Orion: A system for modeling, transformation and visualization of multidimensional heterogeneous networks

Abstract

The study of complex activities such as scientific production and software development often require modeling connections among heterogeneous entities including people, institutions and artifacts. Despite numerous advances in algorithms and visualization techniques for understanding such social networks, the process of constructing network models and performing exploratory analysis remains difficult and time-consuming. In this paper we present Orion, a system for interactive modeling, transformation and visualization of network data. Orion's interface enables the rapid manipulation of large graphs-including the specification of complex linking relationships-using simple drag-and-drop operations with desired node types. Orion maps these user interactions to statements in a declarative workflow language that incorporates both relational operators (e.g., selection, aggregation and joins) and network analytics (e.g., centrality measures). We demonstrate how these features enable analysts to flexibly construct and compare networks in domains such as online health communities, academic collaboration and distributed software development.

Fuzzy logic–based evaluation of visualizations generated by intelligent decision support systems

“…Medicine is one of these areas where data mining methods have been significantly used in combination with visualization methods. 13 The availability of large amounts of data has attracted the interest of the data mining and visualization communities 14,15 to the opportunities offered by both the raw data and the extracted patterns. 16 Many iDSSs based on data visualization were designed and developed in the literature.…”

StrataVis : une technique de visualisation graphique orientée modèle

“…Une telle interaction confère à l'utilisateur la possibilité de passer, en une fraction de secondes, d'une vue compactée, synthétique donnant à voir la répartition des règles par type et leur densité, à une vue déployée, étendue offrant d'explorer visuellement les échanges réglementaires (Pike et al, 2009 ;Yi et al, 2007 ;Heer et Perer, 2011). En ceci, cette interaction se révèle d'une utilité de premier ordre (Dix et Ellis, 1998).…”

Scalability Considerations for Multivariate Graph Visualization

“…Data transformation and reduction techniques aim to use the available visual bandwidth to support foraging, sense-making, and insight by showing only parts of the data and from particular viewpoints. A variety of data transformation and reduction strategies are routinely and usefully employed for increasingly sophisticated visually querying of network structure in data sets, in systems such as Jigsaw [69], Coordinate Graph Visualization (CGV) [72], Ploceus [51], Orion [36], and Candid [67].…”

“…This technique originally does not focus on large graphs and depending on the attribute types and values, the number of equivalence classes may be too high. Orion [36] supports similar attribute-based aggregation of vertices for networks that are obtained in a previous step from relational database tables. In the Ploceus system [51], three types of aggregationby-attribute are identified: pivoting is equivalent to PivotGraph's roll-up but specifically for categorical attributes; binning is used to describe grouping nodes by quantitative attributes divided into distinct ranges; proximity grouping is used to refer to more sophisticated clustering techniques involving distance functions of quantitative attributes.…”

“…The Orion system paper [36] includes three use cases: online medical forum discussions, academic collaborations, and software developments. The first use case involves 3 million discussion posts from MedHelp.org.…”