Unravelling Complexity Tim's Learning Portfolio

Some reasons for adding complexity to computer programs

Further discussion about this concept:

•  http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+worst+program+I+ever+worked+on
• http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2331346

An idea for visualising relationships by analysing emails using networks.

http://sluggish.homelinux.net/wiki/Emailgraph

When we were looking at networks, I couldn’t find a simple easy-to-use tool to draw network diagrams (also called graphs). This is a simple task for someone with programming skills, but I was looking for something the whole tutorial group could use. Later I discovered the GraphPlot function in Mathematica. If you have Mathematica then this is a pretty good option, but it still requires text based commands.

The beta version of Gephi was released a couple of months ago and is being used for tasks such as graphing twitter networks. Gephi has a graphical interface for drawing network diagrams. There is also an option to put the network data in as a spreadsheet, and then generate the picture of the network.

At this stage the program feels unfinished (as expected for beta version 0.7) but it has a lot of potential, and will improve over time. I got the impression that the wealth of features and options will create a steep learning curve. It would be good to see a simplified interface for new users.

If you need to draw a graph (network diagram), check out Gephi.