The work below is by Nick Owens (www.booksmuggler.com) who did more than we could have asked for him in the couple short weeks that this project was alive.  I’m sure, if we’d been able to see it through, these would have been one of the best pieces of marketing collateral we ever developed.

Hope you enjoy…

-Sean

Video Draft 1

Images

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In response, I wanted to say thanks, tell you a little bit about IEI and check out any data I had on Gov. Perdue.

IEI is self-described as:

The Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) is a public policy, think-and-do tank that convenes leaders from business, non profit organizations, government and higher education to tackle some of the biggest issues facing North Carolina’s future growth and prosperity.

You can learn more at their website: http://www.ncsu.edu/iei/

I went into the data I had readily available from the National Institute for Money in State Politics.  What I had were the top donors in NC–just a few people–but two of them had given to her campaign.  You can see that and some more visualizations in the gallery below.

(Red = Republican; Blue – Democrat; thick line = a donation of $2k or more)

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Interconnectivity of Presidents Over Time

This shows the shared connections to universities & branches of the military over time.  I have grouped them into groups of 5 presidents at a time, which are the ones highlighted in yellow.  This is the most interesting case I found.  The middle of the 20th century appears to be the least interconnected.

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Presidents & Their Colleges / Universities

This is interesting because it is not, as I would have hypothesized, all Harvard and Yale folks.  In fact, the Harvard / Yale crowd is most best represented at the beginning of the country and in the last 50 years.  A lot of presidents did not attend college.

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Top donors with donation sizes indicated by link thickness; republican = red; democrat = blue.

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Top Republican donors.  One does NOT donate to Gov. Schwarzenegger.

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Why does this guy support the one Democrat?

Their data has been featured prominently in many publications.  Most recently, I came across it in the New York Times article “Health Lobby Takes Fight to the States,” which cites the NIMST report “Take $2 Million…and Call Me in the Session Health Care Interests Gave Healthy Doses of Contributions.”

This is an excellent use of this type of data.  I encourage you to read the article and the report.

For a test run, NIMST gave me a sample set of data to process in Jute.   Admittedly, I have not perfected the analytic techniques here and there is a lot more work to do to make the data relevant.  Edwin Bender said to me in a prescient email

“Clay Johnson of Sunlight Foundation said recently that data visualizations are a dime a dozen, but meaningful visualizations are priceless.”

These are the top 5 donors to state candidates in FL in 2008. The largest donations went to the FL Republican Party. These donors give a large number of $500 donations (shown in orange).

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So this is my first attempt at meaningful visualization.  I give myself a “B-” on it.  I took the data from FL, a state where I’m familiar with state politics after playing a prominent volunteering role with my mother’s unsuccessful run at the state house in 2008.*  In the following visualizations, there is a very simple visual index:  REPUBLICAN = RED;  DEMOCRAT = BLUE;  $500 DONATION = ORANGE.

The interesting about this is:

1)  The top donors in the state are largely bi-partisan in their giving.  Why?  Do their recipients sit on influential committees?  Is there a specific piece of legislation they wanted to support?  A specific fundraising volunteer who brokered these donations?

2)  There are a surprising number of $500 donations.  Why so many?!  What is the significance of a $500 donation to a state official?  UPDATED:  ”$500 is the legal limit for a campaign contribution to an individual candidate.  That amount can be given once during the primary and once during the general election.” according to Linda McDonald, my mother.

Why?  I’m not sure.  I hope this blog post will help me find out.

FYI:  you can access this data set in a network document called “state money FL v1″ by using the Jute guest account.  Or, request your own account and I’ll share the data set with you.

Top 2 Donors in FL State Politics in 2008

These are the top 2 donors in FL state politics. What is their political bias?

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Paul Tudor Jones, II

Mr. Jones supports candidates from both parties and both parties' state offices. Why?

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Guy M. Spearman, III

Guy M. Spearman, III also supports candidates from both parties and both parties' state offices. Why?

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Whole Network Analysis:  Top 5 FL Donors

Whole Network Analysis shows a surprising number of $500 donations among the top 5 donors in FL state politics in 2008. $500 is the maximum donation permitted.

