Visualizing Your Social Network

Social Network

Originally uploaded by eekim

I have done informal network mapping exercises and have often struggled with a medium for the line. Voila, look at this great picture from Eugene Eric Kim – cut outs that you put your name on and then it looks like a black-board like surface you can draw lines with chalk.

The network mapping exercises I have done recently have asked people to map their collaborative or project networks. At first everyone sort of grumbles, they think everything is obvious. Then they start seeing new things. Patterns. They compare with others’ maps and begin to think more strategically about their own network.

The power of the visual plus conversation!