Proposition 2: Sustained Evolution One can start rewiring the nodes to produce different meanings and new choices, opening it up to various discourses in order to avoid standstill. For instance, the formation of certain motifs within a network is associated with the emergence of informational pathways: a more interconnected structure, which “makes sense” as a whole [4]. Alternatively, a network that is highly interconnected may come to a “gridlock” and stop producing differences from within. In this case, the possibility to rewire the existing connections or introduce new concepts into the conversation may help it evolve and avoid standstill [5].
Proposition 3: Conversation Profiling Various tools from text network analysis can be applied to a conversation that is inscribed into a network. After visualizing the network in Gephi [6], we can find out the terms and concepts that function as important junctions for meaning circulation (in terms of network analysis they have high “betweenness centrality”). These are not necessarily the most frequently mentioned terms, but rather the ones without which the network as a whole could not function, the most influential nodes within the network. The communities (indicated with different colors) are comprised of the nodes that are very well interconnected between each other, more so than with the rest of the network. These indicate the concepts and terms that related to each other during the interview. [7] For instance, here’s the visualizations and the comparison table for two conversations that took place during SI (data derived using Gephi software):
Terms Connections Network Diameter Average Path Power Law Degree Clustering
Vladimir 34 40 11 5 2.7 0.12
Lilia 21 35 5 2.5 1.6 0.18