Mapping the World of Knowledge:

Cartograms and the Diffusion of Knowledge

ISKO Rome 2010

Lynne C. HowarthFaculty of Information

University of Toronto, Canada

“Representative” of Woman

“Who is Barack Obama?”-cover story New York Magazine

Sept. 28, 2009

Cartograms• A derivative of the data map

• Adds dimensionality to geographic positioning of information (Gastner and Newman 2004)

• Generated based on columns of categorized data

• Transformed by an algorithm

• Projected using mapping software

Red=RepublicanBlue=Democrat

US Presidential election, 2008

Plant hardiness zones (NA)

Worldmapper - 1

• Software tool for generating cartograms

• Developed by Barford and Dorling 2004

• Began with medicine + epidemiology; extended to demographics + world populations

• “a collection of world maps where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest” (2009)

Worldmapper - 2• 200 countries divided into 12 separate

regions, each with assigned colour range; up to 5 shades of colour distinguish countries or territories one from another

• Data derived from the Human Development Index, other United Nations agencies, FAO, WHO, CIA, World Bank, etc.

• Diffusion-based algorithms used to generate density-equalizing projections (cartograms)

Proportion of scientific papers written in 2001 by researchers living in that country

Worldmapper - Impact• Re-sized map a multi-level description of a

topic in simple, accessible, language-independent, and relative terms for comparison and contrast

• Contextualizes data relative to place and time – (“semantic annotation” - Prasad & Guha 2008)

• Colour and sizing facilitate description; also includes links to poster with verbal summaries, tables, graphs, technical notes, and data files for additional explanation and source information

Potential for KO - 1• Visualizing and contextualizing subject

content – Distribution by place – “geographic

bibliometrics”– Diffusion of knowledge – systematic

progression of ideas, topics, expertise– Identification of gaps in knowledge migration

• Linking of temporal (chronology and sequence) to space/place and topic

• Facilitating associations, serendipitous relationships, unique linkages

Potential for KO - 2• Assessing disruptions in diffusion of

knowledge– Economic, political, social, cultural

• Identifying opportunities for scholarly remediation (gaps in knowledge production; areas for future research)

• Addressing conditions of access and use (policies for redressing distortions, anomalies, restrictions/censorship, etc.)

Potential for Managing Subject Content

Topic “silence”

Visual“warrant”

Revisions to subject tools

How?

• Data-rich repositories, catalogues, bibliographies, indexes, databases

• Harvesting metadata for data columns

• Algorithmic manipulation for production of cartograms

• Association of textual data with resized representation (metadata to map)

Why?• Visualizing and interpreting rich stores of

textual surrogates• Descriptive (storytelling)• Analytical (identifying trends, gaps,

problems, etc.)• Formative (effecting change)• Transformative (language-independent; non-

verbal expression; different cognitive modalities)

Limitations• Cartograms as representations• Surrogates of representations• Imposition of a “map of the world” – whose

map?• Assumed agreement on utility of colour,

shape, size• Knowledge distortion?• Opportunities for misrepresentation or

deception – What story? Whose story?• Limitations of constituent data

Nonetheless …

• Promising visualization approach/tool to– Representing subject/knowledge content– Contextualizing subjects/knowledge– Tracking subject/knowledge “activity” across

time and space– Identifying gaps and barriers to the production

and dissemination of subjects/knowledge

• Potential for enhancing subject/knowledge indexing and retrieval tools

Thank-you

Questions?