graphical relations between people

[nico.jabin]

Hi,

I'm looking for a software that lets me represent the relations between
people graphically. When I find a new contact, I want to enter name,
email etc, and the relation to either groups or people, maybe grade
them from very close to loose relation, and let program display a map
of these relations. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nico

 

[FTR]

Hi,

I'm looking for a software that lets me represent the relations between
people graphically. When I find a new contact, I want to enter name,
email etc, and the relation to either groups or people, maybe grade
them from very close to loose relation, and let program display a map
of these relations. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nico

this sounds like a social network analysis program, with a strong
visualisation module. Pajek: http://vlado.fmf.uni-lj.si/pub/networks/pajek/

Are ready to dive into social networks and their analysis ??
Frank

 

[nico.jabin]

Frank, thanks for your link, and comment. Looking at the program, I
think I might not be ready - it looks very complicated. Is this as
simple as it gets? Does one have to know the details and kinks to
enable decent usage?
What I thought I might be able to do was to enter the people and
organisations, and draw one, two, maybe three kinds of relations
between them (lose, close, middle), so that I can see how people in a
certain field are related. But I guess it doesn't get that simple. Does
it?

 

[FTR]

Frank, thanks for your link, and comment. Looking at the program, I
think I might not be ready - it looks very complicated. Is this as
simple as it gets? Does one have to know the details and kinks to
enable decent usage?
What I thought I might be able to do was to enter the people and
organisations, and draw one, two, maybe three kinds of relations
between them (lose, close, middle), so that I can see how people in a
certain field are related. But I guess it doesn't get that simple. Does
it?

I guess the program comes with some example data sets. Or look how it
explains to enter data. Very often, you can enter data either through a
copy & paste, or importing an excel or a comma-delimited ascii file. If
this is possible just write down the data for three or 5 people where
the linking situation is evident to you, i.e. very simple, you know what
you want to see , and then try the program.

I don't know how many cases (persons) you have but already with 10
persons and the links among the ten it's difficult to see the network
structure without a program.

You might also try to set up a list and start only to draw a graph with
all people but only draw the strongest, or closest, links. See, if you
understand the graph and what it means, in social terms i.e. Then add
another layer, with intermediate links. and so on.

In the end, you will appreciate the network visualisation.

Then, there is the famous UCINET program which appears to be payware but
can be downloaded and used without restrictions. There is a free network
graphing module integrated in UCINET which can be used separately. Here
is an example:
http://www.analytictech.com/netdrawsamples.htm

But I warn you: drawing network graphs is like drawing maps. If you
never did it before you will always underestimate the time to prepare a
nice (and clean, readable) map.

Frank

 

[FTR]

I guess the program comes with some example data sets. Or look how it
explains to enter data. Very often, you can enter data either through a
copy & paste, or importing an excel or a comma-delimited ascii file. If
this is possible just write down the data for three or 5 people where
the linking situation is evident to you, i.e. very simple, you know what
you want to see , and then try the program.

I don't know how many cases (persons) you have but already with 10
persons and the links among the ten it's difficult to see the network
structure without a program.

You might also try to set up a list and start only to draw a graph with
all people but only draw the strongest, or closest, links. See, if you
understand the graph and what it means, in social terms i.e. Then add
another layer, with intermediate links. and so on.

In the end, you will appreciate the network visualisation.

Then, there is the famous UCINET program which appears to be payware but
can be downloaded and used without restrictions.

I now see it's trialware, for 30 days.

There is a free network

 

[nico.jabin]

Thanks for your help Frank,
and for the warning, too. It seems that I will just have to do it in my
head, or on paper. But thanks.