Visual Network Analysis: the Example of the Rio+20 Online Debate

In the last few years, a spirit has been haunting our academic and popular culture — the spirit of networks. Throughout social as well as natural sciences, more and more phenomena have come to be conceived as networks. Telecommunication networks, neural networks, social networks, epigenetic networks, ecological and economic networks , the very fabric of our existence seems to be made of lines and dots. More recently, the interest for graphs overflowed from science to popular culture and images of networks started to appear everywhere. They decorate buildings and objects; they are printed on t-shirts and furniture; they colonize the desktop of our computers and the walls of our airports. Networks have become the emblem of modernity, a way to show and tell our world’s complexity. Our growing fascination for networks is not unjustified. Networks are powerful conceptual tools, encapsulating in a single object multiple affordances for computation (networks as graphs), visualization (networks as maps) and manipulation of data (networks as interfaces)

Zoomer n’est pas explorer:Spatialiser les graphes, catégoriser et (dé)construire les réseaux

A partir du cas du web du livre en France, cet article interroge la notion de zoom dans l’exploration visuelle de réseaux. En soumettant un graphe à des questionnements et traitements successifs, il devient possible de comprendre ce qui apparaît comme une anomalie pour le chercheur, un entrelacement sur le plan visuel de deux communautés pourtant distinctes du point de vue des catégories et de l’algorithme de modularité. En appliquant ces différentes épreuves au graphe apparaît la variété des algorithmes de spatialisation et de clusterisation, les limites des notions de zoom, de découpage et d’exploration des réseaux, toutes métaphores spatiales peu pertinentes. Cette démarche plaide pour des conventions d’exploration qui assurent la robustesse de l’exploitation de ce type de données.Zooming is not exploring. Spatializing graphs, categorizing and (de)constructing networks. Based on the case of the web of books in France, this article discusses the notion of zooming in the visual exploration of networks. By subjecting a graph to a series of questions and successive processes, it becomes possible to understand what seems to be an anomaly for the researcher : a visual entanglement of two otherwise distinct communities from the point of view of the categories and algorithm of modularity. By applying these different tests to the graph, the variety of the algorithms of spatialization and clustering emerge, along with the limits of the notions of zooming, partitioning and exploration of networks, all of which are largely irrelevant spatial metaphors. This approach argues for exploratory conventions that guarantee robust exploitation of this type of data

Two Visions of the Web: from Globality to Localities

This paper presents two different perspectives of the web: a global one that corresponds to the classical approach of search engines and a the local one that we propose as an alternative approach. The search engines perform their indexation operation on the whole web in an automatic way and display their results according to it by proposing a perfectible visualization. We will review the usability of these visualizations while examining the way search engines build their hierarchies. That leads us to reconsider the notion of context and the way models of the web influence our vision of it to finally propose a new model strongly related to its perception through alternative visualizations

Translating Networks: Assessing correspondence between network visualisation and analytics

Network interpretation is a widespread practice in the digital humanities, and its exercise is surprisingly flexible. While there is now a wide variety of uses in different fields from social network analysis to the study of document circulation metadata or literature and linguistic data, many projects highlight the difficulty of bringing graph theory and their discipline into dialogue. Fortunately, the development of accessible software, followed by new interfaces, sometimes with an educational dimension, has been accompanied in recent years by a critical reflection on our practices, particularly with regard to visualisation. Yet, it often focuses on technical aspects. In this paper, we propose to shift this emphasis and address the question of the researcher’s interpretative journey from visualisation to metrics resulting from the network structure. Often addressed in relation to graphical representation, when it is not used only as an illustration, the subjectivity of translation is all the more important when it comes to interpreting structural metrics. But these two things are closely related. To separate metrics from visualisation would be to forget that two historical examples of network representation, Euler (1736) and Moreno (1934), are not limited to a graphic reading (the term “network” itself would only appear in 1954 in Barnes’ work). In the first case, the demonstration was based on a degree centrality measurement whereas in the second case the author made the difference between “stars” and “unchosen” individuals while qualifying the edges as inbound and outbound relationships. This is why this paper propose to examine the practice of visual reading and metrics-based analysis in a correspondence table that clarifies the subjectivity of the translation while presenting possible and generic interpretation scenarios

Le web matrimonial des migrants:L'économie du profilage au service d'une nouvelle forme de commerce ethnique

Cet article se propose d'engager une réflexion sur le web matrimonial des migrants (WMM) en tant que forme inédite de commerce ethnique posant l'égalité « faire du commerce » = « faire du réseau » (et non plus s'appuyer sur des réseaux ethniques préexistants). Le WMM est fondée sur une économie du profilage singulière puisque dépendante d'une ethnicisation des profils (et donc des utilisateurs): « faire du réseau » = « ethniciser ». Enfin, le WMM implique mobilité et migrations (avec des différences capitales en terme de genre): « faire du réseau » = « naviguer, bouger, migrer ».This article analyses the 'migrants' matrimonial Web'? as an original form of ethnic business that equates 'doing business'? to 'networking'? (i.e. creating new networks rather than relying on existing ethnic ones). The authors show that it is based on an unusual profiling economy in which profiles (and therefore users) are ethnicized: 'networking'? = 'ethnicizing'?. As the matrimonial Web implies mobility and migration (with significant gender differences), 'networking'? also means 'surfing, moving, and migrating'?