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The VisTG Framework for Network Visualisation

The VisTG Framework for Network Visualisation. M. Martin Taylor (Secretary, IST-059/RTG-025) Martin Taylor Consulting mmt@mmtaylor.net. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation. Why create a “Framework”?.

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The VisTG Framework for Network Visualisation

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  1. The VisTG Framework forNetwork Visualisation M. Martin Taylor (Secretary, IST-059/RTG-025) Martin Taylor Consulting mmt@mmtaylor.net Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  2. Why create a “Framework”? • Why is IST-059/RTG-025 concerned with the task of developing a framework? • If I have only a hammer, every job seems to require nails. • If I need to fasten something, how do I know hammers exist? • If I need something fastened and I know the tools exist, do I glue, screw, staple, or nail? • “I” would want a Framework that categorized fastening jobs in terms of what tools were best for those jobs, and categorized tools in terms of what kinds of fastening jobs they did best. ? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation Report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  3. Why a Framework for network visualisation? • Numerous ad-hoc examples of network representations have been created for specific applications, some of them very good for their purpose. • It is usually not clear how the insights that led to particularly effective representations can be generalized to new situations. • A good Framework should help identify the conditions for which different insights are helpful. • Users need to see different aspects of network structure and functioning in support of their real-world task, and some of those aspects are not well served by extant display techniques. • Users usually choose to see those aspects for which effective display techniques are available (they are given only a hammer!). • A good Framework may help inspire research on new modes of display for different kinds of network properties. The Framework should support users with ad-hoc needs, and should support system designers and researchers by highlighting aspects of network properties that are poorly supported by existing technology. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  4. Discussion plan for the presentation: • Framework for Network Visualisation • Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  5. Why develop a Framework for Network Visualisation? • IST-059 considered that the very concept of a real world network is ill-defined. A network is more than a graph that can be described in a matrix, even a matrix of N dimensions. • Brilliant displays for many tasks involving networks have been devised, but • IST-059 knew of no way the tasks and the networks and their contexts can be consistently described, which makes it hard to link user requirements with potentially useful tools or applications. • Consistent description of tasks, networks, and display types might help in designing displays useful for new problems. The IST-059 Framework incorporates description, function, and a process for using it in support of users, researchers, and designers. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  6. How to develop a Framework for Network Visualisation? • The IST-059 Framework was developed in parallel with a Survey of existing applications and tools for network visualisation. • The first requirement was to consider how to describe the important attributes of • User needs and capabilities • Displayable properties of networks • Display and interaction techniques • Only when these and related characteristics had been adequately described could the process of using the Framework be designed. • A major aspect of the Framework is its use as a front-end to the Survey. They must use compatible descriptions of what is needed and available. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  7. What is a “Framework” for Network Visualisation? • A way of categorizing and describing user needs, display technologies, and network properties • A help to users in assessing the nature of their requirements • A guide to users in choosing a visualisation system suitable for their application need. • A guide to developers and researchers regarding unmet needs. • An interface that connects a network-related task requirement with the available display technologies • An interface that connects the available display technologies with computed network properties Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  8. C2 Network Visualisation Approaches (From Vernik-Bouchard Presentation at the IST-063/RWS-010 Workshop, Copenhagen October 2006) Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  9. A Framework for Network Visualisation • The User’s Problem: How to coordinate • One or more users want to solve some real-world difficulty that in some way involves a network. • The real-world data are abstracted into computer data that can be construed as a network. • Algorithms abstract both local and global properties of the network that might be useful for the user’s real-world task. • Properties of the network likely to be useful are displayed. • The display helps the user or users to visualise the state of the real world in which the difficulty exists. • Framework • A Framework for network visualisation should tie together these elements in a coherent way, relating task to display, and display to network properties. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  10. The Framework Concept Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  11. The Framework Concept Survey Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  12. The form of a Framework for Network Visualisation • A Framework for network visualisation should include: • A structured approach to describing user needs • A structured set of displayable properties of networks • A structured way of describing display techniques • A structured was of describing display interactions • A process to help the user match needs to displayable properties using the appropriate display techniques. