Visualizing the Gospels Using Treemaps and the Composite Gospel Index Sean Boisen (Sean at...

Visualizing the Gospels Using Treemaps and the Composite Gospel Index

Sean Boisen (Sean at SemanticBible dot com)

Society for Biblical Literature Annual Meeting

Computer Assisted Research Group, S21-15

Nov 21, 2005

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Outline Visualization and Treemaps The Composite Gospel Index Sample visualizations Conclusions

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Information Visualization Macro vs. micro view

Shirkey: “the overall pattern of data often exhibits patterns that emerge from the individual pieces of data, patterns that can be impossible to discern by merely re-sorting the data in spreadsheet format ”

Quantitative vs. symbolic perspective Dynamic visualizations invite exploration Shneiderman’s mantra:

Overview first, Zoom and filter, Then details on demand.

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Treemaps A “space-constrained visualization of hierarchical

structures” developed by Ben Shneiderman (University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory) Software is available for non-commercial use at

www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap/ Web examples:

www.smartmoney.com/marketmap (stock performance by industry)

www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/ (Google News)

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The Composite Gospel Index (CGI) A unified account for representing the Gospel

accounts XML data structure

Standards based to encourage re-use Supports Web presentation and hyper-linking Supports automated processing of texts and related features

A reference scheme and abstraction layer Downloadable from

www.semanticbible.org/cgi/cgi-view.html

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An Example CGI Pericope

ID: Pericope.041.Mark

Reference: Mark.1.14-Mark.1.15

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."

ID: Pericope.041.Luke

Reference: Luke.4.14-Luke.4.15

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

PericopeSources

ID: P

eric

ope.

041.

Mat

t

Ref

eren

ce:

Mat

t.4.1

2-M

att.4

.17

ID: P

eric

ope.

041.

John

Ref

eren

ce:

John

.4.4

3-Jo

hn.4

.45

ID: Pericope.041

Title: Jesus preaches in Galilee

NextBySource: Pericope.044

PreviousBySource: Pericope.040

PreviousBySource: Pericope.027

NextBySource: Pericope.043

Previous: Pericope.040

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Constructive Principles Division

Thematic and situational continuity Alignment Sequence

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Computed Attributes by Pericope & Source

Tokens (n=34): Now-after-John-was-arrested-Jesus-came-into-Galilee-proclaiming-the-gospel-of-God-and-saying-The-time-is-fulfilled-and-the-kingdom-of-God-is-at-hand-repent-and-believe-in-the-gospel

BaseTokens (n=21): now-John-be-arrest-Jesus-come-Galilee-proclaim-gospel-God-say-time-be-fulfill-kingdom-God-be-hand-repent-believe-gospel

ID: Pericope.041.Mark

Reference: Mark.1.14-Mark.1.15

n_tokens: 34

n_basetokens: 21

mean_singletons: 0

mean_lowfreqs: 0

Novel vocabulary measures (summed across all Gospels):

Singleton = single occurrence of a base token “lowfreq” = < 3 occurrences of a base token

Means are normalized by n_basetokens.

ID: Pericope.041

n_tokens: 229

mean_tokens: 57.25

n_sources: 4

n_basetokens: 137

mean_basetokens: 34.25

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Treemap 1: CGI Overview Purposes:

Illustrate Treemap visualization Space vs. sequential orientation Hierarchical organization Dynamic highlighting and selection details

Compare Synoptics to John Parameters:

Group by pericope Label: reference Size: # of tokens for each source Color: source

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Treemaps 2 and 3: Single Source Pericopes Purpose: Explore the distribution by author of

single-source pericopes Parameters:

Group by pericope Label: reference Size: mean # of tokens for each pericope Color: source Filter: n_sources = 1

Treemap 3: group first by author, then by pericope

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Treemap 4: Size and # of Sources Question: are single-source pericopes shorter? Parameters:

Group by # of sources Label: reference Size: # of tokens for each pericope Color: source Filter: John

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Treemap 5: Novel Vocabulary Purpose: explore singleton terms in Luke. Parameters:

Group by # of sources Label: reference Size: # of tokens for each pericope Color: # of singletons (normalized) Filter: Luke

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Conclusions and Next Steps Treemaps are a useful visualization tool for Biblical

studies Shows the interplay across the Gospels between sources,

source uniqueness, and token counts Producing and sharing data is a fruitful area for

research collaboration