4. Representing networks of influence with datavisualization tools

To represent a network of influence, you can use graph generation software such as Gephi or NodeXL. Rather complex in their use, but very powerful, these tools enable you to materialize links between people, entities or co-occurrences of terms in an article or patent in the form of graphs.

This requires the preparation of two data sets in Excel or CSV format (open comma separated values format). The first dataset contains the list of people whose relationships are to be represented, while the second dataset shows the relationships between these people. From these datasets, software such as Gephi constructs a graph, giving an overview of the relationships. These can then be interpreted according to various analysis models.