TMI-WEB: An Open Approach to Computational Social Science

Can open source help us understand each other better? What if we could use open source to explore our intersecting identities and discover connections between our shared struggles and joys?

This presentation introduces TMI-WEB, a computational social science research tool that pairs a custom Ruby and Rails web application with the graph database Neo4j to create detailed models of the multifaceted nature of intersecting social identities (e.g., race, gender, or socioeconomic status). These models come to life as interactive visualizations of interconnected nodes in an explorable universe of identities, helping social scientists uncover connections between individual and social experiences.

We are developing TMI-WEB to address critical ethical and technical challenges at the intersection of social science and computing. The project aims to provide an open alternative to proprietary research tools, advance the field of computational social science, and support research that contributes to a more equitable society.

Built in the open and designed to support innovative social research methodologies, TMI-WEB enables scalable operationalization of intersectional analysis across large, text-based datasets—a rare capability in qualitative research. From research design to technical design, TMI-WEB was developed to foster openness, accessibility, and collaboration while advancing the goals of broad social good and societal well-being.

The TMI-WEB source code repository is at https://github.com/identity-research-lab/tmi-web.