Visual Explorations

My thesis assertion has always been the visualization of dissemination patterns in a particular scale-free network. How does a particular disease travel from point A to B, which nodes it affects in its course and how fast if contaminates a large cluster or the entire network. The path and duration of a certain fad, idea, or virus, in a social/biological or computer network has been, since the beginning, a critical point of awareness. However, I quickly found out that this premise is based on the assumption that the target network displays a visual structure suitable for analysis. Naturally, most of the time, this assumption is incorrect. Since a visual representation of a dissemination pattern cannot exist without a functional visual representation of the underlying network, I decided to dedicate my time, for now, to the visualization of complex networks. Iâ??ve been delving into a set of visual explorations, collecting problems and proposing solutions. Part of this initial study can be seen in my first thesis prototype presentation, on the link on the right.

Visualization Problems

Iâ??ve tried several open-source network visualization tools and seen hundreds of visualization examples. I think I found a critical problem. In most tools Iâ??ve seen, the user starts building its network from an initial node. The user places the first node in the center of the drawing board and then, node after node, link after link, the network starts expanding. Since thereâ??s no preceding method of organizing the nodes and links in the designated area, new nodes start naturally occupying any free space available. Unsurprisingly, after a certain threshold, the lattice of lines and nodes becomes unbearabl e. This problem happens so many times.

The difference between this method and Mark Lombardiâ??s drawings, for example, is a question of organization. Instead of a bottom-up hierarchy described before, Lombardi used to plan his overall design with a macro view of the entire network, knowing beforehand the amount of space he had and the exact number of nodes and links he needed to draw. Because of this, the cleanness of his drawings, where rarely thereâ??s an edge overlapping, is an excellent example of network visualization. What I cannot understand is why Lombardiâ??s method, and alike, arenâ??t taken into consideration whenever someone decides to build a visual representation of a network. A macro view approach to the problem is definitely more appropriate, a top-down hierarchy instead of bottom-up. And to say Lombardiâ??s networks where not complex enough is a mere exercise of oversimplifying his work.

Besides the mentioned problem, I encountered two others in my research, which contribute drastically to the huge amount of bad visualization examples of complex networks.

First, most visual applications are based in constructive algorithms that obey one rule: display the inputted data. Rarely the notion of how the data is displayed is considered. By that reason, often stunning visual forms demonstrate a low level of clarity and function.

Second, usually, programmers who built open-source applications and scientists/researchers who use them, have no visual sensibility or graph drawing knowledge. Many researches produce a visual model of the analyzed network as a mere additional element for showing their research. Sometimes it adds nothing to it.

Impetus Paper

"Complexity is a challenge by itself. Complex Networks are everywhere. It is a structural and organizational principle that reaches almost every field we can think of, from genes to power systems, from food webs to market shares. Paraphrasing Albert Barabasi, one of the leading researchers in this area, 'the mistery of life begins with the intricate web of interactions, integrating the millions of molecules within each organism'. Humans, since their birth, experience the effect of networks every day, from large complex systems like transportation routes and communication networks, to less conscious interactions, common in social networks. A Scale-Free network, the most common topology in either natural or human systems, is curiously enough, a very recent breakthrough. Since its discovery, 6 years ago, dozens of researchers worldwide have been disentangling the networks around us at an amazing rate. This awareness is helping us understand not only the world around us but also the most intricate web of interactions that shape the human body. The global effort of constructing a general theory of complexity is tremendous and may lead us, not only to a structural understanding of networks, but to major improvements in stability, robustness and security of most complex systems that shape the globe. Like Barabasi refers in Linked, 'Once we stumble across the right vision of complexity, it will take little to bring it to fruition. When that will happen is one of the mysteries that keeps many of us going'."

