The supercomputer-powered Storywrangler benefits from amazing things from the depths of Twitter
Twitter is a wild ecosystem of myriad words, thoughts and stories. The new online tool Storywrangler with supercomputer computing power functions as a powerful telescope with which it is possible to look into twitter reality in real time. It is like a global sensor of events that could to some extent predict future developments.
–
Storywrangler, logo. Kredit: University of Vermont.
–
Twitter is like the universe of human online civilization. It has been operating since 2006 and has since accumulated countless billions of short posts from people and shoes around the planet. A team of American experts, led by Thayer Alshaabi of the University of Vermont, has created a “telescope” that can be used to study the Twitter universe in real time and find answers to curious questions.
Thayer Alshaabi. Kredit: University of Vermont.
–
This telescope is called the Storywrangler and is powered by a Vermont Advanced Computing Core supercomputer. It is equipped with virtual “lenses” that allow you to focus on the development of the use of words, thoughts and stories that are born and disappear on Twitter. According to the creators of Storywrangler, Twitter does not represent the whole of humanity, but it is used by a very large and very diverse group of people on the planet, including many personalities with considerable influence.
The storywrangler is able to show the main discourses that are currently on the agenda. As the creators aptly point out, this thing quantifies the collective attention of humanity. At the same time, it is not only the view of famous people of various kinds, but also the daily expression of the online crowd.
–
Storywrangler in action. Credit: University of Vermont.
–
Alshaabi et al. with Storywrangler they are the first to analyze 1, 2 and 3 word phrases in titles, which have been published in about 150 different languages, from the origin of Twitter to the present day. The storywrangler has a time resolution of 15 minutes, so it literally keeps its claws on the pulse of time.
But the supercomputer Storywrangler is even more than just another handy tool for social media analysis. It also acts as a global sensor of events. It detects what is happening, how people react to it, and can also predict to some extent what will happen next. It’s not psychohistory at all, but Isaac Asimov would certainly be happy.
Alshaabi’s team demonstrated that Storywrangler can predict political or financial instability, for example. They analyzed the use of the terms “rebellion” and “crackdown” in different parts of the world and found that the dynamics of these words on Twitter were demonstrably related to changes in the geopolitical risk index in these areas. The creators believe that their Storywrangler is part of the evolution of science. It should enable the development of new practices in journalism, language learning or, for example, in the history of computers and the online environment.
Literature
– .
