Webshapes: Network visualization with 3D shapes

Shengmin Jin, Richard Wituszynski, Max Caiello-Gingold, Reza Zafarani

Research output: Chapter in Book/Entry/PoemConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Network visualization has played a critical role in graph analysis, as it not only presents a big picture of a network but also helps reveal the structural information of a network. The most popular visual representation of networks is the node-link diagram. However, visualizing a large network with the node-link diagram can be challenging due to the difficulty in obtaining an optimal graph layout. To address this challenge, a recent advancement in network representation: network shape, allows one to compactly represent a network and its subgraphs with the distribution of their embeddings. Inspired by this research, we have designed a web platform WebShapes that enables researchers and practitioners to visualize their network data as customized 3D shapes (http://b.link/webshapes). Furthermore, we provide a case study on real-world networks to explore the sensitivity of network shapes to different graph sampling, embedding, and fitting methods, and we show examples of understanding networks through their network shapes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWSDM 2020 - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages837-840
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781450368223
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 20 2020
Event13th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, WSDM 2020 - Houston, United States
Duration: Feb 3 2020Feb 7 2020

Publication series

NameWSDM 2020 - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining

Conference

Conference13th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, WSDM 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHouston
Period2/3/202/7/20

Keywords

  • Graph representation
  • Network visualization

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Software
  • Computer Science Applications

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