Visualisation has always been one of my points of interest, perhaps due to the fact that I have always been keen on both art and programming. I wrote on this very blog about my master thesis on visualisation of medical imagery. This concept is also directly related to my other hobby, computer games, as visualising imaginary world is the key to making the game interesting.
It is therefore not surprising at all that when I first saw the following video of interactive graph visualisation system, I was hooked:
That beautiful piece of software is called SkyRails and as its creator says, it "was originally aimed for social network visualisation. Then I realised it can also draw any (reasonably sized) graph interactively." I have to say that I just love the graphical presentation layer, probably due to my nerdy upbringing - all that sci-fi movies in which some really cool interfaces floating in the air obviously had the effect on the way I perceive software aesthetics now.
(Let us open a parenthesis at this point - have you ever wondered who is designing all those futuristic interfaces we get to see in the movies? His name is Mark Coleran and the movie reel of his works can be either downloaded from his webpage or seen here on Youtube. Spectacular!)
Back on topic, Skyrails can visualise pretty much every social network, if only you're patient enough to convert it to program's own description (simple, but task could be somewhat tedious if you know many people and are trying to do this by hand). Therefore I tested it with pre-made file containing Naruto's graph of relations:
Definitely impressive, I have to say. Also, don't forget it can serve more serious purposes than checking what are the links between Naruto heroes - for example check this post on visualising protein interaction. Program's author claims that Skyrails can also act as a server visualising live feed data, but I have not found any specific information as to how to do that. Nevertheless, this piece of software is great for any graph visualisation.
Being lazy, I didn't type all my Facebook contacts into Skyrails, but began with googling to check if there isn't someone who has done this already. While I have been unable to find any recipe on how to automagically have Skyrails chew on my Facebook data, I have found another very interesting program fit for that purpose.
Nexus is the online application for Facebook social network visualisation and it does the job very well (you can also access it through Facebook apps link). Not only does it take into account how you entourage is connected, but also commonalities between them, meaning for example groups or causes that user's friends might share. The resulting graph can be presented in two forms (no flashy 3D display this time, sorry), radical graph and spring graph, as well as two themes. Compare how the information is visualised in the screenshots below:
Radical graph
Spring graph
The latter form is more convenient for clear distinction between different social circles user is involved with. On the spring graph above one could distinguish game industry professionals (highlighted with names) that I happen to know, my family members and their friends, two partially overlapping groups of fellow students from two specializations I have studied, very numerous and tightly connected group of AIESEC students, as well as two other groups connected by a person of Adam Lyons, small group of people I have been living with in France and some free electrons, meaning folks not connected to any other of my friends.
Spring graph allows user to observe how the groups overlap as well as the affinity between group members, as well as other little curiosities. For example, in the graph above one can find my buddy, nicknamed Ace of Spades, who is connected to three circles I happen to be involved with - a definite proof of his social skills. Nexus is both very informative and very interesting, plus it makes for really cool patterns (how about putting it on t-shirt?).
Investigating this topic I have also come across Walrus, an open source 3D graph visualisation tool, but since it is definitely less user friendly, I just mention it here as a curiosity. Perhaps someone with either Open Source fetish or more complex problem to solve will find it more approachable than I did. Nevertheless, it's free and can be used for visualising social networks as well, hence it warrants the mention. Also, Walrus' rendition of CVS tree has some fractal beauty to it:
If you happen to know any other interesting software that could be used for visualising social networks, let me know through comments!
It is therefore not surprising at all that when I first saw the following video of interactive graph visualisation system, I was hooked:
That beautiful piece of software is called SkyRails and as its creator says, it "was originally aimed for social network visualisation. Then I realised it can also draw any (reasonably sized) graph interactively." I have to say that I just love the graphical presentation layer, probably due to my nerdy upbringing - all that sci-fi movies in which some really cool interfaces floating in the air obviously had the effect on the way I perceive software aesthetics now.
(Let us open a parenthesis at this point - have you ever wondered who is designing all those futuristic interfaces we get to see in the movies? His name is Mark Coleran and the movie reel of his works can be either downloaded from his webpage or seen here on Youtube. Spectacular!)
Back on topic, Skyrails can visualise pretty much every social network, if only you're patient enough to convert it to program's own description (simple, but task could be somewhat tedious if you know many people and are trying to do this by hand). Therefore I tested it with pre-made file containing Naruto's graph of relations:
Definitely impressive, I have to say. Also, don't forget it can serve more serious purposes than checking what are the links between Naruto heroes - for example check this post on visualising protein interaction. Program's author claims that Skyrails can also act as a server visualising live feed data, but I have not found any specific information as to how to do that. Nevertheless, this piece of software is great for any graph visualisation.
Being lazy, I didn't type all my Facebook contacts into Skyrails, but began with googling to check if there isn't someone who has done this already. While I have been unable to find any recipe on how to automagically have Skyrails chew on my Facebook data, I have found another very interesting program fit for that purpose.
Nexus is the online application for Facebook social network visualisation and it does the job very well (you can also access it through Facebook apps link). Not only does it take into account how you entourage is connected, but also commonalities between them, meaning for example groups or causes that user's friends might share. The resulting graph can be presented in two forms (no flashy 3D display this time, sorry), radical graph and spring graph, as well as two themes. Compare how the information is visualised in the screenshots below:
Radical graph
Spring graphThe latter form is more convenient for clear distinction between different social circles user is involved with. On the spring graph above one could distinguish game industry professionals (highlighted with names) that I happen to know, my family members and their friends, two partially overlapping groups of fellow students from two specializations I have studied, very numerous and tightly connected group of AIESEC students, as well as two other groups connected by a person of Adam Lyons, small group of people I have been living with in France and some free electrons, meaning folks not connected to any other of my friends.
Spring graph allows user to observe how the groups overlap as well as the affinity between group members, as well as other little curiosities. For example, in the graph above one can find my buddy, nicknamed Ace of Spades, who is connected to three circles I happen to be involved with - a definite proof of his social skills. Nexus is both very informative and very interesting, plus it makes for really cool patterns (how about putting it on t-shirt?).
Investigating this topic I have also come across Walrus, an open source 3D graph visualisation tool, but since it is definitely less user friendly, I just mention it here as a curiosity. Perhaps someone with either Open Source fetish or more complex problem to solve will find it more approachable than I did. Nevertheless, it's free and can be used for visualising social networks as well, hence it warrants the mention. Also, Walrus' rendition of CVS tree has some fractal beauty to it:
If you happen to know any other interesting software that could be used for visualising social networks, let me know through comments!
2 comments:
For drug design problems (and industry relevance) I am concerned about the following quote made on the homepage "It can show 300 nodes without much of a problem, but ~500 nodes and above will be."
I hope a better scale-up has some priority, otherwise it looks fancy, but what to do with it in the science community with larger problems?
Joerg, thanks for your input.
The limitation of number of nodes is something I have noticed as well when trying to use Skyrails for visualisation in my line of work. It's a pity, because this could be quite useful.
Still, if you check the third program described in the post, Walrus, it might provide you with the tool you're looking for - at the price of being less user-friendly and not so visually appealing. Some of the sample images in Walrus gallery depict images that have hundreds of nodes.
I hope it helps!
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