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  13. Framework roots: Visualisation Reference Models • VisTG Reference Model • A functional model developed initially by predecessor groups of IST-059/RTG-025 and reported in the HAT Report • User’s purposes determine the representation characteristics • Separate interaction loop levels for primary tasks, algorithms and engines, and interface • RM-Vis Reference Model • A descriptive model developed initially by a working group of The Technical Co-operation Programme (TTCP) C3I AG-3 • Separable dimensions of description for application domain, content to be displayed, and display approaches Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  14. The VisTG Reference Model has 3 loops, the outer acting through the inner: (1) The user understanding and acting on the data in the dataspace, which involves... (2) The user visualising the data provided by and massaged by the analytic and presentation Engines, under the control of the user, who works through... (3) The Input-Output devices that interact with the user’s sensors and musculature. The VisTG Reference Model But we assume that the user “really” wants to influence the outer world! Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  15. RM-Vis Reference Model developed by TTCP C31 AG-3 Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  16. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  17. VisTG Framework: Categorizing user tasks • We consider four distinct modes of perception. They suggest approaches to information display, and can help categorize user tasks. • Perceptual Modes • Controlling/Monitoring: Keeping track of a changing situation and possibly acting to alter it. • Searching: Looking for something immediately wanted • Exploring:Building understanding of slowly varying aspects that could be useful for later search or control. • Alerting: Noting that a prespecified condition has occurred in a datastream or exists within a large dataspace. Alerting is usually an automated process. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  18. Framework: Perceptual mode implications for display The four modes often have implications for display:e.g. in an anti-terrorist scenario Exploring involves the discovery of networks, and might benefit from a fisheye display of the portions of the network so far discovered. Monitoring implies continuing observation of network changes and traffic dynamics, and requires the ability to dive into detail. Searching concerns the attributes of specific nodes, to discover their potentialities when matched with those of linked nodes, and hence requires both wide range and closely focused display representations. Alerting is a programmed background activity that suggests the requirement to display relevant aspects of the network in context, when any of the prespecified patterns is detected. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  19. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  20. Framework roots: Network properties • Network types: • Point-to-point, broadcast, striped, stigmergic, fuzzy or crisp • Mathematical relations and functions in abstract networks • Many important representable properties (e.g. SNA) • Dynamical properties of real networks (e.g. Feedback loops) • Transformational properties of nodes and links of real networks • Inputs may be of different nature to outputs • Embedding fields of real networks and of displays • Determine and constrain potentialities of the network • Data Source: static or streaming, and other properties • Is the network changing while the user watches? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  21. Network Types • Point to point:The classic network. Nodes are defined and each node is or is not linked to each other node by a link with some “weight” and structure. • Striped or Coloured:Nodes of type A can be linked only to nodes of type B and vice-versa (e.g. humans and malaria-carrying mosquitoes). • Broadcast:A transmitting node cannot know which of many eligible receiving nodes may receive the traffic (e.g. airborne infection). • Ephemeral:Traffic not received when transmitted is lost. • Stigmergic:“Traffic” is left in the environment and may be received at an indeterminate later time by an indeterminate number of receivers (e.g. ruts that tend to guide later traffic, etc., or the clues to a crime left by the criminal that may be read by a detective.) • Fuzzy:Nodes and/or links are not well defined. Places may be more or less node-like, and indefinitely linked to other nodes. The membership of an element in class “node” or “link” may depend on the user’s purpose. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  22. A B Road between two towns A and B is a link Fuzzy Nodes and Links Fuzzy link membership should not be confused with link weight. Here’s a simple example 2 1 Original situation A Farmhouse is built near the road Farm A B Is the road between A and B a link? Yes, Pretty much. Is the farm a node? Hardly. 3 More facilities are built to service travellers 4 The cluster becomes a new town Farm X A B A B Gas Hotel Is the building cluster a node? Somewhat, but not really. Is the road between A and B a link or a two-link path? A bit of each! Road between A and B is no longer a link though it remains a path. Roads A-X and B-X are links, and the expanded cluster at X has clearly become a node. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  23. Varieties of Link “Strength” – 1: Basic • In many displays of networks, “strong” links are shown more vividly than are “weak” links. However, links have several independent parameters that might be called “strength” • Traffic-related • Utilization — How much traffic is the link carrying? • Capacity — How much traffic could the link sustain? • Availability — What is the probability the link is open for traffic? • Coherence or Similarity • How tight is the relationship between the terminal nodes? (sibling is tighter than second cousin; “see” is more closely related to”view” than to “grow”) • Fuzzy membership — How much like a link is the connection? How should these different kinds of link strength or weight be distinguished in displays? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  24. Varieties of Link “Strength” – 2: Complexity • A link may be simple, carrying one kind of traffic or representing one relationship, but what seems to be a single link might actually be a bundle of elementary links of different kinds. To view the network this way is different from viewing it as a layered set of networks of different character. • For example, person A might at the same time • be the father of person B, • lend money to B, • enjoy B’s company, • telephone B frequently. • The complexity of a link bundle implies that the nodes it links are themselves complex, each perhaps including a whole processing network that interconnects the elementary links of the bundle. This is certainly true if a subnet has been compressed and must be represented as a single node. How should a “bundle” link be distinguished in displays? Is the number of elementary links another dimension of link “strength”? