Visual data – a social graph

Another quick look at visual data today. I hosted a very interesting evening discussion around service in a social world earlier this week. I’ll write in more detail about what was spoken and sung about later, but for now I just want to share some emerging visual data I’m playing with.

social graph
social graph

The bubbles show a variety of social tools and the higher the bubble has risen, the more in use the tool is among the community. We looked at usage as an introduction to the extent to which social tools are (and are not) shifting the relationships between employees, employers, and customers. I want to have another play with this and try altering the size of the bubble to reflect usage. I think I can create an equally informative and more visually appealing image this way. Watch this space.

There weren’t many surprises in the data – except perhaps the low usage of RSS readers? I would have expected more people to take their news this way. What do you think? Does the idea work or not? Is there anything in there that prompts a question from you?

PS – here is the raw material, hand drawn style, which I used to kick off the conversation:

raw material 1
hand drawn conversation starter