How We Know Us

Tag: influence

  • Health Care Leans Republican

    3.6-times as many former congressional staffers turned health care lobbyists and their immediate connections have network ties closer to former President Bush, than to current President Obama. The connections in the network map shown below, and used for the analysis above, include people and organizations (e.g. corporate, not-for-profit, public, etc.) the people have been identified…

  • Foreign Lobbying of NY Congressmen

    Thanks to ProPublica and Sunlight Foundation: …for the first time digitized one year’s worth of FARA records, making them accessible in a searchable database that allows users to easily follow the money and connect the dots. With the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker , anyone can quickly learn what governments are lobbying whom, how often and…

  • Astroturfing Censured by NY Attorney General

    While not networking exactly, this does touch on our predilection to believe others we do not know, if there are enough of them. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has settled with a plastic surgery company, alleging the firm published phony positive testimonials and Web sites. Lifestyle Lift, associated with Michigan-based Scientific Image Center Management,…

  • Election Influence by 527’s: Browsable Map

    I wanted to put out what’s been done so far on making yesterday’s post more interactive. There’s an awful lot that could be better about this map. Particularly legibility of labels in the core (it’s just too dense). If you want to see names, I suggest looking at the edges of the map. Michael Bommarito…

  • Influencing Elections: Network of Expenditures by 527s

    OpenSecrets.org is offering free access to their collected data about political contributions, and in that vein, I’ve created a network of expenditures by 527’s*.  I am looking for a way to make this more detailed for your ease of exploration, so please stay tuned. *Groups whose primary purpose is to influence elections are exempt from…

  • I Hear Twitter

    Friendship, it seems, is more accurately demonstrated than described.  We usually don’t do a good job accurately reporting our friendships when questioned.  So, here’s a look at a slightly higher measurement of friendship: conversations. If you squint (or click to enlarge the image) you can find a little yellow dot.  That’s me.  The connections between…

  • /Message: Authority Is A Highly Charged Particle

    I’ve discussed my thoughts on authority before and I think follower count is a poor measure; but Stowe Boyd as has a great post (where the name for this post came from) summing up much of the controversy. Two things I particularly like about the post: his spelling out why follower count is not without…

  • Response: How Does the Web Define Authority?

    The real questions are: whom do we trust, why, and under what conditions is trust transferable? Chris Brogran asks: How does the web define authority? First is an important matter of language.  There is a large difference between authority and an authority.  Authority is power formally granted by a position or role.  An authority is…