Presented at the First Student's Big History Research Conference in Amsterdam, June 15, 2013. http://ibhastudents.wordpress.com/conference-program/ https://www.facebook.com/IBHAStudentsConference

1. Connecting the Pieces
An Analysis of Big History
Stephanie Poppe
Human Computer Interaction Design Masters Candidate
School of Informatics & Computing
Indiana University Bloomington

2. BIG DATA & BIG HISTORY
Massive amounts of information to extract patterns
from sound familiar?
Data Analysis applied to Big History can help discover:
Current and past trends amongst researchers
Important concepts, people & places
How all the texts connect and compare
Uncover under-researched areas and other topics of interest

3. METHODS
Compile a collection of digital BH texts and perform
Text Analysis
Citation Network Analysis
Topical Analysis
Temporal Analysis
(Sentiment Analysis)
Using tools like PolyAnalyst, Sci2, Voyent, Wordle,
Excel, & Illustrator

4. EXAMPLE
Sliced David Christians Maps of Time 1st ed.
Keyword Frequency
People, Place, & Organization Extraction
Sentiment Analysis

5. Intro
Chapter 1

6. Chapter 2
Chapter 3

7. Chapter 5

8. MORE FINDINGS
84 countries mentioned
Sentiment Analysis produced results pointing to
moments of great conflict
and moments of progress
Human is the most highly referenced keyword at 1100 times

9. NEXT STEPS
Gather texts
Research previous work
Seek out additional tools and
methods for analysis & visualization
Create Maps
Gain Feedback
Create online resource

10. THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?