For more information you can read my Impetus Paper written for my Thesis Writing Laboratory:

Impetus Paper (PDF)

TextArc

â??TextArc is a tool designed to help people discover patterns and concepts in any text by leveraging a powerful, underused resource: human visual processing. It compliments approaches such as Statistical Natural Language Processing and Computational Linguistics by providing an overview, letting intuition help extract meaning from an unread text.

TextArc represents the entire text as two concentric spirals on the screen: each line is drawn in a tiny (one pixel tall) font around the outside, starting at the top; then each word is drawn in a more readable size. Important typographic features, like the mouse-tail shape of a poem at about two oâ??clock, can be seen because the tiny lines retain their formatting. Frequently used words stand out from the background more intensely.â??

The following examples show an analysis of Lewis Carrollâ??s Alice in Wonderland, which demonstrates TextArcâ??s structure and some capabilities.

Here "Rabbit" is highlighted in the arc and an overlay full-text window. Lines containing "Rabbit" are drawn in green around the arc, in the text window, and even in the scrollbar.

Copyright W. Bradford Paley

For a larger version of this image click here.

A concordance shows how many times each word is used. Words can be l ooked up in a Thesaurus and drawn in red.

Copyright W. Bradford Paley

For a larger version of this image click here.

If you want to try TextArc (you definitely should) go to TextArc.org.

Sentence of the week

Complex Networks are difficult to visualize, but we don't need to make them more complex in the process of trying.

Functional visualizations

"Functional visualizations are more than innovative statistical analyses and computational algorithms. They must make sense to the user and require a visual language system that uses colour, shape, line, hierarchy and composition
to communicate clearly and appropriately, much like the alphabetic and character-based languages used worldwide between humans."

Matt Woolman
Digital Information Graphics

Refworks

Although I already knew about Refworks existence, only recently, when collecting all my bibliographic references, I really understood how smart and useful this tool really is. It takes some time inputting all the data, but after that itâ??s so painless to organize, sort and display all the information in any format. It also helps me maintain my thoughts and research history structured.

Here is my temporary ever-changing list of references (Science Format):

> References.

Benjamin Fry

Until now I was trying not to incorporate Ben Fry in my list of references or key thinkers, for the only reason that everyone does. Going through the MFADT Thesis Archive it is hard to find a project that doesnâ??t mention the work of Ben Fry. Anyway, I guess that, as much as I tried not to, I will have to refer his work, particularly in two projects that correlate with my thesis subject.

Valence is a â??set of software sketches about building representations that explore the structures and relationships inside very large sets of informationâ??.

Here are some images of different versions of Valence:


Copyright Benj amin Fry â?? MIT.

This image shows the Genome Valence, a version of Valence created for the 2002 Whitney Biennal, and itâ??s a visual representation of the algorithm (called BLAST) most commonly used for genome searches.


Copyright Benjamin Fry â?? MIT.

In this version of Valence, the application reads 200,000-word text of Mark Twainâ??s â??The Innocents Abroadâ??.


Copyright Benjamin Fry â?? MIT.

Here, Valence builds a representation of the word usage in Ludwig Wittgensteinâ??s â??Nachlassâ??. As part of an installation for the Ars Electronica 2001, visitors could â??watch as the structure changes as valence reads the text, or examine the structure through zooming and rotationâ??.

For more information about the Valence project click here.


Anemone is a project that uses the â??process of organic information design to visualize the changing structure of a web site, juxtaposed with usage informationâ??.

As Ben Fry describes, the â??user interaction with this visualization is important. The viewer can click a node to discover which web page it represents. They can also move nodes around as a way to peek inside the data set and take a closer look at whatâ??s happening. Nodes can be dragged about the screen, pinned down, and watched in relation to other parts of the structureâ??.

Some screen shots of Anemone:




Copyright Benjamin Fry â?? MIT.

