Analytics of Object-Centered Sociality in Knowledge Forum

Object-Centered Sociality

• conceptual artifacts; World 3 objects (Bereiter, 2002)
• “object worlds need to be included in an explained conception of sociality” (Knorr Cetina, 1997, p. 9)
• the “lackings” of objects and “wantings” of humans create conditions for social grouping, binding, and norming (Knorr Cetina, 1997)

Goals

• Advance analytics of object-centered sociality
• Prototype analytic tools to answer simple questions

Data

Knowledge Forum (v6)

• Notes
• Activity logs
  • reading
  • writing

Initial Design

Analytic 1: Structure of object-object relations

Note networks based on build-on links

Analytic 1: Structure of object-object relations

network motifs: building blocks of a network;
examples of motifs of 3 nodes:

Analytic 1: Motif signature of five KB communities

Analytic 2: Intensity of author-note relations

Encode author-note relations

Analytic 2: Intensity of author-note relations

Analytic 2: Intensity of author-note relations

Aggregate by indivdidual author

Compare object-centered sociality with social interaction

From interpersonal to object-centered sociality

Thank you!

Thoughts? Feedback?

chenbd@umn.edu