Interactive Exploration of Large Dynamic Networks

A variety of applications especially ill the area of Web 2.0 produce frequently altering hierarchical networks. Thus application operators members of community websites hut also media. scientists often are interested ill gaining deeper insights in the complex structures of their project and its development over time. In order to enable a suitable visualization of such networks it is not only required to implement an intelligent data management but also a suitable network drawing engine that, cares for the user's needs - especially for visualization of network dynamics. This paper presents the XLDN visulization tool that enables visual exploration of evolving hierarchical networks. It includes a layout, generation algorithm that, allows for the preservation of the. mental map a crucial property when visualizing dynamic networks. BY utilization of;ill efficient data managment, and a parallel implementation of the graph drawing algorithm XLDN provides, a reasonably fast and interactive network visualization. This way XLDN facilitates ail in-depth evolution analysis of large hierarchic networks.