Mapping my LinkedIn Community

These are all over the blogosphere today, but they’re interesting, so why not join in? 🙂

The image is a visualisation of my LinkedIn Network, showing the people I’m connected to, and the relationships between themselves.

I’m fascinated by how clearly some groups stand out, and how some seem more complex. For example, the huge blue blob on the left contains my RBI colleagues past and present. The small grey island up in the top right is a group of folks I worked on a Student newspaper with back in the 80s and 90s. However, the green/orange section in the top centre are pretty much all commercial property folks, with some RBI folks who are closer to their industry than their colleagues thrown in for good measure. However, they’re distinct enough to the algorithm to stand our as separate group – and I’m trying to figure out why. I have two theories right now:

1. The more orange coloured ones tend to be advisors to the property industry
2. The green ones are property people with strong links to Estates Gazette staff

Whatever the truth proves to be, it shows how easily visuals can identify patterns in data, doesn’t it?