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Assumed Industry Affiliation

By extrapolating industry affiliations from the companies where donors self-report that they work, we can look at trends of how industries' money flows to parties. This is not really a factually valid analysis--just an exercise in using Jute to crunch NIMST data.

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Finding meaning in this data…

This data set is just a trial, and this blog post is just to get some initial feedback.  My hope is that we can elevate this into a funded research project, analyzing trends in the NIMST data, and finding specific, relevant examples that we can publish.  Also, I’d like to work with a campaign to help them in their fundraising and strategy development.

There is a lot more than needs to be done to “take this to the next level.”  That includes:

Cross-referencing this data with other data sets, like: which campaigns actually won seats in the State Legislature;  which committees the elected officials sit on and chair; which federal candidates these donors supported; and, ideally, which candidates I know (or my clients know) and how they can leverage existing relationships to get value out of this analysis.  (That last one comes from existing, internal databases.)

But for now, I hope you’ll help me find meaning in this data. If you’d like access to more analysis from other states, or you are interested in publishing this material, please contact me via email or via phone at 828/545.9539.

Sean McDonald
co-founder, Jute Networks

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*A little editorial here:  Linda McDonald ran a hell of a campaign against a competitor with an exponentially larger war chest.  In a district where a Dem hadn’t had a chance in a generation, she lost by a razor thin margin.  And the people of the state of Florida are worse-off because she doesn’t represent them.

They rely on high-quality information about elected officials and their relationships to those officials.  The first step–figuring out “who knows whom and how”–takes months and sometimes even years.  With the help of JUTE, it takes just a few minutes to find a “pathway” from Independent Sector (IS) to key members of Congress. (Please note:  the names have been changed, out of respect for the privacy of IS and their constituents.)

Jute found strong relationship pathways from Independent Sector to an Elected Official. This saves IS months of time in the “information discovery process.”

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Example-_ IS Political Network v1-1

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Details

IS became our client in Summer 2009.  In the fall, our Nexus team rolled into Washington DC for an on-site project to help the IS executive team convert their slow, social process of discovering people in their networks who hold established relationships with elected officials into an efficient business process. This allows them to spend their time actually building relationships, not just figuring out what the most beneficial ones are.

This conversion, when complete, will lead to a massive improvement in efficiency for IS and help to uncover the wealth of “relationship capital” that the IS team, board members & member organizations maintain.  After just one week, the results were impressive.

Elizabeth Kohm, Vice President of Resource Development, described the change as, “being able to go from 0-60 in five seconds, instead of five months.”

When we arrived on site, we had a few concrete goals:

• Start with 6 data sets with over 200k records & mash them up into “database nirvana”*
• Find “pathways” of established relationships from the IS team to a specific elected official
• Generate reports that can be used by the executive team and board at IS
• Get to work, accessing the information and requesting introductions along those relationship pathways

In the end, the IS project was a success.  This was a “prototype” project where we focused on a single elected official.  We found 18 “pathways” from the IS team to that member of Congress.  Our expectation is that among those 18 pathways, there will be many individuals who can, at the least, provide IS information about that elected official, and hopefully, one or two who have some influence with that official and can help IS educate and advocate for the non-profit and philanthropic community.

Can JUTE do the same thing for my organization?

Yep.  That’s what we do.  Contact Sean McDonald to learn how we can help you.

*A term coined by Patricia Read, Sr. VP of Public Policy and Gov’t Affairs at IS.

Create a new Network and choose a template.

There are three standard templates in JUTE NRM PROTOTYPE:  two for political data (one with full names, one with parsed names) and a Basic Network template.  The Basic Network includes only people and businesses, as well as four standard relationship types (Professional, Personal, Family, Civic).

(If you are uploading data into an existing network, open that network, then go to Overview > Import Contacts & Paths.)

Creating Custom Network Templates

You can customize any network document by opening the network, then going to Setup.  From here you can add new types of contacts and relationships (or “paths”) and create new fields.

