I've had a lot of fun trying to learn the basics of D3. Mostly because it's led me down something of a rabbit hole.

Apparently, digital humanities is a thing and it's causing some drama in the humanities world. This may not be news to some people. I knew of computational linguistics and similar applications of those methodologies like this (also made with D3) and those deliciously interesting blog posts OKCupid used to make, but I guess the full utility of data visualization/processing in the humanities had escaped me until now.

I'm very interested in seeing where it goes (if anywhere). It's amazing to me that this stuff is possible within a browser while being ... somewhat accessible.

I think it'd be especially interesting to follow the flow of word usage on hubski. Sometimes I notice an individual use a word that seems out of the ordinary - for instance, last week I noticed kleinbl00 used "wed" and "wedding" in a non-marital context. In these cases I always wonder if they picked up that usage from a book or article they recently read. I imagine the same happens between posters on hubski. It'd be an interesting way to draw relationships. I don't know what they'd mean, though. Probably nothing.