Shaping visual representations of interorganizational networks to tell a story
✍ Scribed by Matthew C. Johnsen; Barbara E. Starrett
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 445 KB
- Volume
- 1997
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1097-6736
- DOI
- 10.1002/ev.1065
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Interorganizational network analysis provides a framework for evaluators and researchers to measure patterns of interactions within human service systems. Once analysis has determined the key elements 11z a network structure, the difficulty remains of how to accurately present the findings and highlight the key elements. From the perspective of developing effective visual representations, the challenge is to represent complicated networks in ways that engage readers while leading them to conclusions about network structure. Since the person who creates a graph cannot always be there to interpret it, he or she must create a graph that will be meaningful to readers. Individuals who might be otherwise interested in results of network analyses may be left believing that network representations are simply too complex and not worth the time and effort to study This chapter discusses the difficulties associated with developing more readily comprehensible visual representations of complex networks. It proposes a solution to these difficulties, aimed at organizing such representations to highlight certain aspects of networks without distorting or diminishing essential information about them.