This Public Data Lab invites you to explore the prototype of a new open-source, user-friendly and web-based tool for visualising and narrating small and large network graphs, MiniVAN. Join us to test and improve this tool and to discuss the use of networks as interfaces for exploratory data analysis.

The visual analysis and exploration of networks allows researchers, journalists and others to analyse large relational datasets without necessarily having to deal with the full complexity of graph mathematics.

How do different publics participate in making meaning with networks? How do network visualisations travel? How are networks used to tell stories for and with different publics? How do network practices vary amongst different fields, including journalism, research, advocacy and policy?

If you are:

a user of network visualisation software such as Gephi
a network-maker and/or network-user
interested in how to publish, explore and tell stories with networks with a variety of different publics

... then we'd warmly welcome your input!

Relevant resources and references

Gephi: https://gephi.org/
Bounegru, L., Venturini, T., Gray, J., & Jacomy, M. (2017). Narrating Networks. Digital Journalism, 5(6), 699–730. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1186497
Venturini, T., Jacomy, M., Bounegru, L., & Gray, J. (2018). Visual Network Exploration for Data Journalists. In S. Eldridge II & B. Franklin (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook to Developments in Digital Journalism Studies. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3043912
An illustration of the method of Visual Network Analysis and the network used in the example.

Image: "The #Election2016 Micro-Propaganda Machine" by Jonathan Albright.

Networks and their Publics: A Public Data Workshop for the MiniVAN Project