Advice for total novice

[pythias]

Hi everyone, I am a total novice to all kinds of social networking software, but I am writing a PhD thesis on social networks and could do with a way of visualising them. I am a bit phased by the technical tone of much help material that I've read and even the most basic of video tutorials I've come across assume knowledge I lack. I want to visualise a network that is comprised of individuals and organisations. I want to be able to capture the relationship between individuals and individuals; between groups and groups; and between each individual and the organisations that they are involved in (it is minimum one but typically more since I want to include past employment/involvement). I am just not sure what kind of data I need to create outside Gephi in order to import it. What kind of file do I need to create and how do I get the information about the individuals and organisations down in the right format? Sorry to appear so hopeless but any help, pointers, videos, etc all incredibly appreciated! Thanks.

[pegerp]

Hi pythias!

Gephi can import VNA format which is quite intuitive. You can check the details at http://gephi.github.io/users/supported- ... na-format/

Good thing in Gephi is that if you don't need node properties you can only define *tie data. Gephi will automatically create the nodes for edges. It's easy to get to know Gephi this way.

For getting to know Gephi you can also download example networks at https://wiki.gephi.org/index.php/Datasets. Good luck!

[pythias]

Thanks! I've taken to using Excel. I'm just inputting node to node relationships in two columns. Its producing a network image though I'm not sure how to classify different relationships with labels or partitions. I'd like to highlight different kinds of relationships somehow - eg. collaborative, affiliates and the like. Any suggestions most helpful!