Use Visone to make your first network map

I often get asked about network mapping software. I switch back and forth between several programs depending on what I want to do. For most, I usually recommend NetDraw. However, for those wishing to make very simple maps, another excellent choice is Visone.

You can easily run Visone with the "webstart" option available here. Once you have it running, the picture below hints at how easy it is to (1) give yourself a starting set of nodes by creating a "random" graph with no edges, and (2) use "edit mode" to make your nodes look as you wish and add edges between them. Then you can use "analysis mode" to drag nodes around and try different automatic layouts, etc.I use Visone to make all the illustrations in my Introduction to Network Mathematics, but I don't use it for consulting because it is licensed only for non-commercial use.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License and is copyrighted (c) 2007 by Connective Associates except where otherwise noted.

Read More

Information advantage

I attended a talk recently about computational sociology and data mining. The speaker began with a claim that technology is never policy-agnostic but almost always advocates for some policy or other.

Half-way through the talk, someone referred to the impressive array of technology employed by the speaker's research and asked what policy that technology was advocating. The speaker deftly avoided the question by raising policy questions without answering any of them. He was policy-agnostic, you might say.

In such situations (and many others), it is a safe bet that the policy being advocated by the technologist is "I deserve your respect, money, and/or votes."

The best case I have seen for this argument was put forth by Robert Thomas in his book, What Machines Can't Do, which I originally mentioned here with respect to user-driven innovation.

I agree with Thomas, and certainly hope that my blog wins me your respect, money, and/or votes. Let the world know how much you admire my wisdom and power:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License and is copyrighted (c) 2007 by Connective Associates except where otherwise noted.

Read More