Copying existing Network Templates

You can copy a Network Template when you are creating a new network by using the “Use an existing network as the base” option in the Create a New Network wizard.  There is a bug in this dialog that requires you to click the option for “Use an existing network…” then choose the network you want to copy, then in order to advance, you have to click the “Start from a standard network type” button again, then click the “Use an existing network” button again.

Add initial data

From CSV

If you are using the Create a New Network wizard, in step 4 you will be asked to add data into your newly created Network Document.  Option 3 is to add a CSV file.  When you follow this option, you will be taken to the JUTE DATA IMPORTER, a nifty little tool we built to help you import data into a network format.

The first step is to select a file to import.

Click the “Select” button, then “Upload a New File” and “Browse.” If you have uploaded other CSV files, they will be in your file cabinet below.  Once you have chosen a CSV file, choose if from the CSV file folder below (double-click the folder to open it), then select your CSV file and click “select.”

Next, choose the appropriate import settings.

• • “First row is a header row” means that your CSV file has a header row on it.  This is used in the “detect data structure” feature and keeps JUTE from importing your headers as nodes and links.
  • “Detect data structure” automatically places fields in the field of the matching name to the header row in the data set.  If you are importing large or complicated networks, this is an extremely time-saving tool.  Note:  In PROTOTYPE, this function only works for nodes, not for links.  This is a buggy script and will not always work 100%, but it is still very helpful.
  • “Merge Duplicates” will automatically merge dupes across the entire network document.  By default, JUTE will rely on the field that is identified as the “label” in the Network Template to de-dupe.  While some other processing takes place, it is not reliable.  If you need to assign a unique id, that is possible.  Email Sean to ask how.

Once you click upload, you’ll use a visual interface to “drag & drop” data from the spreadsheet fields into the appropriate node and link fields.  This will create a “logic” for structuring the network.

You’ll start by assigning the appropriate fields to the nodes.  Then, hold CTRL (CMD on Mac) and click one node, then draw a relationship to another node.  This will create a relationship field and you can drag & drop the appropriate data into those relationships as well.  Click “Continue” and your import should happen in 10-60 seconds, depending on the size of data.

(This part should be pretty intuitive.  Watch the video if you struggle with it.)

There is a limit on how many nodes & links JUTE NRM PROTOTYPE can handle in each Network Document. While there is no “magic number” where importing stops working, there is a limit.  That limit will be impacted by the degree of interconnectivity in a data set.  A simple data set may allow you to upload up to 8,000 nodes (this is the most we’ve uploaded successfully) and a complex data set may stop working at 2,000 nodes.

You can sometimes “cheat” this limit by parsing your data into multiple CSV’s, but no guarantees that this will work.

If you encounter problems uploading…

• • If you are using OpenOffice, you need to save the CSV in a special way.  When you save it, choose the “Edit filter settings” option and uncheck the “Save cell content as shown” box.
  • Sometimes problems will come up if you add / delete a lot of nodes or links in the visual importer step.  The solution is to just try again and not make as many mistakes.
  • Jute will often have trouble adding more data to an existing network when there is already 3,000+ nodes in that network.
  • You can email Sean if you have a hangup.  He’ll help if he can..

From Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail / MS Live mail and AOL / AIM

THIS FEATURE IS CURRENTLY SO BUGGY THAT IT BARELY WORKS.

Sorry.  You can try but it probably won’t work.

Visual Data Input

• • Add a relationship at any time by holding down CTRL (CMD on a Mac) and clicking on one contact then drawing a new relationship and clicking on the other contact.
  • To add contacts (nodes) inside of the Network Document, click the “Add Contacts & Paths” button.  Drag & drop the appropriate node type.
  • There is a “Batch” mode for both Contacts or Relationships.  Once you enable a Batch mode, you can drag & drop as many as you’d like to have.  When you click “Save and Exit” you will be walked through a wizard to fill in additional information.

Editing information

You can edit information from the Profile view of any node or link.  Just click on the field and edit away.

API

JUTE NRM PROTOTYPE does have a RESTful API.  Email Sean to learn more.

1)  Contact us and request an account and you’ll get free access for 30 days.

