2009 Node XL Overview: Social Network Analysis in Excel 2007

NodeXL: Project Network

NodeXLNetwork overview, discovery and exploration

for Microsoft Excel 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl

NodeXLNetwork overview, discovery and exploration

for Microsoft Excel 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl

Dan Fay (MSR Redmond)Cody Dunne (U Maryland)

Marc Smith (Telligent)Vladimir Barash (MSR Silicon Valley/Cornell)

Tony Capone (MSR Redmond)Natasa Milic-Frayling (MSR Cambridge)

Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues (MSR Cambridge)Eric Gleave (U Washington)Adam Perer (U Maryland)

Ben Shneiderman (U Maryland)

Problem: No network chart in

Excel

NodeXL: Network analysis and visualization tool

• Cyclic Graph data structures have limited support in existing Office tools

• Network analysis is of growing importance in academic, commercial, and Internet social media contexts

• Existing network analysis tools have command line interfaces or demand steep learning curves

• Many network data sets already live in Excel!

NodeXL: Goal: Make SNA easier

• Existing Social Network Tools are challenging for many novice users

• Tools like Excel are widely used• Leveraging a spreadsheet as a host for SNA

lowers barriers to network data analysis and display

Social Network Analysis ToolkitTools to support the study of the social network structure

social media and other network structures

Sociologist

“What are the structures of

communication in scientific

discussions?”

User Experience Information Visualization

“What are the best UI/UX workflows for network

analysis tools?”

Computer Scientist Algorithmicist for Social

Network Measures

“What are the measures and algorithms needed for understanding networks?”

7

NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel• Leverage spreadsheet for storage of edge and

vertex data

NodeXL: Import data from multiple sources:

• Multiple network “spigots” provide edge lists from several common sources and data formats.

NodeXL: Import edges from other spreadsheets

• Map data columns from existing spreadsheets

NodeXL: Merge Duplicate Edges (if any)

• Aggregate duplicate edges and add a “Tie Strength Column” to store the count of “duplicates” (edges could be from multiple time slices).

NodeXL: Calculate Network Analytics and Metrics

• Starter library of basic network measures

• Users may unselect resource intensive measures

NodeXL: Insert network sub-graph images

• Create “ego-centric” networks for each node in the network

• Select number of degrees out to include

NodeXL:

Display nodes sorted by network attributes using Excel Data|Sort

NodeXL: Get reports of global network metrics

Metric Value

Graph Type Directed

Unique Edges 7,852

Edges With Duplicates 0

Total Edges 7,852

Self-Loops 10

Vertices 174

Graph Density 0.260514259

NodeXL: Display whole graph

• Toggle display of whole graph display pane with Show/Hide Graph Pane

NodeXL: Create a new whole graph display

• Select “Read Workbook” to load the graph into the Display Pane.

• The title “Document Actions” is imposed by Excel

NodeXL: Viewing the whole graph

NodeXL: Using Dynamic Filters to simplify the graph

• Each data column (including dates) associated with an edge or vertex is exposed with a slider filter.

• Filtered nodes and edges turn gray or become invisible

NodeXL: Apply dynamic filters to the data

NodeXL: Map data to display attributes

• Map Edge and Vertex attributes to size, width, color, opacity, and shape

NodeXL: Decorated Network Graphs

NodeXL: filtered, decorated, labeled networks

NodeXL: Clustered networks

NodeXL: Filtered clusters

NodeXL: Add URLS to Right-click menu of Nodes

NodeXL: Import social networks from email

NodeXL: Import social networks from email

NodeXL Next Steps

• Enhanced layout controls– Smart selection of nodes

• Clustering and composite nodes– Add/remove a node to/from a cluster– Add/remove a node to/from a composite

• Add social network data sources:– Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Outlook, Messenger,

etc.• Your suggestions?

NodeXL Partnerships and community

• University of Maryland• Northwestern University• Ohio University• Stanford University• University of Pennsylvania

5,000 + downloads on Codeplex

NodeXLNetwork overview, discovery and exploration

for Microsoft Excel 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl

Dan Fay (MSR Redmond)Cody Dunne (U Maryland)

Marc Smith (Telligent)Vladimir Barash (MSR Silicon Valley/Cornell)

Tony Capone (MSR Redmond)Natasa Milic-Frayling (MSR Cambridge)

Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues (MSR Cambridge)Eric Gleave (U Washington)Adam Perer (U Maryland)

Ben Shneiderman (U Maryland)

NodeXL: Project Network

NodeXLNetwork overview, discovery and exploration

for Microsoft Excel 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/nodexl