ManyNets

Abstract

Traditional network analysis tools support analysts in studying a single network. ManyNets offers these analysts a powerful new approach that enables them to work on multiple networks simultaneously. Several thousand networks can be presented as rows in a tabular visualization, and then inspected, sorted and filtered according to their attributes. The networks to be displayed can be obtained by subdivision of larger networks. Examples of meaningful subdivisions used by analysts include ego networks, community extraction, and time-based slices. Cell visualizations and interactive column overviews allow analysts to assess the distribution of attributes within particular sets of networks. Details, such as traditional node-link diagrams, are available on demand. We describe a case study analyzing a social network geared towards film recommendations by means of decomposition. A small usability study provides feedback on the use of the interface on a set of tasks issued from the case study.

The State of the Art in Multilayer Network Visualization

“…Within social sciences, there are also contexts in which many networks may be compared to one another. For example, examining social networks produced as a result of cell phone activity, as done by Freire et al [FPSG10]. The contemporary use of multiple online social networks provides a vast amount of data.…”

“…The list view of the Manynets application [FPSG10], summarizing attributes of networks using bar charts. The vertical bar charts show the distribution of attribute values and the green and red stacked horizontal bar is a combined score based on several inputs.…”

“…Other existing systems also provide the ability to view graph structure information as a form of summary visualization. ManyNets [FPSG10] is an approach that uses simple attribute based visualizations, such as bar charts and histograms, as a means of summarizing and comparing networks, as seen in Figure 14. The simple charts show metrics that describe the structure of the graph.…”

“…Other definitions of layers are also possible as illustrated in Section 2. FPSG10, GKL*13, CMF*14, BGRM15,DMR16a], digital humanities [MDG16,DHRL*12,SGo16], civil infrastructure [CGGZ*13, Duc17, Der17] and more. Multilayer networks have been explicitly recognized as promising for biological analysis [GMD*18].…”

Combined vs. Separate Views in Matrix-based Graph Analysis and Comparison

“…Freire et al's ManyNets [19] approaches multiple graphs from a different angle. It gives a table-based summary of statistics for large numbers of graphs, with graphs as rows and graph metrics as columns.…”