{"id":17837,"date":"2013-03-09T02:30:21","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T00:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=17837"},"modified":"2013-03-09T02:30:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-09T00:30:21","slug":"tedxnicosia-speakers-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/03\/09\/tedxnicosia-speakers-report\/","title":{"rendered":"TEDxNicosia speakers report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TEDxNicosia<\/a> 2013 is just a few short hours away. \u00a0 As I mentioned previously<\/a>, I am very excited, and I keep thinking about it. \u00a0One particular thought was bugging me all day today – how are the speakers being selected, and is there anything common among them? Do they share any specific knowledge or experience, or personal characteristics? \u00a0Not knowing any of the speakers personally, I decided to go for some fun PHP scripting rather than any serious research. \u00a0It’s Friday after all!<\/p>\n

The result is this little project<\/a>. \u00a0I basically took the 12 speaker profiles directly from the TEDxNicosia speakers page<\/a>, and used it as my source data. \u00a0Each profile is saved into a text file with the name of the speaker. \u00a0Then I ran some simple analysis on those text files. \u00a0 First, I wanted to see if their profile texts were sharing any common words. \u00a0That would be an indication, right? \u00a0Obviously, I had to filter out some words like ‘as’, ‘and’, and ‘he’ (see a full list of filtered out words). \u00a0For the rest, here is the top 20 most common words (by the way, the script reports the names of speakers as well, but I took it out for clarity and simplicity):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cyprus<\/strong>, shared by 11 out of 12 profiles;<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. years<\/strong>, shared by 10 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  3. university<\/strong>, shared by 8 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  4. international<\/strong>, shared by 7 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  5. world<\/strong>, shared by 7 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  6. work<\/strong>, shared by 6 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  7. national<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  8. media<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  9. currently<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  10. including<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  11. well<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  12. all<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  13. life<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  14. first<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  15. people<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  16. USA<\/strong>, shared by 5 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  17. development<\/strong>, shared by 4 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  18. London<\/strong>, shared by 4 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  19. business<\/strong>, shared by 4 \/ 12;<\/li>\n
  20. experience<\/strong>, shared by 4 \/ 12;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Interesting, isn’t it? \u00a0The easiest to notice for me is geography. \u00a0The most shared word is Cyprus<\/strong>, which is not surprising, because the TEDxNicosia event is happening, here, in Cyprus, and because most of the speakers either live here, or were born here, or moved here. \u00a0the other two geographical highlights are the USA<\/strong> and UK (London<\/strong> specifically). \u00a0These are the most influential, however there are indications of other travel (national<\/strong>, international<\/strong>, world<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

    One other thing which stands out is hard work. \u00a0It is suggested by work<\/strong>, all<\/strong>, life<\/strong>, development<\/strong>, business<\/strong>, and experience<\/strong>. \u00a0It sounds like all these people know what they are talking about. \u00a0Especially if you throw in university<\/strong> in there. \u00a0Also, first<\/strong> is indicative of either trying new things or of leading somewhere.<\/p>\n

    The rest might also mean something, but they don’t stand out so much. \u00a0At least not to me. \u00a0 Except maybe if I put together media<\/strong> and people<\/strong>. \u00a0Then there is a sort of social suggestion.<\/p>\n

    After reading speakers’ profiles, I think the above is pretty accurate. \u00a0Even if it wasn’t, accuracy wasn’t exactly the point. \u00a0The whole thing is more of technical entertainment piece. \u00a0Oh, by the way, that reminds me. \u00a0What does TED stand for? \u00a0Technology, Entertainment, Design<\/a>. \u00a0While we are looking at speaker profile words, why don’t we try and see if the TED words are in there too. \u00a0A bit more of coding, and here is what I get:<\/p>\n