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  25. Transformational properties of nodes and links • In an abstract mathematical network, a node may be only a place where traffic enters and is distributed to outgoing links. • In a real network, the nature of the traffic and its timing are determined by processes that occur in the node and in the links. • Example: a person (a node) may receive messages from a variety of sources over a period of time, may interpret the messages, and may take action that affects other people, but not by sending messages. • Point-to-point gossip about the evil effects of immunization may cause a parent not to immunize a child, who then catches and propagates a serious disease; • Public broadcast messages may induce sufficient people to get immunized that a potential pandemic is avoided. • The network in this example contains both broadcast and point-to-point elements, the links are fuzzy, and the nodes significantly transform their inputs in generating their outputs. How might all this be displayed? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  26. Mathematical Properties • Most of the mathematical properties of networks have been developed in connection with crisp point-to-point networks. A few examples: • Network topology: random, scale-free, tree. • Centrality: distribution of linkage degree over the nodes • Directivity: Whether links are unidirectional or two-way • Cyclicity: Can traffic go from A through other nodes and back to A? • Diameter: The longest geodesic between any pair of nodes • etc….. • The mathematical properties of fuzzy networks are less well developed, but should reduce to those of crisp networks in the limit of binary membership functions (only zero or unity allowed). Mathematical properties often are important in interpreting the implications of network structure in the real world, and should be displayed when needed. How? Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  27. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  28. Real Networks • Are not mathematical abstractions. • They are messy. • They are embedded in a complicated environment • They are not well-defined or completely known • They are what real users have to deal with. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  29. Embedding fields of real networks – 1 • A network in the real world consists of physical or conceptual entities connected by relationships that may be • physically embodied (e.g. roads, wires) or • purely conceptual (family tree, social influence, etc.) • The network is embedded in a physical or conceptual substrate, but what determines the relevant “embedding field” is the set of contextual attributes in which changes make a difference to the network from the viewpoint of the user and for the user’s current purpose. The effectiveembedding fieldcan be thought of as the currently relevant context. Left: Road network in embedding field of map showing directions, distances, and landscape features. Right: Subway network with embedding topology of river and rail lines. Whatever is to be displayed, it will be better understood if it is shown in a relevant context, and without irrelevant context. Networks are no different. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  30. Embedding fields of real networks – 2 Networks are often displayed along with some aspect of their embedding field to supply context. But not always: Two representations of part of the Internet. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  31. Embedding fields of real networks – 3 • The embedding field for a network may or may not be another network • e.g. for a contagious disease, the network of infections is embedded in the network of social contacts, but for an airborne disease or one with an insect vector it is not. • Networks can inherit properties from their embedding fields • e.g. location for a geographic embedding field, potentially infectious contacts for a social contact network embedding field. • The embedding field constrains the properties of the embedded network, but new attributes can be developed • e.g. contacts are limited to those of the embedding social network, but contact type – casual, intimate, telephonic, etc. – may be attributes of the network of interest. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  32. Embedding fields and network display • Embedding fields are the context in which the network exists. • Not all aspects of the context are relevant to the user’s task. • Not only the network, but also the display medium can be considered as a hierarchy of embedding fields, the root of which is, say, the set of pixels of the display screen, intermediate levels might be 2-D and then 3-D spaces containing objects, while the leaves might consist of the coloured lines and objects used to show the network attributes of concern. • The immediately ancestral embedding field for the display of the network may well be the appropriate environment in which to display the user-relevant contextual embedding field of the network. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  33. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  34. Framework: Categorizing Data Types Six Descriptive Dimensions from the Final Report of IST-013/RTG-002 (The HAT Report) Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  35. Framework: Categorizing Display Techniques Four Descriptive Dimensions from the Final Report of IST-013/RTG-002 (The HAT Report) Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  36. Dynamic Properties of real networks • Network traffic changes over time, and networks themselves change. • If a network contains cycles, as most do, the traffic can vary regularly or chaotically. • The passage of traffic can alter the network stigmergically • e.g., in an infection network, the structure of the network changes when a node (person) moves from susceptible to infective to immune (or dead). • Cycles are not possible in an infection network if persons become immune after being infected, even though the static structure of the network and its embedding field suggest that cycles should exist. Epidemic pulses must come from elsewhere – a larger network. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  37. Framework: Interaction modes The display may be for a single user or for multiple users Interactive: A single user may interact directly with the display Coordinated: Multiple users cannot interact freely with the display, but can work together to Coordinate their interactions with one or more displays. Coordination may use the displays or may use communication side-channels. Mediated: Single or multiple users may use a Mediated interaction with the display, in which an operator manipulates the display for viewing by the end user(s). Briefing is usually done by Mediated interaction with multiple end-users; senior officers usually interact with their displays as single end-users mediated by an operator. Passive: In passive viewing, the user has no influence on the content or manner of the display. Any number of users can view passively a display such as in a book or on a Web site. