Image information in footnote ((Research and node layout by Kevin Boyack and Dick Klavans; data from Thompson ISI; graphics & typography by W. Bradford Paley. Commissioned and partially supported by Katy Borner and the Places and Spaces: Mapping Science exhibition. Copyright (c) 2006 W. Bradford Paley, all rights reserved. (But you may print a version for personal use, and optionally donate to i|e or Places & Spaces if you want to be a good infosphere citizen.) ))
Nature.com recently published this topic map of how scientific paradigms related to each other. Similar to innovation and collaboration networks we’ve been discussing here, this scientific paradigm map directly displays the relative influence of particular nodes on furthering research. While it’s easy to do in academic research since everyone is militant about citations (like I am here on systematicHR), in the less formal business world where self interest sometimes gets in the way of the greater good the mapping process becomes a bit more gray.
Take a look at the discussion threads and let me know if you have any ideas on how we could apply this in HR. At first I thought the whole thing looked rather parasitic, but as I studied it, it’s really a creation that’s quite beautiful (in an odd sort of way).
As to what the image depicts, it was constructed by sorting roughly 800,000 scientific papers (shown as white dots) into 776 different scientific paradigms (red circular nodes) based on how often the papers were cited together by authors of other papers. Links (curved lines) were made between the paradigms that shared common members, then treated as rubber bands, holding similar paradigms nearer one another when a physical simulation had every paradigm repel every other: thus the layout derives directly from the data. Larger paradigms have more papers. Labels list common words unique to each paradigm. ((W. Bradford Paley, December 24, 2006. Retrieved from http://wbpaley.com/brad/ on March 29, 2007.))
3 responses to “What Innovation Looks Like (really)”
What Innovation Looks Like (really) Take a look at the discussion threads and let me know if you have any ideas on how we could apply this in HR . At first I thought the whole thing looked rather parasitic, but as I studied it, it’s really a creation that’s quite … [
invitations to thought experiments are always tempting …
the basis for this topical map is a vast amount of data points (scientific papers), grouped together in paradigms based on how they cross-reference each other; paradigms are bound to each other loosely or closely depending on their similarity
i can’t help to think of bringing together employees, skills, teams and processes; where skills refer to the skills catalog developed by HR and teams are conglomerates of persons with the skills required to complete a certain process – HR sources and develops the staff necessary to form the teams required by operations.
the resulting maps could show us which skill paradigms there are based on persons with substantially similar skills sets and how closely or loosely bound these skill paradigms are on the basis of whether or not the skills are related or similar. what this might show, i suppose, is the extent to which an organization has a diverse or monolithic skill set, an expanding or contracting skill set (when viewed over time) or an inexperienced or an experienced skill set. or, it might show for which skill paradigms employees are cross-skilled and for which not; cross-skilling being an important goal in process-focused organizational groupings …
similarly one might base the skill paradigm on the skill sets of entire teams and bound these skill paradigms closely or loosely on the basis of similarities of the skill sets required by an organization’s processes. what this might tell is where processes can be consolidated because their skill set requirements are similar or where training could easily overcome differences.
[…] few months ago I republished a picture that showed us what innovation looked like. By charting thousands of scientific papers and the papers they references, you could actually […]