Catalysts for Thought-3-Emergent Self Organizing Maps

In this project I want to explore a mapping system that would respond to the formation of a community around the principles that has been laid out by AgoraXchange.org. For that I consider applying Kohonen's method of ESOM (Emergent Self Organizing Maps.) Here is the definition of this method from his lab website, the Laboratory of Computer and Information Science Neural Networks Research Center.

http://www.cis.hut.fi/research/som-research/som.shtml

"The SOM is an algorithm used to visualize and interpret large high-dimensional data sets. Typical applications are visualization of process states or financial results by representing the central dependencies within the data on the map.

The map consists of a regular grid of processing units, "neurons". A model of some multidimensional observation, eventually a vector consisting of features, is associated with each unit. The map attempts to represent all the available observations with optimal accuracy using a restricted set of models. At the same time the models become ordered on the grid so that similar models are close to each other and dissimilar models far from each other."

Here are the links to some examples that was developed by using this method:

Personal knowledge mapping with K-SOM
http://www.k-som.com/index.php?id=16

Viscovery® SOMine® - Self-Organizing Maps
http://www.eudaptics.de/somine/index.php?sprache=en