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  38. Framework: Interaction modes – 2 Interaction Modes affect which perceptual modes are more likely to be used. (Table from draft Final Report of IST-059/RTG-025) Almost all displays presented in demonstration and all presented in books are viewed passively, and can be used mainly in Explore mode for investigating network structure or historical dynamic behaviour. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  39. Framework: Interaction modes – Display Implications Interaction Modes affect the need for formal display syntax In language, the syntax of conversational interaction is less formal than that of a spoken lecture, which in turn is simpler than the syntax of written text, because in conversational interaction, the parties can query poorly understood elements, whereas the author of a written text must supply syntactic clues to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings impossible to correct by query. Likewise, in displaying complex material, a single user interacting with a display can build a representation of the dataspace in an informal and unstructured way, as one might when using a blackboard, whereas a display created for later viewing by other people must contain culturally appropriate syntactic clues that aid viewers to interpret it as the designer intended. Interactive:Informal, unstructured Mediated or Coordinated:semi-formal, structured Passive:formal, culturally appropriate, structured. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  40. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  41. Survey The Framework Concept Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  42. Framework Worksheet Concept – 1 The Framework process starts with a worksheet of questions that define what one is trying to achieve. The answers to these questions should serve to generate queries to a database of potentially relevant applications or software tools. • A first draft worksheet was tried out for some diverse use-cases. • An analogue to the current anti-terrorist intelligence situation, in Elizabethan England (1570-1600), seeking evidence of any possible assassination plot against Elizabeth • The spread of avian flu on farms • The social network analysis of a terrorist network • Protection of a computer network • Not all the questions were easy to answer for all use-cases, and the worksheet will be reviewed and revised. • The questionnaire worksheet is intended to provide answers that could be used to develop queries into a database of presentation techniques and available applications or software tools. The results of these queries should lead either to suggestions for the immediate user, or to the identification of gaps in the armoury of tools for network visualisation. The next few slides show the questions used in the first draft worksheet. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  43. Framework Worksheet Concept – 1 The worksheet progresses in stages, starting with the overt problem definition, followed by questions of the network properties, the dataspace, any dynamic issues, context, measures, resources, and so on. It will be developed and the stages and questions modified as a result of experience with use-cases. This is a first draft. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  44. Framework Worksheet Concept – 2 Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  45. Framework Worksheet Concept – 3 Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  46. Framework Worksheet Concept – 4 Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  47. Framework and Survey Answering the questions in the Framework Worksheet should help the user understand the problem better. Since both the Survey and the worksheet questions were designed using the RM-Vis as a basis, the worksheet answers should be compatible with the Survey dimensions of description. The worksheet answers help generate queries into the Survey database. Initially this will have to be done manually, but it is hoped that it will eventually be done by software, or at least with software assistance. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  48. Framework for Network Visualisation • Discussion plan: • Nature of a Framework, and Ancestor frameworks (VisTG Reference Model, RM-Vis Framework) • Modes of perception and user task requirements • Kinds of networks and of network properties • Embedding fields and context (of networks and of displays) • Dimensions of description for data and for displays • Using the Framework and Survey • Summary and future work Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  49. Summary: Framework for Network Visualisation • Many different kinds of network representation have been developed, but without a coherent foundation that would allow good representations to be used for other projects. A good Framework provides that foundation. • A good representation supports the purposes of a user effectively. • A Framework requires consideration of both the user or users and the range of network properties that might be represented in support of the user’s purposes. Therefore a Framework must consider the nature of real networks as well as the properties of abstract mathematical graphs. • Real networks are more complicated than are the abstract mathematical networks, though the mathematics remains relevant to the real networks. • Real networks are often fuzzy. Links and nodes may be of variable quality. Nodes transform the kinds of traffic they receive and emit. • Real networks are embedded in user-relevant context that affects their properties and behaviour. The context may itself be a network. Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

  50. Framework — The Way Ahead • Complete the Framework by • Categorizing computable network attributes • Categorizing Network-related user tasks • Categorizing network-related display techniques • Develop mappings across categorizations: • task - attribute • attribute - display • Incorporate interaction (the theme of the follow-on RTG) • Link the Framework with the Survey of Network Visualisation Software • Describe the Framework process for end users • Propose support software to guide the user in the Framework process • Test Framework use in different scenarios, and rework • Publish for general use. IST-059/RTG-025 does not have the resources to complete all the above! Based on report to IST-063/RWS-010 by the IST-059/RTG-025 Working Group on Framework for Network Visualisation

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