Martin Traverso, a Ning user and member of the Network Creators social network, generated this video visualization of Ning in action. This is what computer science is about, making visible, that which is normally invisible.
Ning Visualization – Ning Network Creators:
When a user navigate between sites, a line show up and fades after a while. If another user navigates between the same two sites, the line will get an extra shot of “energy” creating the illusion of being persistent.
For the more technically inclined, the visualization was created with a Java program that listens to our visit tracking system in realtime.
Networks are rendered using a repulsion model — i.e., they try to move away from each other. Visitors moving between networks create temporary attraction forces between those networks. As a result, related networks tend to cluster together over time.
Visitors (dots) fly towards the center of the bubble for the network they’re currently visiting. Their actual path is randomized a bit to create the swarm-like effect.
This is too cool for school!
This strikes me as one more example of why literacy can’t be just about reading and writing text, but about using all these other tools to communicate. Thanks for sharing this!
Speaking of videos…
http://www.glumbert.com/media/supermarket
(beware, it’s geeky =P)