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3567

answers:

16

I want to plot social network visualization, but don't want to do much of programming. Does anyone know a piece of software that can do plotting, zooming in out but does not require much of programming? Say, i could provide my data in format it accepts and bah - i have a java application, flash or anything displaying my graph.

+7  A: 

If you wouldn't mind some programming you might use GraphViz.

Frederick
If you want to integrate into an application you can render to a bitmap file and display the bitmap.
ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells
A: 

Microsoft Visio comes to mind.

PEZ
+2  A: 

I haven't tried it myself, but perhaps it's worth a look at Omnigator; I was looking for something similar a while back and "topic maps" is a good phrase to google, as it sounds much like what you are looking for.

Jason S
Omnigator link is now dead - but 'topic maps' pointer is very useful, thanks.
codeinthehole
+2  A: 

I would definitely give networkx / python a try. it supports different visualization api's such as GraphViz, PyDot amongst others. But if you use Flash give Flare a try at http://flare.prefuse.org/

DrDee
+2  A: 

GraphViz fails miserably on large graphs. Try aiSee or have a look at this list.

RegDwight
+1  A: 

TOUCHGRAPH - the open source project at sourceforge.net... The Touchgraph Link Browser lets you create an interactive graph and place it on the web...

http://sourceforge.net/projects/touchgraph/

you will need java 1.4.1 or 1.4.2 to edit your graphs it... to see your graphs on the web you can use java 6.

A: 

NodeXL, the free and open add-in for Excel that supports network overview, discovery and exploration. The code and application can be found at http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl.

NodeXL allows for the import of network data in the form of edge lists, matricies, graphML, UCINet, and Pajek files along with CSV and other workbooks.

NodeXL allows non-programmers to quickly generate useful network statistics and metrics and create visualizations of network graphs. Filtering and display attributes can be used to highlight important structures in the network.

NodeXL supports the exploration of social media with import features that pull data from personal email indexes on the desktop, twitter, flickr, and soon, facebook.

Recent features added to NodeXL include faster metrics calculation, larger data sets, new layouts, scales, axes, and legends.

+1  A: 

For my part I use the free software called 'viSANT'. http://visant.bu.edu/ This software initially dedicated to biology, can be used to represent any network. The nodes and edges can have multiple forms and colors. Their name shown or not. The nodes can be grouped into complexes or groups on selected criteria. Moreover, these complexes or groups can be folded, providing better visibility of the graph. These groups and these complexes can in turn be encapsulated and Metagroup métacomplexes and thus more. Of course, all these operations are reversible. There are many other features that you will find using this software. And finally, its use is very simple and intuitive.

Pour ma part j'utilise le logiciel gratuit nommé 'visant'. Ce logiciel d'abord dédié à la biologie, peut être utilisé pour représenter n'importe quel réseau. Les noeuds et les arêtes peuvent avoir de multiples formes et couleurs. Leur nom représentés ou pas. Les noeuds peuvent être regroupés en complexes ou groupes sur des critères choisis. De plus, ces complexes ou groupes peuvent être contractés, procurant une meilleur visibilité du graphe. Ces groupes et ces complexes peuvent à leur tour être encapsulés en métagroupes et métacomplexes et ainsi des suite.Bien entendu, toutes ces opérations sont réversibles. Il y a de nombreuses autres fonctionalités que vous découvrirez en utilisant ce logiciel. Et enfin, le meilleur, son utilisation est très simple et très intuitive.

jan 20 at 16:49

georges Robreau
A: 

Microsoft's GLEE (now known as MSAGL - Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout, trust MS to take a snappy name and make it dull) is effective and, if you're .NET it's easily used.

Unsliced
A: 

If you want it to be interactive, and want to include it into a webpage, you could consider using the flot jquery plugin.

Valentin Rocher
A: 

There's a good open source flash-based chart: http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart-2/. All the charting is handled in the flash file, and you have the option of using javascript or parameters on an HTML <object> element to send in the data.

If you change the data via javascript, you should be able to implement a zoom; though I expect you'll need to write javascript to do that.

Paul
A: 

This is the idea behind Network workbench: http://nwb.slis.indiana.edu/index.html

They have combined lots of state of the art graph visualizations into one piece of software with a user interface. You shouldn't need to do any programming other than perhaps to get your data in one of the formats that the tool can read. You should be able to zoom in and out and have the interactivity you want. It's a tool for researchers to do network analysis.

Jay Askren
+2  A: 

For those who want to choose for themselves, you have a site that give you an exhaustive list of software dedicated to graphs and networks, and a way that lets you choose the one best suited to your needs: http://gvsr.polytech.univ-nantes.fr/GVSR/task?action=home

Pour ceux qui veulent choisir par eux même, vous avez un site qui vous donnent une liste exhaustive de logiciels consacrés aux graphes et réseaux, et un moyen qui vous permet de choisir celui qui est le plus approprié à vos besoins (cf adresse ci-dessus)

georges Robreau
+2  A: 

To add to the growing list: the JavaScript InfoViz Toolkit provides extremely pretty graph and network visualisations in the browser. Zoomable etc. Link is here.

Nico Adams
+1 Looks very nice
codeinthehole
A: 

Actually, I've used NovaMind before & even though the way they go about discribing / labeling things is different, most of the concepts are the same.

Tim Schoffelman
A: 

Hi,

Netvizz, a Facebook application, creates a .gdf file describing either your personal network or the groups you are a member of, and let you import it into GUESS and Gephi.

Tutorial: http://blog.sociomantic.com/2010/05/using-netvizz-gephi-to-analyze-a-facebook-network/

cheers

Seb