Visualizing The New Arab Mind | Hacker News Reader

Visualizing The New Arab Mind

kovasboguta.com

99 pointsprogramnature16 comments

On that page, someone asked what the red-blue cluster is at the bottom. I checked out a few dozen accounts in Twitter and it seems this is a cluster of Arabic software industry people and entrepreneurs.

Yeah I saw your comment there. I find it fascinating that the two groups using twitter that look "grafted on" are Journalists and Software entrepreneurs. Both groups are early adopters of twitter. I see those two grafted on bits as bridges to unseen nodes.

Powerful. I'll put this in the yet-another-reason-why-twitter-is-important-column. Makes beautiful, informative visualizations like this possible.

It's the visibility of the relationships - all this could in theory be derived from looking at email / phone records, but of course those aren't available.

And then there's Facebook...

It's not the method. It's the data. The fact that anybody with the know how now has access to public data is what is great about it.

I love me some Twitters and all, but isn't this somewhat self-selecting in the sense that technology leans younger?

Any info on the total number of English speakers in Egypt?

It's a popular "foreign" language in schools, like French is in the USA. Basically no one speaks it on a day-to-day basis.

Necessary correction. Don't compare it to a foreign language in the United States, even if it's Spanish.

Egypt's much closer to other countries and has a huge tourism sector. Knowing a "foreign" language is vital; virtually everyone knows how to carry a basic conversation in English.

There's quite a bit of a difference between "French in the USA", "Spanish in the USA" and "virtually everyone speaks it". Does anyone have any hard data? It does seem to dominate Twitter.

Keep in mind that the Internet is in English and English is quickly becoming the World's main language.

Then, think about the millions of tourists who come to Egypt every year.

The educated speak English; the un-educated can say English phrases. They both watch American movies.

So, by "virtually everyone speaks it", I mean that virtually anybody can somewhat hold a conversation.

Egyptians say that the more languages you speak, the better job you can get. Tho' you'll find as many speak Italian as their "European" language as speak English (and quite a few speak English with a strong Italian accent).

English is taught in school (around the start of junior high school), so theoretically all educated people should be able to at least understand it and carry out simple conversations.

Some countries teach French instead of English (I believe that's the case in Algeria and Tunisia; not sure about Lebanon).

Reminds me of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GiG, and how people get self organized.

A SAC existed in original series as well, in the form of all the copycats of the Laughing Man, who never existed in the first place.

Can't reach the server anymore.

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