Blog Post 2 – Analyzing DH Projects – Jane Parson

I chose to look at “Six Degrees of Francis Bacon”, an online chart designed to map the social and political connections of Francis Bacon. It creates a social network of the notable figures alive during the 16th and 17th century, and allows the user to click through and sort each individual person, learning about their lifetime, who they connected with, and how far removed they were from Francis Bacon.

The project is strongly connected to history and sociology – it’s all about the documented historical events that link these people, and what can be gleaned from them in how people connected and interacted.

The website works off of three databases, each catalogued from as many historical documents as possible. One list dictates all relevant people for the document – who they were, when they died, what notable information we have about them. The next catalogues the groups these people were part of – situations where more than two people would have interacted. Finally, one more database catalogues each individual interaction between two figures on the document – Where, when, why, and any primary sources that support the interaction existing.  

Once this information is processed and stored, it gets visualized through the connections of each individual to Francis Bacon. Starting with him in the center of the graph, each user is then added based on interactions. First, those who have direct documented interactions with Francis Bacon are linked to him on the graph. Second, those who have direct connections with those previously added to the graph are added. This process repeats several times, up until the last person to be added is six people removed from interaction with Francis Bacon

Finally, this information is presented to the user in an easy-to-use format, a massive chart. Each node is scaled based on the degrees removed, and clicking on any node of the chart brings up any connections they have, as well as information on the person- their lifetime, what notable things they did, and more. Clicking on the connections between two nodes will highlight that relationship- how the two connect, what documents support it, and how confident the author is in that claim.

The information is targeted towards anyone with even a moderate interest in the history. It’s clearly designed to be accessible towards outside users, but that raises a question: why is it targeted this way? It’s clearly a niche subject of interest, and those aren’t typically designed to support casual observers.