Atlas of International Relationship Networks (1987)

Review of the problems of mapping networks of organization/problem relationships in order to produce an "Atlas" as a complement to the Yearbook of International Organizations and to the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential Rendered searchable by OCR, but recognition errors may prevent this in some cases. PHP variant (incomplete tables) SUMMARY 1. This document is concerned with presentations of information which will be possible once a particular computer software problem has been adequately solved. The problem can be illustrated by two examples: (a) Traffic network mapping: If a database contained entries on 300 subway stations (or airports, or bus stops) and their direct route links to one another, what is required is a software package to construct one or more possible maps of the resulting network. The important point is to be able to optimize the comprehensibility of such maps with minimum manual intervention in the construction process. (b) Hypercard stack mapping: With the widely acclaimed introduction of the Apple hypercard, whereby complex networks of relationships between database records can be handled, the problem remains of mapping the pattern of relationships in the resulting hypercard stack. The individual entries may be said to constitute "data", but it is the pattern of relationships between them which constitutes "knowledge" and "intelligence" 2. The conventional approach to databases, and to the reference books produced from them, is to focus on individual entries. The user is not assisted in understanding the relationships between entries, other than by fairly crude grouping of entries into categories. 3. With the development of interactive databases, hypertext (plus the new hypercard approach of Apple) and CD/ROM, data entries can be organized so that they cross-reference one another to a high degree and in a non-hierarchical manner. For example, the current Yearbook of International Organizations (1987/88) covering 27145 entries indicates 32692 relationships between them-with the major organizations having an average of 70 each. Similarly the complemetary volume, the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potantial (1986), covers 10233 world problems with 17636 relationships between them. Users can move from entry to entry without going via an index. In database terms this is a major step towards what is being called hypertext. Both publications are maintained on a computer network and the possibility of CD/ROM versions is being investigated. 4. Because of the overwhelming volume of data, users need "maps" of the pathway between entries, especially in complex subject …