arXiv subjects

Andrea Scharnhorst

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Scharnhorst.

49 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

The evolution of classification systems: Ontogeny of the UDC

To classify is to put things in meaningful groups, but the criteria for doing so can be problematic. Study of evolution of classification includes ontogenetic analysis of change in classification over time. We present an empirical analysis of the UDC over the entire period of its development. We demonstrate stability in main classes, with major change driven by 20th century scientific developments. But we also demonstrate a vast increase in the complexity of auxiliaries. This study illustrates an alternative to Tennis' "scheme-versioning" method.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2012

Looking at a digital research data archive - Visual interfaces to EASY

In this paper we explore visually the structure of the collection of a digital research data archive in terms of metadata for deposited datasets. We look into the distribution of datasets over different scientific fields; the role of main depositors (persons and institutions) in different fields, and main access choices for the deposited datasets. We argue that visual analytics of metadata of collections can be used in multiple ways: to inform the archive about structure and growth of its collection; to foster collections strategies; and to check metadata consistency. We combine visual analytics and visual enhanced browsing introducing a set of web-based, interactive visual interfaces to the archive's collection. We discuss how text based search combined with visual enhanced browsing enhances data access, navigation, and reuse.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2012

Evolution of Wikipedia's Category Structure

Wikipedia, as a social phenomenon of collaborative knowledge creating, has been studied extensively from various points of views. The category system of Wikipedia, introduced in 2004, has attracted relatively little attention. In this study, we focus on the documentation of knowledge, and the transformation of this documentation with time. We take Wikipedia as a proxy for knowledge in general and its category system as an aspect of the structure of this knowledge. We investigate the evolution of the category structure of the English Wikipedia from its birth in 2004 to 2008. We treat the category system as if it is a hierarchical Knowledge Organization System, capturing the changes in the distributions of the top categories. We investigate how the clustering of articles, defined by the category system, matches the direct link network between the articles and show how it changes over time. We find the Wikipedia category network mostly stable, but with occasional reorganization. We show that the clustering matches the link structure quite well, except short periods preceding the reorganizations.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2011

Learning in a Landscape: Simulation-building as Reflexive Intervention

This article makes a dual contribution to scholarship in science and technology studies (STS) on simulation-building. It both documents a specific simulation-building project, and demonstrates a concrete contribution to interdisciplinary work of STS insights. The article analyses the struggles that arise in the course of determining what counts as theory, as model and even as a simulation. Such debates are especially decisive when working across disciplinary boundaries, and their resolution is an important part of the work involved in building simulations. In particular, we show how ontological arguments about the value of simulations tend to determine the direction of simulation-building. This dynamic makes it difficult to maintain an interest in the heterogeneity of simulations and a view of simulations as unfolding scientific objects. As an outcome of our analysis of the process and reflections about interdisciplinary work around simulations, we propose a chart, as a tool to facilitate discussions about simulations. This chart can be a means to create common ground among actors in a simulation-building project, and a support for discussions that address other features of simulations besides their ontological status. Rather than foregrounding the chart's classificatory potential, we stress its (past and potential) role in discussing and reflecting on simulation-building as interdisciplinary endeavor. This chart is a concrete instance of the kinds of contributions that STS can make to better, more reflexive practice of simulation-building.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2011

Need to categorize: A comparative look at the categories of the Universal Decimal Classification system (UDC) and Wikipedia

This study analyzes the differences between the category structure of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) system (which is one of the widely used library classification systems in Europe) and Wikipedia. In particular, we compare the emerging structure of category-links to the structure of classes in the UDC. With this comparison we would like to scrutinize the question of how do knowledge maps of the same domain differ when they are created socially (i.e. Wikipedia) as opposed to when they are created formally (UDC) using classificatio theory. As a case study, we focus on the category of "Arts".

cs.DL↗

arXiv2010

Tracing scientific influence

Scientometrics is the field of quantitative studies of scholarly activity. It has been used for systematic studies of the fundamentals of scholarly practice as well as for evaluation purposes. Although advocated from the very beginning the use of scientometrics as an additional method for science history is still under explored. In this paper we show how a scientometric analysis can be used to shed light on the reception history of certain outstanding scholars. As a case, we look into citation patterns of a specific paper by the American sociologist Robert K. Merton.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2010

Highly connected - a recipe for success

In this paper, we tackle the problem of innovation spreading from a modeling point of view. We consider a networked system of individuals, with a competition between two groups. We show its relation to the innovation spreading issues. We introduce an abstract model and show how it can be interpreted in this framework, as well as what conclusions we can draw form it. We further explain how model-derived conclusions can help to investigate the original problem, as well as other, similar problems. The model is an agent-based model assuming simple binary attributes of those agents. It uses a majority dynamics (Ising model to be exact), meaning that individuals attempt to be similar to the majority of their peers, barring the occasional purely individual decisions that are modeled as random. We show that this simplistic model can be related to the decision-making during innovation adoption processes. The majority dynamics for the model mean that when a dominant attribute, representing an existing practice or solution, is already established, it will persists in the system. We show however, that in a two group competition, a smaller group that represents innovation users can still convince the larger group, if it has high self-support. We argue that this conclusion, while drawn from a simple model, can be applied to real cases of innovation spreading. We also show that the model could be interpreted in different ways, allowing different problems to profit from our conclusions.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2009

