TouchGaph Photos Facebook and Interactive Friends Graph

By this summer two applications, using Facebooks API, have launched. They can be seen as the first field test of social network analysis within a broader audience of non-technical users. Apart from the actual design of the applcation, the reactions of the users, often being in first contact with social network analysis are interesting lessons to learn.

Design: First of all one has to state that both TouchGraph (TG) and the Interactive Friends Graph (IFG) seem to be largely inspired by Danah Boyd’s and Jeffrey Heer’s prototype Vizster. That’s not a critic, as vizster was a proper design addressing most of the questions a user might ask her/himself when browsing her/his social network. It’s wise to reuse design that has proven itself. Clustering and displaying common friends are logical usecases that have been already covered by Vizster.
The limited number of use cases – especially for non-scientific users – and the grammar of network graphs defined by nodes, edges and proven layout algorithm make it almost impossible to reinvent the wheel. So to a certain extent network graphs cannot avoid looking similar and using a common language.

Common problems: Both Applications suffer to a large extent from the fact that profile informations are largely not public within facebook. Even if your friends allow you to see their friends, connections between them easily disappear, as the path simply ends when a user’s profile is hidden. The Interactive Friends Graph tries to overcome this problem by some sort of viral marketing strategy: It has a special function to invite friends to publish their friendship relations in the form of the IFG. This may work out to a certain extent but nevertheless it remains a barrier for a user that want to explore a persons network. Touchgraph tries to solve the problem with another trick: It takes advantage of photo tagging what allows you to display networks of people tagged on the same photo.
“One can not see another person’s whole social network because Facebook only allows applications to get a list of one’s own friends. For other users it is only possible to get a list of people that they appear in photos with. Perhaps Facebook’s policy will change in the future.”

If you are lucky by having a large Facebook network of friends then Touchgrouph provides a wonderful tool to explore all the connections between your friends.

Metrics: The policy of ‘Facebook makes sense because it protects people from being stalked but it has negative impacts to the application of metrics. One must consider that the probability of being cut off raises exponentially with each degree of separation from a central point, simply because of the fact that the connecting point might not be within your network.
“Once one has launched the application, one can explore one’s extended social network by loading more photos for friends. Loading photos will add new users who are tagged in photos to the graph, and created edges between them based on friendships and common photo appearances. Note: It is only possible to load photos for friends and people within one’s network.”
Its simply ridiculous that facebook applies the term network to people of the same nationality or the same university and provides far more information for people within than for people outside of one’s network. There’s a structural barrier for becoming friends with people outside your own network and therefore any metrics will only affirm these restrictions.

Or lets put it in other words: The ways how blogs link in the blogosphere is far more inpredictable, because its easier to escape from national and other social ties whereas facebook structurally supports friendship connections within the own neighbourhood. One of the main benefits of network graphs seems to lie in providing a tool to go beyond your own neighbourhood and taking advantage of a weak tie between an important actor and yourself.
Within Facebook such explorations are rather hindered than supported.

Nevertheless the Touchgraph Facebook Photo Browser is certaily among the best WORKING social network analysis tool currently available for online usage. It has variety of fascinating and usefull features and is worth being tried out - if you have large facebook network.