usernamenumber (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
usernamenumber) wrote2012-09-24 12:20 pm
usernamenumber) wrote2012-09-24 12:20 pm
Software advice: visualization tools for complex relationships?
There is a kind of software I'm looking for, but I don't know if it exists.
I guess you could think of it as a cross between a mindmapping tool and a diagramming tool like dia. I guess you could also think of it as a sort of digital whiteboard with some very specific feature needs.
See, I've got this extremely complex network of services, each of which plays a different part in an extremely complex process. I need to be able to explain this network and this process to people. I think the best way to do this from a teaching perspective is to start with the Big Picture, zoom in on each bit when it's time to provide more detail, and then zoom out again to the Big Picture to reinforce what the things we've learned mean in context.
The problem is that the Big Picture is so big it can be hard for me to wrap my head around it, especially when there are gaps in my knowledge that I still need to identify and fill in.
So, here's what I want to be able to do:
1) Create a set of visual objects that represent components of the Big Picture. Ideally each object could have an arbitrary icon, color, etc associated with it, but most essential would be the ability to attach HTML (or similar) formatted text to it to store all of my notes and commentary.
2) I want to be able to add annotations and connections to illustrate how objects interact with one another. So far, what I'm describing is basically nodes in a mind map, but...
3) I don't want a structured tree of objects. I want to be able to drag them around wherever, group them however, and create multiple sets of connections between them. This requires more flexibility than the structure of a mindmap would allow.
4) Bonus points for the ability to hide or collapse annotations, and super mega bonus points for the ability to export as an interactive HTML5 or (less ideally) Flash page that I can then integrate into the courseware.
Has anyone heard of such a beast? I can't be the first person to deal with a problem like this... right?
I guess you could think of it as a cross between a mindmapping tool and a diagramming tool like dia. I guess you could also think of it as a sort of digital whiteboard with some very specific feature needs.
See, I've got this extremely complex network of services, each of which plays a different part in an extremely complex process. I need to be able to explain this network and this process to people. I think the best way to do this from a teaching perspective is to start with the Big Picture, zoom in on each bit when it's time to provide more detail, and then zoom out again to the Big Picture to reinforce what the things we've learned mean in context.
The problem is that the Big Picture is so big it can be hard for me to wrap my head around it, especially when there are gaps in my knowledge that I still need to identify and fill in.
So, here's what I want to be able to do:
1) Create a set of visual objects that represent components of the Big Picture. Ideally each object could have an arbitrary icon, color, etc associated with it, but most essential would be the ability to attach HTML (or similar) formatted text to it to store all of my notes and commentary.
2) I want to be able to add annotations and connections to illustrate how objects interact with one another. So far, what I'm describing is basically nodes in a mind map, but...
3) I don't want a structured tree of objects. I want to be able to drag them around wherever, group them however, and create multiple sets of connections between them. This requires more flexibility than the structure of a mindmap would allow.
4) Bonus points for the ability to hide or collapse annotations, and super mega bonus points for the ability to export as an interactive HTML5 or (less ideally) Flash page that I can then integrate into the courseware.
Has anyone heard of such a beast? I can't be the first person to deal with a problem like this... right?
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http://alternativeto.net/software/sozi/
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Using Tikz/LaTeX permits some level of automation, but may or may not be useful depending on how much you want to deal with the text interface...