After a brief incursion into LDA, it appeared to me that visualization of topics and of its components played a major role in interpreting the model. In this blog post I will write about my experience with PyLDAvis, a python package (ported from R) that allows an interactive visualization of a topic model.
Continue reading “Experiments on Topic Modeling – PyLDAvis”
Reflections on Cambridge Analytica, #DeleteFacebook et al
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for these past few months (and honestly, if you have, I am not judging), you’ll have heard of Cambridge Analytica . These revelations struck a chord with the research we have been conducting over the past few months here at Object-Oriented Subject. Continue reading “Reflections on Cambridge Analytica, #DeleteFacebook et al”
Weapons of Math Destruction – Lecture Synopsis
Last November I attended one event connecting to crucial aspects of Object-Oriented Subject’s research, namely the exploration of the relationships of power and control embedded in algorithms. This event was a lecture by Cathy O’Neil in Utrecht, given on the 21st of November. As some interesting insights were gathered during this occasion, especially concerning a data scientist’s perspective on algorithm design and application, I would like to write a synopsis of the most relevant points raised by Cathy O’Neil. Continue reading “Weapons of Math Destruction – Lecture Synopsis”
Experiments on Topic Modeling – LDA
Topic modeling is an approach or a method through which a collection is organized/structured/labeled according to themes found in its contents. Continue reading “Experiments on Topic Modeling – LDA”
Schematic Patents
After going through the process of mining and selecting relevant patents (you can read all about it here), and ending up with 530 “Must Read” patents and 254 “Maybe” patents, I started the process of reading and summarizing them. Continue reading “Schematic Patents”
Mining patent data – preliminary results
The number of patents in which Facebook is the assignee currently surpasses the 5000. Not all these patents are closely related to our research, certainly – but how to make a good selection amongst such a huge amount of documents? The interface of the service we chose to use made it possible to use filters which certainly help ‘optimize’ the number of results. By using specific search terms, the displayed results are tailored to what one knows to be relevant. But what about the words that one does not know that could also be relevant? How can one have an overview of the existing content while selecting relevant pieces from it? This blog post is a brief overview of how we approached this issue. Continue reading “Mining patent data – preliminary results”
Soft biopolitics?
During the month of August, furthering my reading of ‘We Are Data’ by John Cheney-Lippold provided me with some very useful concepts that I would like to share. Continue reading “Soft biopolitics?”
A Tale of 3 Patents
Before Lucia and me decided to take a more systematic and scalable approach towards the selection of relevant patents, I performed a manual, preliminary search at Fresh Patents which yielded around 100 results containing certain important keywords in the title (e.g.: categorizing, targeting, clustering, etc). From this preliminary selection, I read three patents: Continue reading “A Tale of 3 Patents”
Mining patent data
Our mapping strategy relies on understanding the processes employed by Facebook to make inferences about their users. One possible way to accomplish that is by having a look at the patents they published. Continue reading “Mining patent data”
Mapping the Network
How to start a research that aims at identifying and describing Facebook’s strategies in mapping our desires?
When dealing with such a huge network of data, tools, categories and involved parties, it does not take much to get lost. Our preliminary intuition was to have a look at and register the most basic entry points: the tools that Facebook makes available for advertisers and developers. Continue reading “Mapping the Network”
Advertising on Facebook and other stories
Following our commitment to keep an active and periodic communication regarding the development of “Object-Oriented Subject”, my first post here in this blog will function as a report of my research notes, insights and intentions during the initial period of this project’s activities. Continue reading “Advertising on Facebook and other stories”