Ekisto is an interactive visualization of three online communities: StackOverflow, Github and Friendfeed. Ekisto tries to imagine and map our online habitats using graph algorithms and the city as a metaphor. Ekisto comes from ekistics, the science of human settlements.
A graph layout algorithm arranges users in 2D space based on their similarity. Cosine similarity is computed based on the tags of posts contributed by users (StackOverflow), collaborate, belong, watch, fork and follow relationships (Github), or based on the followers/following links between users and groups (Friendfeed). The volume of each user represents the normalized value of the user's Pagerank (Github, Friendfeed) or their reputation points (StackOverflow).
Read more about the motivation and design behind Ekisto on my blog.
December 10, 2013 update: newer map and features in the works.
A project by Alex Dragulescu.
Published on December 1, 2013. Acknowledgments.
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We recommend using current desktop versions of Firefox or Chrome. The site has been thoroughly tested using these two browsers.
In current desktop versions of Safari, Opera, as well as Internet Explorer 9 and 10, the site seems to perform as intended, although no thorough testing has been performed.
Click-and-drag to pan the map around. Click to zoom in or use the mouse-wheel to zoom in or out. Use the tool palette on the left to explore the visualization:
Note: It is possible for users to have the wrong icon rendered in the static image. Github for example allows users to change usernames and the data is from 2012. The icon in the overlay is what is current now on the website.
Watch the bottom status bar for messages about your actions.