Mark Lombardi

I had to mention in my research the beautiful and eloquent drawings of Mark Lombardi. Particularly today, 3 years after the attack on the World Trade Center, it is curious to tell this story. Only five weeks after 9/11 attack, the Whitney Museum of American Art was contacted by an F.B.I. agent who wanted to obtain a copy of Lombardiâ??s BCCI-ICIC & FAB drawing or, if it wasnâ??t possible, to analyze the actual piece at the Museum. Almost at the same time, Pierogi, Mark Lombardiâ??s gallery received a phone call from a â??lead investigador into the September 11 attacksâ??. Federal Investigators wanted to obtain information pertaining to wealthy Saudi Artabian terrorist Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.

As Robert Hobbs, editor of â??Mark Lombardi: Global Networksâ??, puts it â??if government investigators had merely decided to include select members of the art world in thei investigation into the 9/11 attacks, that fact alone would have been newsworthy. But when an F.B.I. agent consulted a work of art for clues pertaining to terrorist financing, she unwittingly made history.â??



Copyright Mark Lombardi

For a larger version of this image click here.


Copyright Mark Lombardi

What's the CRN?

Fortunately, Iâ??m not alone in my research on complex networks, particularly scale-free social networks. In fact, besides the interest/research groups like the Center for the Study of Complex Systems or the Complex Human Networks Reading Group, and many others, I also found academic courses that are deeply related to this subject, one at the MIT Media Lab (where else), other at Simon Fraser University Surrey (close to Vancouver).

Sociable Media Group â?? MIT

The visualization of social networks undertakes a major leap in many of the projects produced by the Sociabl e Media Group (SMG) at MIT Media Lab. With some amazing visual displays the SMG â??investigates issues concerning society and identity in the networked worldâ??, addressing questions such as â??How do we perceive other people on-line? What does a virtual crowd look like? How do social conventions develop in the networked world?â??.

For more information about the Sociable Media Group click here.

For the list of classes at the Sociable Media Group click here.

Here are just a couple of examples:

Visual Who


Copyright Dana Spiegel, Danah Boyd, Jonathan Goler

For more information about this project click here.


Social Network Fragments


Copyright Danah Boyd, Jeff Potter.

For more information about this project click here.


Electronic Culture â?? SFU

The course given at Simon Fraser University is named Electronic Cul ture: Complexity, Identity, Society and it â??explores the dynamics of networked culture, concentrating on rapidly evolving cultures of the world wide web.â?? As the teacher Laura Trippi describes, â??we'll study scientific models of networks and complexity, and use them to investigate emerging networked social forms, from collaborative authoring and the â??hacker ethicâ?? to â??smart mobsâ?? and netwar.â??

Some students in this course have interesting blogs, where they show their research and create their own models and prototypes, many of them analyzing personal networks in chat applications like AOL/Yahoo/MSN Messenger or their own Friendster network of friends.

Kirstenâ??s MSN Messenger Network


Copyright Kirsten Johnson

For more information go to Kirsten Johnson weblog.

Alannaâ??s Friendster Network


Copyright Alanna

Mapping Technorati/Daypop/Blogstreet


Copyright Alanna. For a larger version of this image click here.

For more information go to Alannaâ??s weblog.

Danielle Analysis of the class blogging community


Copyright Danielle

For more information go to Danielleâ??s weblog.


For a complete list of students (class network) blogs click here.

For more information on the Electronic Culture course click here.

For more information about Simon Fraser University Surrey click here.

Note
I must say that finding academic courses with analogous content then my thesis has helped me a lot gathering innumerous references, particularly in my recent research on visualization methods/techniques.

More Social Networks

Here are other interesting examples of social networks:

High School Dating



For a larger version of this image click here.

Les Miserábles



For a larger version of thi s image click here.

Sexual Contacts



For a larger version of this image click here.

Note how the nodes with a high number of sexual partners become bigger and brighter. Here, as in the High School Dating image, we can once again notice the importance of the main hubs in securing a scale-free network topology. If one could hypothetically remove the hubs, all that would remain would be a scattered set of independent clusters with no connections or even weak ties between them.

IRC Channel



For a larger version of this image click here.