Fundamentals of Big Data Network Analysis for Research and Industry

Appendix AVisualization

One of the advantages of social network analysis is the intuitive visualization of the network. The hidden structural relationship can be verified through visualization and can provide insight into the direction of analysis. Furthermore, the numerical analysis can provide a more persuasive reporting. That is why visualization is often a simple representation of the social network analysis data through diagrams. There are various algorithms for the visualization of network. Generally, if the attribute data analysis results are visualized in the form of a chart or a plot, the network is visualized using a graph drawing algorithm. Visualization of the network considers the relationship between nodes and after calculating the coordinates, a particular algorithm is selected depending on how we want to place the nodes on a network map.

In the steel product analysis here, a trade relationship network with more than 10 000 tons such as S. Korea, China, Japan, and USA is visualized depending on each algorithm, where the results are visualized according to the different algorithms.

A.1 Spring Algorithm

The spring layout algorithm assumes a virtual spring between nodes, where the nodes are placed according to the pushing and pulling forces between the nodes. As the nodes are distributed within the map, adjacent nodes are closely placed within a defined interval and are visualized so that there are fewer repetition or intersections in the links.

1. Kamada and ...