1302. sredin seminar: Patrick Doreian: The Koch Brothers and their Networks of Allies

Patrick Doreian: The Koch Brothers and their Networks of Allies

The Koch Brothers (KBs) formed a network of allies to support and promote their libertarian agenda designed the prevent governments at all levels for regulating their actions. They were secretive about this and masked these activities and ties. Using a web-crawling algorithm and starting the URLs of KB allies, a large network of KB allies was constructed. This was analyzed in a variety of ways. Using the notion of hubs and authorities, the key hubs and authorities were identified. These are considered in detail. Also constructed was a set of keywords capturing the core concerns of the KB allies. A valued network was constructed capturing the extent to which they are shared by pairs of units in the KB network. This was analyzed by using community detection methods. These are discussed. A future research agenda is provided.