2)  Use the “guest” account (instructions below) to get access to an open account.*

*Keep in mind, this account is public and anything you do in this account can be seen by other guest visitors.

Instructions for using the guest account:

1)  Visit http://nrm1.jutenetworks.com

2)  user name:  ”guest@jutenetworks.com
password:   “networks”

3)  Open the “You Network” public demo

Video walkthrough of using the guest account:

Before there was Facebook, there was the Wednesday 10.

In 1957, as men in their late 20s, they began meeting—initially over breakfast, then over dinners held at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel or at the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan. Few were born to means. Many were sons of immigrants. Most went on to become luminaries in their fields—presidents of television networks, partners at banks, editors of magazines.

The article (take the time to read it!) goes on to show how their trusted relationships evolved into invaluable business relationships, and she goes into anecdotes about the group and her time meeting with them. It’s an extraordinary testament to what a small group of trusted relationships can do, when cultivated and put to work, with ambition but also with discretion.

These are the kind of trusted relationships we want Jute to help people to build.

We live in a time of hype about the power of social networks. We live and work in time where Facebook blurs the boundary between personal and professional relationships. But we can’t forget that Facebook also blurs the line between the people with whom you have close relationships, and the people you barely know. My family and closest friends can see pictures of my mountain biking trip, but so can some of my clients, and some people I barely remember from high school.

Today, people find their customers, clients, business partners and sometimes even their lovers online. In most cases, the people they meet online are strangers, who evolve into trusted relationships. On occasion, one person makes an email introduction because she thinks that other two people ought to know each other.

But rarely to we get to have a lot of insight into the close relationships of the people we already know. Rarely do we really know “who knows whom and how.” It’s not only that this is a tremendous amount of information to collect and remember, it is also a social challenge to ask people who they know and how well they know them. So we learn little bits and pieces at a time about who knows whom and how.

In amazing, influential networks like the Wednesday 10, one of the things they know is who knows whom, and how. At least, that tends to be the case. That information is shared throughout the group. Introductions are made, and new relationships blossom.

With the type of networks that we analyze and visualize with Jute, we can see large portions of people’s networks of relationships. This transforms the process of learning who knows whom and how from a lengthy, social process to a rapid, business intelligence process.

Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, Jute is focused on trusted and often valuable relationships.

In a perfect world, the use of a tool like Jute could help people form thousands of groups of people who have an “enlightened self interest,” like our old friend the Swamp Fox talks about all the time.

I have no doubt Matt will be successful. He is smart, talented and incredibly driven. Add to that, he has a depth of knowledge in economics and sustainability that is unrivaled in my network of colleagues and friends.

I will miss Matt, not only for his hard work and critical thinking, but also for his dedication to building Jute, the world’s first Network Relationship Manager. Matt has led the design, product development and QA for the product since Day 1. It will be very difficult to find another partner like that. (Realistically, it’ll take 3 or 4 people to replace one Matt Raker.)

There are a key points I want to make here:

First, Asheville and Western North Carolina couldn’t have a better advocate for this type of economic development. Matt is not a bureaucrat–he is an entrepreneur. He always has been, and I think he always will be.

Second, Matt will continue to use the Jute platform in his new position. I have no doubt that Matt will be the uber-power-user who continues to provide invaluable feedback on how to improve Jute.

Finally (and most important), we all have the opportunity to help Matt build a valuable network. Please take a minute to email Matt, congratulate him, and connect him to the leaders you know in economic development, green / clean technology and investment.

Very few people realize this, but Matt and I didn’t start “just any company” because we were friends. We barely knew each other when we started Jute. But we had a shared vision–really, a remarkable degree of solidarity on what the product should do and on what the user should experience when managing a complex network of relationships. That is why we started the company.

Today, as Matt moves on to his next venture, I have the same admiration for his talent and his goals. I will do whatever I can to help him be successful, and I encourage you to do the same. ]]> http://jutenetworks.com/2009/12/how-can-you-help-matt-raker-be-successful/feed/ 0 http://jutenetworks.com/2009/12/how-can-you-help-matt-raker-be-successful/