Analysis and Visualization of Social Networks

We describe isone, a tool that facilitates the visual exploration of social networks. Social network analysis is a methodological approach in the social sciences using graph-theoretic concepts to describe, understand and explain social structure. The isone software is an attempt to integrate analysis and visualization of social networks and is intended to be used in research and teaching. While we are primarily focussing on users in the social sciences, several features provided in the tool will be useful in other fields as well. In contrast to more conventional mathematical software in the social sciences that aim at providing a comprehensive suite of analytical options, our emphasis is on complementing every option we provide with tailored means of graphical interaction. We attempt to make complicated types of analysis and data handling transparent, intuitive, and more readily accessible. User feedback indicates that many who usually regard data exploration and analysis complicated and unnerving enjoy the playful nature of visual interaction. Consequently, much of the tool is about graph drawing methods specifically adapted to facilitate visual data exploration. The origins of isone lie in an interdisciplinary cooperation with researchers from political science which resulted in innovative uses of graph drawing methods for social network visualization, and prototypical implementations thereof. With the growing demand for access to these methods, we started implementing an integrated tool for public use. It should be stressed, however, that isone remains a research platform and testbed for innovative methods, and is not intended to become