C-GROUP: A Visual Analytic Tool for Pairwise Analysis of Dynamic Group Membership

Abstract

C-GROUP is a tool for analyzing dynamic group membership in social networks over time. Unlike most network visualization tools, which show the group structure within an entire network, or the group membership for a single actor, C-GROUP allows users to focus their analysis on a pair of individuals of interest. And unlike most dynamic social network visualization tools, which focus on the addition and deletion of nodes (actors) and edges (relationships) over time, C-GROUP focuses on changing group memberships over time. C-GROUP provides users with a flexible interface for defining (and redefining) groups interactively, and allows users to view the changing group memberships for the pair over time. This helps to highlight the similarities and differences between the individuals and their evolving group memberships. C-GROUP allows users to dynamically select the time granularity of the temporal evolution and supports two novel visual representations of the evolving group memberships. This flexibility gives users alternate views that are appropriate for different network sizes and provides users with different insights into the grouping behavior.