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Network Visualisation in GEPHI

Course Dates and Times

Monday 7 - Friday 11 August

09:00-12:30

Please see Timetable for full details.

Balázs Vedres

vedresb@ceu.hu

Central European University

The aim of this course is to introduce participants to visualizing network graphs in an effective way. Network graph visualization is central to the analysis of networks.  Successful journal articles, conference talks or conference poster presentations are greatly enhanced by network visualizations that tell your story in a succinct way.


Instructor Bio

Balázs Vedres' research furthers the agenda of understanding historical dynamics in network systems, combining insights from network science, historical sociology, and studies of complex systems in physics and biology.

His contribution is to combine historical sensitivities to patterns of processes in time with a network analytic sensitivity to patterns of connectedness cross-sectionally. A key element of this work was the adoption of optimal matching sequence analysis to historical network data.

Balázs' research has been published in top journals of sociology, with two recent articles in the American Journal of Sociology exploring the notion of structural folds: creative tensions in intersecting yet cognitively diverse cohesive communities. His recent research follows video game developers and jazz musicians as they weave collaborative networks through their projects and recording sessions.

He is the recipient of several awards and prizes, and is the founder and director of CEU's Center for Network Science.

  @balazsvedres

The first theme to discuss will be the basics of installing and running Gephi, and inputting data.  We introduce the edgelist data format for dyadic data, and the standards of entering node labels and attributes. We also discuss the possibilities of generating random network data in Gephi.

 

The second theme will be about the core skill of networks visualization: selecting, tuning, and evaluating graph layouts.  We will discuss several layout approaches, such as circle and concentric layouts, spring embedders, attribute based layouts. We will also discuss options and considerations for static publishing: publishing graphs for balk and white journal manuscripts, power point presentations, posters.

 

The third theme is about filterings: ways to select nodes and edges to display. We will discuss related measures that one can use for filtering, such as centrality measures, edge betweenness, components, attributes and attribute combinations.  We discuss single and multiple filters, and the significance of nested filters.

 

The fourth theme will be about the practical challenges of working with large graphs.  We discuss considerations for choosing layout algorithms for large graphs, ways to collapse, filter and simplify large graphs.  We introduce the method of density heatmaps.

 

The fifth theme is about online publishing, and generating interactive visualizations of graphs.  We discuss settings and considerations for java script based interactive formats.

Day Topic Details
Monday Basics of GEPHi operations and data input

Installing and running GEPHI, formatting network data for input, generating random graphs.

Tuesday Layouts; static publishing

Layout algorithms, principles of graph layout, uncovering the story to tell with the network graph. Publishing options for static (print) representations, from journal page to poster.

Wednesday Filterings

Working with filters, subsetting nodes and edges, nested filters, working with attributes.

Thursday Working with large graphs

Layouts optimized for large graphs, clustering, collapsing graphs. Working with weighted graphs.

Friday Publishing interactive graphs online

Interactive graph exports, JSON files, settings for web publishing.

Day Readings
Monday

Chevren, Ken. 2013. Network Graph Analysis and Visualization with Gephi. Pakt Publishing:London. chapter 1 and 4

Tuesday

Chevren, Ken. 2015. Mastering Gephi Network Visualization. Packt Publishing. chapter 3.

Wednesday

Devengana, Khokhar. 2015. Gephi Cookbook. Packt Publishing. chapter 5.;  Chevren, Ken. 2015. Mastering Gephi Network Visualization. Packt Publishing. chapter 5.

Thursday

Chevren, Ken. 2015. Mastering Gephi Network Visualization. Packt Publishing. chapter 6.

Friday

Chevren, Ken. 2013. Network Graph Analysis and Visualization with Gephi. Pakt Publishing:London. chapter 7;  Chevren, Ken. 2015. Mastering Gephi Network Visualization. Packt Publishing. chapter 9.

Software Requirements

Gephi 0.8

Hardware Requirements

Participants to bring their own laptop. An ordinary PC will be sufficient to run the datasets designed for the course.

Recommended Courses to Cover Before this One

Theoretically Informed Network Analysis for Social Scientists