The expression "public opinion" has long been part of common parlance. However, its value as a scientific measure has been the topic of abundant academic debates over the past several decades. Such debates have produced more variety and contestations rather than consensus on the very definition of public opinion, let alone on how to measure it. This study reports on the usefulness of web-based big data digital network analytics in deciphering the distributed meanings and sense making related to controversial biotechnology applications. Using stem cell therapies as a case study, we argue that such digital network analysis can complement the traditional opinion polls while avoiding the sampling bias that is typical of opinion polls. Although the polls cannot account for the opinion dynamics, combining them with web-based big data analysis can shed light on three dimensions of public opinion essential for sense making: counts or volume of opinion data, content, and movement of opinions. This approach is particularly promising in the case of ongoing scientific controversies that increasingly overflow into the public sphere morphing into public political debates. In particular, our study focuses as a case study on public controversies over the clinical provision of stem cell therapies. Using web entities specifically addressing stem cell issues, including their dynamic aggregation, the internal architecture of the web corpus we report in this study brings the third dimension of public opinion (movement) into sharper focus. Notably, the corpus of stem cell networks through web connectivity presents hot spots of distributed meaning. Large-scale surveys conducted on these issues, such as the Eurobarometer of Biotechnology, reveal that European citizens only accept research on stem cells if they are highly regulated, while the stem cell digital network analysis presented in this study suggests that distributed meaning is promise centeredness. Although major scientific journals and companies tend to structure public opinion networks, our finding of promise centeredness as a key ingredient of distributed meaning and sense making is consistent with therapeutic tourism that remains as an important facet of the stem cell community despite the lack of material standards. This new approach to digital network analysis has crosscutting corollaries for rethinking the notion of public opinion, be it in electoral preferences or as we discuss in this study, for new ways to measure, monitor, and democratically govern emerging technologies.

中文翻译：

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一种新的基于Web的大数据分析技术，用于在有争议的生物技术领域进行数字网络中的动态民意测绘。

长期以来，“民意”一词一直是普遍的说法。然而，在过去的几十年中，其作为一种科学手段的价值一直是学术界争论的主题。这种辩论产生了更多的多样性和争议，而不是就民意的确切定义达成了共识，更不用说如何衡量它了。这项研究报告了基于网络的大数据数字网络分析在解密与争议性生物技术应用相关的分布式含义和意义上的有用性。以干细胞疗法为例，我们认为这种数字网络分析可以弥补传统民意测验的不足，同时又避免了民意测验的典型抽样偏差。尽管民意调查无法说明意见动态，将它们与基于Web的大数据分析相结合，可以揭示在形成感官上必不可少的三个民意维度：意见数据的数量或数量，内容和意见的移动。在持续不断的科学争论中，这种方法特别有前途，这些争论越来越多地渗透到公共领域，演变成公共政治辩论。尤其是，我们的研究将重点放在关于干细胞疗法临床提供的公共争议的案例研究上。使用专门解决干细胞问题的网络实体，包括它们的动态聚合，我们在本研究中报告的网络语料库的内部体系结构将公众舆论（运动）的第三个维度更加突出。值得注意的是，通过网络连接的干细胞网络的语料库呈现出分布式含义的热点。在这些问题上进行的大规模调查，例如欧洲生物技术晴雨表，表明欧洲公民只有在受到高度监管的情况下才接受对干细胞的研究，而本研究中提出的干细胞数字网络分析表明，分布式意义是承诺中心。 。尽管主要的科学期刊和公司倾向于构建舆论网络，但我们发现以承诺为中心是分布式含义和意义形成的关键要素，这与治疗性旅游相一致，尽管缺乏物质标准，治疗性旅游仍然是干细胞界的重要方面。这种新的数字网络分析方法具有交叉的推论，可以重新考虑民意的概念，无论是在选举偏好方面还是我们在本研究中讨论的方法，都可以用来衡量，监控，