Mapping small things on the Web Assessing the online presence of the nanotechnology industry

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Mapping small things on the WebAssessing the
online presence of the nanotechnology industry

• Robert Ackland (Australian National
  University/OII)
• Rachel K. Gibson (University of Leicester)
• Wainer Lusoli (University of Chester)
• Stephen Ward (Oxford Internet Institute)
• voson.anu.edu.au

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Overview

• Aims
• (1) Demonstrator project for new Web analysis
  software (developed by R. Ackland, ANU) that
  uses hyperlink data to map the structure and
  composition of online networks
• (2) To investigate the extent to which the
  nanotechnology industry is engaging with the
  wider social/public debate
• 2 Stage Process
• Analysis of the web links (in/outbound) of the
  major nanotech companies
• Analysis of social vs technical orientation of
  site content according to meta-keywords and home
  pages

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Nanotech Networks Background

• Growing concerns that nanotech might become the
  next GM
• Move by government and academics to do things
  differently and engage with public concerns
• Key question is whether the nanotech industry
  itself is part of this debate?
• Match between rhetoric and reality?
• Policy implications tighter regulatory
  regime?

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Research Questions Hyperlinks and nano-networks

• To what extent does the nanotech industry
  occupy/form an online network.
• Who are the key players - industry/producers
  themselves or other groups?
• What is the overall orientation
  social/technical?
• What type of information is the nanotech industry
  providing to its audience?
• Is it linking to the social debates?

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Hyperlink Analysis

• Why, oh why ?
• General convergence/integration of the offline
  and online environments
• Most measures of real world phenomena are
  proxies on what basis do we claim websites to be
  inauthentic representations of
  organisations/institutions?
• Theoretical and empirical literature established
  the communicative function of hyperlinks
  (Ingwersen, 1998 Kleinberg, 1999 Davenport and
  Cronin, 2000 Rogers and Marre, 2000 Park et al
  2005)
• Functions (or affordances) of hyperlinks
  (Ackland and Gibson, 2006)
• Information provision
• Network building
• Identity building/branding
• Audience sharing
• Message amplification

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Identification of the nano-sphere (if you excuse
the pun)

• Step 1
• VOSON crawls 25 seed sites (ML Nanotech index).
  Table 1
• Google API used to identify sites linking to 25
  sites.
• 1, 135 unique sites identified, 173 identified as
  important ( in outbound links to seeds lt 2)
• Step 2
• 22 of 173 important sites identified as having
  nano-related content.
• 22 original 25 47 seed sites crawled
  outbound and inbound links
• 4,456 new sites identified 798 important
  identified
• 132 with nano in URL retained and added to
  original 47 179
• Final dataset 174 nanotech sites (5 dropped)

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Data classification (174 sites)

• Basic generic and country TLD (automated)
• Organisational Type (manual)
• Producer
• Disseminator
• Commercialiser
• Dominant Orientation (manual)
• Social
• Technical
• OVERVIEW

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Nanotech network structural properties

• Indegree basic measure of visibility
• Hyperlinked-Induced Topic Search (HITS) algorithm
  (Kleinberg, 1999)
• Authority sites (highly referenced pointed to
  pages)
• Hub sites (pages that point to lots of other
  pages)
• Betweeness-centrality measure broker/bridging
  sites

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Network measures by social/technical orientation
of site
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Network measures by site type
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Top-10 sites (sorted on indegree, HITS hub
score)
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Analysis of home pages content

• A list of keywords was identified using meta-tags
• Keywords were data-mined in the homepages of all
  website in the sample, using VOSON interface
• Occurrence was coded dichotomous, content
  variables created
• Results

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Multidimensional scaling of content

• Squared Euclidean distances were calculated
  between variables, pair-wise
• Distance matrix was fed to Proxcals MDS to find
  common space coordinates of variables
• Three dimension solution emerged

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Conclusions research questions

• Based on information provision, hyperlink and
  content analysis of homepages
• producers of nanotech have very limited direct
  engagement in the social debate surrounding its
  use and development.
• They are far more focused on the scientific and
  technical aspects.
• Such producers are, however, linked into a wider
  network of knowledge disseminators and
  commercialisers that are engaging more directly
  in the social debate (particularly knowledge
  producer and blog sites).
• Some of these sites enjoy a highly authoritative
  status in the network.

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Conclusions where next ?

• Overall, the research points to the need for
  further study
• How will the network evolve over time. In
  particular, would a critical event stimulate
  the nanotech producers to engage more with social
  issues?
• Have we identified a policy gap whereby the
  stated commitment to public dissemination and
  education is being ignored/neglected by the
  producers?

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Classification of nanotechnology-related web
sites
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Organisational Types

• Production - technology company
• Sites of companies involved in activities
  pertaining to nanotechnology e.g. production of
  nanotechnology products, or equipment/services
  relating to nanotechnology.
• Production knowledge
• Sites of organizations producing research
  relating to nanotechnology e.g.
  government/academic research labs, think tanks.
• Dissemination - academic
• Academic sites disseminating information
  relating to nanotechnology.
• Dissemination - basic/blog
• Blogs and other small sites focused on
  nanotechnology.
• Dissemination - industry
• This category includes industry groups websites.
• Commercial - consortia
• Sites that involve partnerships between
  business, government and/or academia that are
  aimed at technology transfer.
• Commercial - infosites
• Sites that provide information on nanotechnology
  and are primarily focused on making profit e.g.
  by business services, consulting, job placements.

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Keywords by type of website producers
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