Atelier Visualisation et extraction de connaissances - Irisa

Gephi, an open source software for visualizing networked data
Sébastien Heymann
LIP6, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris VI
4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France
Sebastien.heymann@gmail.com
Abstract. Gephi is an open-source network visualization platform. It aims to
create a sustainable software and a technical ecosystem driven by an international
open-source community, who shares common interests in networks and
complex systems. Designed to make data navigation and manipulation easy, it
aims to fulfill the complete chain from data importing to aesthetics refinements
and interaction.
Users interact with the visualization and manipulate structures, shapes and colors
to reveal hidden properties. The goal is to help data analysts to make hypothesis,
intuitively discover patterns or errors in large data collections.
The rendering engine can handle networks larger than 100K elements and
guarantees responsiveness. In addition of interactive exploration, Gephi embed
most critical metrics used in Social Network Analysis, including Betweenness,
Clustering Coefficient, PageRank or Modularity. More metrics can be added
thanks to the extensible software architecture and the open-source code. Focus
is also made on interoperability, as Gephi can open major file formats, including
GraphML, UCINet DL or Pajek. Network results can be exported as PNG,
SVG and PDF. Most of current development efforts are made on Dynamic
Network Analysis (DNA). Gephi already provides a Timeline component to
study network evolutions and visualize changes over time.
Created with the idea to be the Photoshop of network visualization, our approach
is to provide a visual tool with a smooth learning curve and an active
open-source community supporting the project. Many efforts have been made
to facilitate the community growth, by providing tutorials, plug-ins development
documentation, support and student projects. The modular architecture
allows any researcher or developer to extend, reuse and mashup Gephi features
in different forms.
F.Poulet, B.Le Grand : 9e Atelier Visualisation et Extraction de Connaissances 57