The Power of Partnership – from Vision to Reality

NETWORK CENTRALITY IN SUB-NATIONAL AREAS OF INTEREST USING GDELT DATA

11 July 2014 CDT Caitlin Rowe

Introduction

• Caitlin Rowe • Senior at United States Military

Academy • Studying Systems Engineering

Senior Project/Capstone with Data-Tactics for AY15 !!• Goals for 3 week summer

internship • Make connections for help during

academic year • Learn how to use Shiny • Explore GKG data for Dhaka, Bangladesh • Explore the utility of subnational

analysis2

Agenda

• Data Analytics in the Military

• Familiarization with GKG

• Network Centrality Analysis for Military Application

• GDELT Analysis Service

• Shiny and Gephi Results

• Communicating Conclusions to Military Leadership

• Future Areas for Improvement

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Data Analytics in a Military Context

• Technological advances • Vast amounts of data • Sensors • Social Media Sites • HUMINT

!• Used to increase • Efficiency • Accuracy

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Data Analytics in a Military Context

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“Simply put, big data is now a fixture on the battlefield and across the global security landscape.” -Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/techonomy/2012/03/12/military-intelligence-redefined-big-data-in-the-battlefield/

My Research

• Guidance from project advisor • GDELT • Global Knowledge Graph • Dhaka, Bangladesh

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• Purpose for Research • Assess GKG at subnational

level • Determine influential

individuals and organizations !

Familiarization with Dataset

• Global Knowledge Graph • Date, Event, People,

Location, Tone, and Article(url)

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• Collected from web, print, and broadcast news sources

Network Centrality for Military Application

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• Identify leadership and key players in given area

• Friendly and Enemy

• Which centrality measure is the most important in a military operation?

• Degree

• Closeness

• Betweenness

GDELT Analysis Service

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GDELT.org Analysis Service

Email containing analysis ex.filtered data, graph, map

Email address Date range Key words

GDELT Analysis Service

• GKG Network

• Heat map

• Exporter

• Geographic Network

• Word Cloud

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GDELT Analysis Service- GKG Network

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Important Nodes

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Shiny

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Filter using R and

create a network (igraph)

All GKG raw data (downloaded)

Create Shiny App that displays network, nodes, and centrality measures

Current Static Network

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Gephi

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Filter using R and

create a network (igraph)

All GKG raw data (downloaded)

Export network as “.graphml” file

Open network in Gephi and explore using built in tools

Gephi Network Example

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Gephi Network Example

17http://webatlas.fr/tempshare/ForceAtlas2_Paper.pdf

Conclusions

• Efficiency • The GKG Analysis Tools, Gephi, and Shiny all

produce network visualizations that display network centrality. These results can aid military leaders’ decisions of who to target or exploit based on specific mission information.

• Accuracy • All of the network information is gathered from

news sources, so connections between individuals that are clandestine or informal might not be included.

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Future Areas of Improvement

• Shiny App • Change city, date range • Separate by community • Gephi • More seamless transition from R • Overall • Remove newspaper editors

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