.NetMap
I’ve been using .NetMap from Marc Smith's team at Microsoft Research recently to help me visualise some relationships inside Excel. Some of my colleagues hadn’t seen the tool and suggested I wrote a quick post about it.
The easiest way to use .NetMap is to install the .NetMap Excel 2007 Template. With the template installed, you can enter network data into a template-based Excel 2007 workbook, then view the network graph within the workbook's window. The template adds a menu tab that looks like this …
and you’re ready to go.
By default, the Fruchterman-Reingold layout algorithm is used to lay out the graph's vertices,
but a variety of additional layout algorithms are provided as well …
Here’s the same data mapped with a circle. Imagine each of the nodes is a person, and it quickly becomes clear how an influence network is working.
If you use Outlook and have Windows Desktop Search installed on your computer you can use the Excel 2007 template's "Analyze Email Network" Ribbon command to graph the network of people you communicate with via email.
Here I’ve selected on of the folders I use for a team distribution group, and the resulting graphs are
In addition to the Excel 2007 template, the source code includes a standalone desktop application for viewing network graphs.
Have fun!