of Twitter users per 1000 inhabitants for each province. Color density is relative to the highest penetration (province of North Holland).

What is striking is that the province of Groningen has a relatively high number of Twitter users per 1000 inhabitants.

Hi-resolution images available here.

Last summer during our DMI summerschool I worked with Vera Bekema, Liliana Bounegru, Andrea Fiore, Simon Marschall, Sabine Niederer, Bram Nijhof, Richard Rogers and Elena Tiis on a project titled ‘The Nationalities of Issues: Rights Types.’

We looked at the most significant rights types per country according to local Google results of the query for “rights” in the local languages. Graphic designer Vera Bekema and I visualized the results and the project was published in the Global Information Society Watch 2009.

Download the pre-print PDF with the original blue colors or the GISwatch purple edition.