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LinkedIn Network Visualization and Analysis

Socilab was an open-source site that was widely used to deliver interactive tutorials on social capital and social network analysis. It allowed users to visualize and analyze their LinkedIn network in the browser using methods derived from social scientific research. Due to the closure of the LinkedIn API, the site is no longer in operation. Full sample output is reproduced here and in the video below. The code is still available on GitHub.

Below are some of the top user posts of Socilab visualizations. You can see more by searching for the site on LinkedIn or Twitter.




About the Project

This project was open source and intended to educate people about their social network data and to make analysis more accessible for everday users. It was used by over 90k unique LinkedIn members in over 200 countries across the world. The primary use case was to teach students about the power of social network analysis as part of undergraduate and MBA curricula. You can email me with your use cases, feedback, and ideas.

You can find the javascript code for the project on github. Here are the .js files for the visualization and network analysis calculations. Please fork and contribute if you're interested in developing this project further.

About Me

My name is Craig Tutterow (web C.V.). I graduated from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business with a PhD in Organizations & Markets, did a postdoc stint at Google's PiLab, where I work on applied social network research using personnel data, and am now working in data science at LinkedIn to scale up the production and distribution of insights to our members.

General Resources

Network Analysis Software

Data Visualization on Web
Networks, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World, David Easley and Jon Kleinberg 2010 (free!) UCINet, standalone analysis and visualization software with GUI - easiest way in to network analysis, but only free for a month D3.js, a fantastic data visualization archive for web applications
Introduction to social network methods, Robert Hanneman & Mark Riddle; Accessible introduction to SNA SNA, R Package by Carter Butts, useful for visualization and statistical analysis of network data dataisbeautiful subreddit, some interesting stuff
Social Network Analysis Instructional Web Site, Steve Borgatti Network, R Package by Carter Butts, useful for manipulating network data Many Eyes (IBM), very flexible visualization platform for multiple types of data
Social Network Analysis Listserv NetworkX, Python package Google NGrams, see the relative usage of words in Google Books corpus over time
R Tutorial for SNA, Solomon Messing igraph, Python and R package Martin Wattenberg
Strategic Leadership Teaching Slides, Ron Burt gephi, standalone network visualization software Edward Tufte's message board
Applied/Hands on Tutorial using UCINet for business students, Rob Cross pajek, standalone network visualization software Julian Hillebrand Blog on Social Media, Technology and Analytics (includes some nice API tutorials)
SNA subreddit
Curated Index of SNA Research Centers, Businesses, Courses, and Papers
History of SNA