Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
approach is used in Chapter 11, which analyzes social network communities
starting with NodeXL and then moving to Gephi.
Note
You can download NodeXL at
http://nodexl.codeplex.com/
. From this
location, you can find links to the latest download, introductory
overviews, and a book specifically regarding the analysis of social
networks using NodeXL titled
Analyzing Social Media Networks with
NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World
, by Derek Hansen, Ben
Shneiderman, and Marc A. Smith (Burlington, Massachusetts: Morgan
Kaufman, 2010). Note that NodeXL includes a detailed help document
that you can access from the ribbon toolbar.
Gephi
Gephi is a highly popular, free, open source program with strengths in
providing a wide variety of graph import/export formats, statistics, many
interactive layout algorithms, flexible filtering, high-quality output, and
various plug-ins for data import/export, analysis, and layout. Gephi is
available in a number of languages, including English, Spanish, Russian,
Chinese, and Japanese.
Gephi Basics
As shown in
Figure 7-15
, the main window in Gephi is surrounded by panels
for configuring the visualization. Immediately after loading data, you can
use the layout and visualization panels to the left to configure a
visualization. Panels to the right provide stats, filters to sift out data, and
summaries. Immediately surrounding the visualization window are
numerous buttons for directly interacting with the graph itself.
Note
A number of online tutorials are available for getting started with the
basics of Gephi.