Measuring the Knowledge Base: A Program of Innovation Studies

Organized knowledge production can then be considered as the codification of communication. Communications leave traces that can be studied as indicators. Institutions can be considered as retention mechanisms functional for the reproduction of ever more complex, that is, scientific and knowledge-based, communications. The focus on communication enables us to operationalize the research questions in terms of indicators by using the mathematical theory of communication. The combination of two theories with a very different status--i.e., a combination of theory and methods--enables us to update and inform empirical hypotheses about how the knowledge base transforms the institutional relations of an increasingly knowledge-based society. Policy implications are specified.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2009

Designing Survival Strategies for Propulsion Innovations

Mobility is valued greatly in the highly industrialized societies. The need for radical change in propulsion technologies is obvious to all actors, irrespective of whether they originate from industry, politics or the general public. This paper analyses the tension between innovation pressure and pull of convention in the automobile industries. This tension is currently giving rise to a situation of stalemate in relation to alternative propulsion and fuel technologies. We map the situation by means of a taxonomy of current and future incremental and radical innovations. Based on in-depth field observation of engineering and manufacturing in Germany, we present an innovation landscape in the form of a two-dimensional matrix composed of propulsion innovations and fuel innovations. We use mathematical models of hyperselection to develop a rationale for escape strategies from the current lock-in into conventional combustion-engine technology. Based on the heuristic guidance of these models, we discuss several empirical cases in which buses act as pioneers in markets for alternative propulsion vehicles. Neither the model nor the basic empirical material used in this paper are new. Instead, we show that using mathematical models as a kind of substratum on which empirical observations and theoretical arguments can be ordered leads to new and partly unexpected insights into the nature of socioeconomic innovations. We apply this approach to the case of new driving technologies and argue that there is a 'third epistemic function' of models in the continuum between data driven, exactly validated models at the one extreme and a metaphoric use of models in thought experiments at the other. This is what we call a holistic description.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2009

Visual Conceptualizations and Models of Science

This Journal of Informetrics special issue aims to improve our understanding of the structure and dynamics of science by reviewing and advancing existing conceptualizations and models of scholarly activity. Several of these conceptualizations and models have visual manifestations supporting the combination and comparison of theories and approaches developed in different disciplines of science. Subsequently, we discuss challenges towards a theoretically grounded and practically useful science of science and provide a brief chronological review of relevant work. Then, we exemplarily present three conceptualizations of science that attempt to provide frameworks for the comparison and combination of existing approaches, theories, laws, and measurements. Finally, we discuss the contributions of and interlinkages among the eight papers included in this issue. Each paper makes a unique contribution towards conceptualizations and models of science and roots this contribution in a review and comparison with existing work.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2008

Animating the development of Social Networks over time using a dynamic extension of multidimensional scaling

The animation of network visualizations poses technical and theoretical challenges. Rather stable patterns are required before the mental map enables a user to make inferences over time. In order to enhance stability, we developed an extension of stress-minimization with developments over time. This dynamic layouter is no longer based on linear interpolation between independent static visualizations, but change over time is used as a parameter in the optimization. Because of our focus on structural change versus stability the attention is shifted from the relational graph to the latent eigenvectors of matrices. The approach is illustrated with animations for the journal citation environments of Social Networks, the (co-)author networks in the carrying community of this journal, and the topical development using relations among its title words. Our results are also compared with animations based on PajekToSVGAnim and SoNIA.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Evolutionary search agents in complex landscapes - a new model for the role of competence and meta-competence (EVOLINO and other simulation tools)

The acquisition of competence is a key element in the ability to assert oneself in the complex and rapidly changing modern worlds of work. This paper examines the evolution of competence, i.e. the role of competences in an evolutionary problem-solving process, and the role of flexibility as a meta-competence from the perspective of the general concept of Geometrically-Oriented Evolution THEory (G_O_E_THE). We use evolutionary search agents as abstract models of real individuals and groups. In a first approach the agents search for better competence profiles. In a second approach they use competences to solve problems. A search agent operates in an abstract value landscape, a fitness landscape. The crucial difference between the evolutionary search agents and other agent models is the fact that interaction patterns of the new agents incorporate evolutionary search strategies. A special simulation tool called EVOLINO allows to simulate the hill-climbing process of search agents in complex landscapes.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2004

Modelling Selforganization and Innovation Processes in Networks

In this paper we develop a theory to describe innovation processes in a network of interacting units. We introduce a stochastic picture that allows for the clarification of the role of fluctuations for the survival of innovations in such a non-linear system. We refer to the theory of complex networks and introduce the notion of sensitive networks. Sensitive networks are networks in which the introduction or the removal of a node/vertex dramatically changes the dynamic structure of the system. As an application we consider interaction networks of firms and technologies and describe technological innovation as a specific dynamic process. Random graph theory, percolation, master equation formalism and the theory of birth and death processes are the mathematical instruments used in this paper.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